Margaret Davis founded Ma Nao Books in 1995 in Portland, Oregon.

She began her study of book making with a course in letterpress typesetting and printing on a Vandercook proof press at Scripps College.

In 1989, Davis moved to Chicago and became a member of Artists Book Works. She continued studying letterpress printing and bookbinding, producing her first editioned broadside, Slice of Time.

In 1996 Davis won a grant to study bookbinding and related arts in the People’s Republic of China. Along with an apprenticeship at the National Library of China, Davis, who speaks Mandarin, visited traditional printers and conservators on travels throughout the country.

On returning to Portland, Davis produced more limited-edition works and began offering presentations and workshops on Chinese bookbinding.

A long-planned project to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square student movement became a reality when the MacDowell Colony offered Davis a residency to complete Beijing Heart: A Tiananmen Story. She also hand-printed the photographic illustrations.

After publishing Bahia Night in 2003, Davis took a hiatus to build a studio in Portland, completed in 2006. For more on that project, visit the Bindery.

For a selected list of works and awards, click here.

Résumé

Collections

Artists Book Works (now Columbia College Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts), Chicago
Cerritos Library, California
Scripps College, Claremont, California
Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, Connecticut
MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire
various private libraries

Exhibitions

Artspace Meets TaborSpace (group show), Portland, Oregon, 2009
Art Among Us (group show), Blackbird Wineshop, Portland, 2009
Portland Open Studios, 2008
The Hanged Word, La Palabra Cafe-Press, Portland, 2003
Geijutsu-sai juried show, Japanese Garden, Portland, 2000-2003
Handmade Holiday, with paper-maker Helen Hiebert, Portland, 2000 & 2001
Powell’s City of Books, Portland, 1999
China: Where Books Began, Portland Art Museum, 1998

Workshops & lectures

Chinese bookbinding, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Portland, 2000, 2001 & 2009
Chinese bookbinding, San Francisco Center for the Book, 2000 & 2001
Open studio presentation, MacDowell Colony, Adams Studio, 1999
China: Where Books Began (lecture), Portland Art Museum, 1998

Related publishing experience

Copy editor, Portland Tribune, 1/2001-5/2008
Editor, Stoel Rives LLP, 2/1998-1/2001
Proofreader and copy editor, Tin House and Tin House Books, 2000-2009
Editor and writer, Outside Guide to Extreme Sports for Kids, 10/1997-3/1998
Editor and writer, Beijing Scene, China, 1/1997-7/1997
Writer, Outside, Utne Reader, Rocket, Puncture, and Chicago Reader, 2/1994-2/1998
Web assistant, Puncture, Portland, 4/1995-4/1996
Assistant editor, Chicago Reader, 5/1992-10/1993
Assistant editor and editorial intern, Outside, 10/1989-5/1992
Designer, West Coast Paper Co., 6/1989-10/1989

Education

Apprenticeship at the National Library of China, Beijing, 1996
Scripps College, Claremont, California, B.A. in English and philosophy, studio art minor
University of Bristol, UK, literature and philosophy, 1987-1988
Courses and workshops at Oregon College of Art & Craft, Chicago’s Artists Book Works, and the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts, 1989-2008

Gallery representation

Vamp & Tramp Booksellers/Califia Books
Hoffman Gallery shop, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Portland
Oblation Papers & Press, Portland
Toucan Gallery, Billings, Montana

Awards & honors

Durfee fellow, People’s Republic of China (1996); MacDowell Colony fellow, Peterborough, New Hampshire (1999); first- and third-place awards for headlines by Society of Professional Journalists, Greater Oregon chapter (2006, 2007 & 2008)

Interests & skills

InDesign, Quark Xpress, Adobe Photoshop, HTML, and Microsoft Word.
French and Mandarin.

Memberships

Northwest China Council, Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Independent Publishing Resource Center

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