Robbin Ami Silverberg is a book publisher in every sense of the word.

She runs a small papermaking studio called Dobbin Mill in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where she grows plants, presses them into paper, binds the books and then inscribes the text. She describes herself as a book artist, but she's also part chemist and part artisan.

Ms. Silverberg has a machine that turns her plants into pulp; two types of presses to dry the paper; and all kinds of screens, hoses and frames in which to specially design each sheet.

Book Maker, From Plants to Pages

Robbin Ami Silverberg is a publisher in every sense of the word: she makes the paper, binds the book and then writes the text. A look at the self-described book artist at work in her studio. Jason Andrew for the Wall Street Journal

"The paper I make is produced specifically for that book," says Ms. Silverberg, who also teaches papermaking at the Pratt Institute in Clinton Hill. "Since I'm starting from scratch, I might as well do everything from scratch."

On the second floor, she takes the dried sheets of paper and binds them together by hand. Depending on the project, she'll write on the paper with pen or typewriter, or she'll write inside the paper with a kind of watermark. Her most recent works incorporate detritus found on city sidewalks; these she presses into sheets while they are still somewhere between wet pulp and dry paper.

While many of her works look like traditional books, some seem closer to sculpture. For example, Ms. Silverberg has created a set of "books" formed by thin strands of text wrapped around industrial-era spools.

Trained as a sculptor at Princeton in the late 1970s, Ms. Silverberg has spent her career exploring paper-production methods and taught herself the chemistry that goes into papermaking.

"Basically you're taking a plant, pulling it apart in water, and then when you push out the water, the fibers try to bond together," she explains. "It's just a chemical bonding that's going on. You're restructuring your plant into a paper form."

She has, variously, made her living producing portraits from sculpted pulp, or supplying sheets to stores such as Kate's Paperie and New York Central Art Supply. She's also collaborated with many artists. But she primarily focuses on her own projects, which, like her books, take many forms.

Her books, which sell for $1,000 and up, can take months or years to make, thanks in part to the laborious process of producing, authoring and binding each book.

Her latest works, papers with the tossed-away MetroCards and sidewalk effluvia, will be on display later this month as part of a group show called "The Psychogeography of New York City." The show runs Sept. 23 through Nov. 6 at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery.

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