Tinkering with Text Technologies: How Pop-Up Books Are Made

In this two-part workshop, graphic designer and paper engineer Kelli Anderson will demystify how pop-up books come together. Please register for each session separately!

During the morning session (10:30am - 12pm), graphic designer and paper engineer Kelli Anderson will de-mystify how pop-up books come together. As the creator of This Book Is A Camera (MoMA), This Book Is A Planetarium (Chronicle), and Alphabet in Motion, Anderson will give a presentation showing her design process for 3-D elements: how to build ‘blanks’, how to envision 2-D design on 3-D surfaces, how to set up a print file for a dimensional project, and how to most effectively work with a printer. Following the presentation will be a Q&A, a special exhibit in the Lea Library for guests to visit, and Anderson will have a limited number of copies of her newest book, Alphabet In Motion, available for purchase and signing.

During the afternoon session (1:00 - 3:00pm), which is limited to 20, participants with engage in direct, hands-on building activities. She’ll present her design process for 3-D elements: how to build ‘blanks’, how to envision 2-D design on 3-D surfaces, how to set up a print file for a dimensional project, and how to most effectively work with a printer. Each participant will receive a kit of laser-cut paper pieces, which we’ll assemble into a “sliceform” pop-up — taken directly from Anderson’s new book, Alphabet in Motion (2025). 

Cosponsored by Fisher Fine Arts Library; Penn’s Department of History of Art; Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts; and Wolf Humanities Center.

Register for: 

Morning session: Lecture + Q&A  Afternoon session: Hands-on building

About the presenter

Kelli Anderson uses handheld revelations to reconnect people with the depth and possibility of their world. She created This Book is a Camera (MoMA)—which transforms into a working camera—and This Book is a Planetarium (Chronicle)—which houses paper devices (including a planetarium) and has sold more than 100,000 copies. Alphabet in Motion, an interactive book about typography and technology, was published to wide acclaim in the Fall of 2025. The Washington Post book editor writes that “the work of literature that delighted me most this year is this pop-up book.” Other projects include a viral paper record player and—with The Yes Men—a utopian counterfeited New York Times, which won the Ars Electronica Prix. Doctors without Borders have used the award-winning Tinybop Human Body app she illustrated to communicate illness and treatment nonverbally to their patients in remote areas. Clients include NPR, the New Yorker, the Guggenheim, MoMA, Apple, and the real New York Times.  She has been nominated for the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Award thrice and teaches at NYU, SVA, and Cooper Union.