The Center for Book and Paper Arts (CBPA) at Columbia College Chicago officially opened its doors on April 9th, 1994. The founders of the CBPA, Marilyn Sward and Barbara Lazarus Metz, originally worked together at “Chicago Paper” from the late 1970s to the early 1980s along with Linda Sorkin-Eisenberg. In 1980, Sward and Sorkin-Eisenberg founded their own paper studio, “Paper Press” in order to further an appreciation of book and paper arts. Originally located at 1017 W. Jackson St. in Chicago, “Paper Press”, like “Chicago Paper”, offered a wide variety of services including a handmade paper studio, a gallery space and classes for the public. Metz, who worked part-time as an instructor at “Paper Press”, and her partner Bob Sennhauser started their own paper studio in 1983, naming it “Artists’ Book Works.”

In the late 1980s, Sward and Metz merged “Paper Press” and “Artists’ Book Works” together leading to the creation of “Paper and Book Arts.” The philosophy of “Paper and Book Arts” was “to encourage and promote scholarship and community for those dedicated to excellence in hand papermaking and the book arts.” Sward, who earned her MA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College Chicago in 1986, along with Metz approached the head of the Interdisciplinary Arts Department, Susanne Cohan-Lange, about establishing a world renowned papermaking and bookbinding center at Columbia College Chicago. Originally located at 218 South Wabash Ave., the Center for Book and Paper Arts was born and, with the addition of STA Type, a workshop co-founded by Society of Typographic Arts board member Muriel Underwood, it quickly outgrew its space. The CBPA was then moved to the 12,000 square foot state-of-the-art space of the Ludington Building (1104 South Wabash Ave.) in 1996 where more classes and an MA program were added to the curriculum.

The philosophy of the Center for Book and Paper Arts, much like it had been in the early days of “Paper Press”, “Artists’ Book Works” and “Paper and Book Arts”, is to provide a center to “...advance research and innovation in the interdisciplinary practices of the artists’ book and hand papermaking….” Marilyn Sward served as the Director of the Center for Book and Paper Arts until her death in 2008. In 2015, the CBPA became the Center for Book, Paper and Print Arts (CBPPA) when it was absorbed into the Art and Art History Department. The CBPPA consists of Anchor Graphics and the Center for Book and Paper Arts.