Timothy Barrett and the University of Iowa Center for the Book have produced five videotapes "designed for teachers, students, artists, craftspeople, conservators, book specialists, and anyone else with an interest in the history and technique of Western and Japanese papermaking." A tall order if ever there was one and, for the most part, they have found success. Throughout my university career in the book arts, I have frequently been asked to recommend visual aids to the art of papermaking. Finally, after viewing these five videotapes, I will be able to suggest a proper source.   The videos are didactic with very little glitter. One cannot expect to be entertained as was the case in "The Mark of the Maker" from Twinwrocker. There are no props in Barrett's videos. There is normally one overall camera view with an occasional close-up to accent or detail a procedure. In some videos the viewer feels as though he has walked into, or outside of, the Iowa studio during a normal workday, while in the next scene, one is witness to a teacher-student tutelage. All five videos follow a common format in progressing from fiber to finished sheets. However, there is little sequence between videos beyond the fact that they move from the simple to the more complex. Thus each can be viewed singularly and I will likewise approach them individually.   Japanese Style Papermaking I: Simple Equipment and Techniques   The first of the Japanese Style Papermaking videos is over twice the length of any other in this series. The eighty minutes is necessary, as even the experienced Western papermaker may be unfamiliar with these Japanese processes. This tape is targeted toward the teacher who wants to include Japanese papermaking in the curriculum or for the individual who wants to make sheets in the backyard. The tools are rudimentary; the supplies and equipment are accessible. After carefully explaining formation aids and fiber selection, Barrett takes a student through the procedure which includes the fiber's cooking, rinsing, picking, and beating. The majority of the time is then spent outdoors in charging the vat, detailed sheet formation, slow pressing, parting, and finally air drying, peeling, and stacking. One wonders how Barrett was able to convince the birds to sing throughout this sequence. It is obvious from the onset that this is this student's first attempt at this style of papermaking. She understandably lacks Barrett's dexterity, yet this paradoxically works to the advantage of the video, for with her inexperience and many questions comes a more human awareness of the process and problems. The viewer understands that this style of papermaking is possible in the home, classroom, or studio with a minimal outlay of funds. This is the essential video for the beginner.   Japanese Style Papermaking II: Traditional Equipment and Techniques This 37-minute video is actually divided into two sections. A commentator scrupulously leads the viewer through the first half of the video, in which Barrett and students provide the silent visuals. Sophisticated tools are described in this video. As one might expect, the first half is necessarily structured and scripted as the green bark kozo is cooked, rinsed, picked, and beaten, and the vat is loaded. Sheets are then formed, couched, pressed, separated and dried. This is all necessary and important as there will surely be an audience simply looking for information. Especially fine is some slow-motion footage which highlights the coordinated wave action in sheet formation. The second half of this video allows Barrett, the teacher, to concentrate on the difficulties one encounters when first forming sheets and couching. Albeit rather stoic, Barrett exudes knowledge while patiently giving the student hands-on instruction. Japanese Style Papermaking III: Professional Equipment This video gives the true 'Japanese connection' and, with proper historical attention, concentrates on the most sophisticated aspects of the ancient craft. As the video begins, one is impressed by the facilities Barrett has assembled at the Oakdale campus at the University of Iowa; not the least is the large area where plants indigenous to Japan are cultivated for papermaking. Details of harvesting, steaming, stripping the outer bark, drying, storing, boiling in an alkaline made from alfalfa hay, soaking, picking, beating, preparing the formation aid from "tororo-aoi" roots, loading the vat, sheet forming, couching, pressing, separating, drying, and, finally, checking the sheets........Phew! All of this in 39 minutes, so one's attention must be glued to the screen. Even with the plethora of information, this third video moves smoothly and has no extraneous information. I do wish that more information had been given on the indoor drying equipment as one cannot adequately see the heating mechanism. The equipment is not meant for the novice, is expensive, and requires a substantial studio; but the historian, conservator, teacher, or individual wanting all information on papermaking will find this video essential. Note: As a preface, I suggest viewing "The Living Treasures of Japan", a National Geographic Special available in video, which features papermaker Abe Eishiro and his techniques. Western Papermaking I: Classroom Equipment and Techniques The commentator's opening remarks suggest that this video's target audience is the intermediate papermaker "in a well equipped classroom or personal studio workshop". Six minutes of this 30-minute tape is devoted to a procedure for making test sheets. Although revealing important information as to the beater's subsequent effect on the sheets, perhaps this is a bit advanced and pedagogic, especially at the beginning of the video. The commentary on Western fibers and basic equipment is good whereas information on the stack dryer was presented hurriedly. (The video transcripts included with all the tapes are essential, as many details fly by. The scripts alleviate the need to rewind and replay.)   Still under the commentator's guidance, Barrett follows up the test sheet description with a brief yet effective demonstration of proper Western sheet formation and couching techniques (he has the softest 'shake' in the business!). As in the Japanese Style Papermaking videos, Barrett eventually turns on the microphone and spends the larger portion of the video teaching a beginning student proper papermaking procedures. He is thorough and patient as the student struggles through the early awkward stages. Again I believe this is the proper way to present hand papermaking to a diverse, uninitiated audience. I was optimistically waiting for the student to form and couch just one successful sheet with no obvious errors. It was not to be.   Western Papermaking II: Professional Equipment and Techniques Extremely esoteric, this videotape is more informative than practical. Again there is no dialogue, rather the commentator explains the procedures carried out by Barrett and his students. The tedious preparation of raw flax fiber is explained and a two person team collaboratively progresses through the sheet forming, couching, and drying stages. An interesting burnishing technique adds a unique touch. Two other rag papers, cotton as well as flax, are examined and all three are then compared. Sophisticated equipment has been accumulated and constructed in The University of Iowa's Paper Facilities and this is essential for providing the quantity and diversity of Western papers under Barrett's supervision. Yet with all this technology, the video emphasizes the "...striving for a look and feel that emulates related properties in the best early European papers........We are working toward sheets that are 'user friendly' both for the binder and the reader of the book." Throughout the five videos Barrett projects those positive qualities one might expect of an Eastern master: adroitness, patience, and compassion. Barrett's years of experience with Japanese papermakers and subsequent importation of and experimentation with this knowledge have come to fruition in these five videotapes.