Books. People.
Design. Culture.

ROOTED IN MATTER

MATTER made
the conditions
for BooksThat.

MATTER is the Denver studio and shop led by Rick Griffith and Debra Johnson. Its work crosses design, printing, books, teaching, public culture, community, and the practical question of how values show up in everyday objects.

BooksThat carries that same energy into lists. It treats a book list as a designed thing: a doorway, a tool, a recommendation, a provocation, a care package, and sometimes a necessary shove.

WHY LISTS?

A list can be fast
to share and slow
to live with.

It can help someone start where they are and move toward what they need next. BooksThat uses lists to gather books around urgent themes, tender questions, radical ideas, and the people who keep making culture more livable.

WHAT WE BELIEVE

Love.
People first.

Money, stuff, power, and control are distant concerns, and each can make us vulnerable when it moves to the center. Loving the people and working for the people is the safer bet.