Covered

Beauty and Art in Contemporary Bookbinding.

18 May - 27 May 2006

From books that resemble wooden dragons to fabric bound books embroidered with buttons and beads, Covered shows the range of techniques, styles and materials in contemporary bookbinding. With over one hundred works by forty binders the exhibition showcases the very best work from bookbinders across the UK. The work in the exhibition has been selected by Designer Bookbinders, a society devoted to the design and craft of hand bookbinding, and includes the work of both established and student binders.

A craft that dates back thousands of years, bookbinders create beautiful, one-off bindings that respond directly to the text, illustration, print and paper of a book. Bookbinders work in close harmony with the text creating a book structure that both complements and extends the meaning or feel of a book. Each binder will have his or her own style and each text will evoke different responses from detailed painted images to abstract forms and patterns.

From a book of Betjeman poems that takes the form of a model of a tiny house to delicate binding of reindeer skin, parchment, beads and pewter the range of styles is as diverse as the individuals who create them. Often working with small private presses the binding can respond not only to the text but also to the quality of the paper, hand-printed text, woodcuts, stencilling and illustrations. Materials and techniques range from traditional leathers and vellums with gold tooling and inlays to more contemporary work incorporating plastic and metal, airbrushed images and photographic
transfer.

Prices range from £50 - £3500 but commissioning a binder to work on a particular text is also increasingly popular. Commissions can come from many sources -individuals wanting a beautiful, bespoke binding of a particular text for a special gift or public institutions, libraries and museums building up their own contemporary collections. Every year Designer Bookbinders are commissioned by Man Booker to produce bindings for the short-listed books on the Booker prize. These ingenious interpretations of the texts are then presented to the authors on the night of the awards ceremony. Both the Man Booker bindings and the winners of the annual competition of Designer Bookbinders are displayed annually at the British
Library.

Advice about commissioning, conservation and restoration is available from Designer Bookbinders www.designerbookbinders.org.uk