Binding the Booker Prize

Binding: Lester Capon for 'Animal's People' by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster),

Designer Bookbinders was founded over 50 years ago to promote the craft of fine bookbinding.

Since 1991 their members have been creating beautiful unique bindings for the 6 shortlisted novels for Booker Prize.

Here's how it works:

"The binder...has only four to five weeks to read, design and bind their book (with a container). The books must be ready in time for the night of the final prize announcement, when each bound novel is presented to its author at the famous 'Booker dinner'."

Wouldn't it be great if we had something similar for our National Book Award?

Here are this years bindings which are on display at the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum through January 2008:

Binding: Rachel Ward-Sale for 'Darkmans' by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)

Binding: Faith Shannon for 'The Gathering' by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape),

Binding : Stephen Conway for 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)

Binding: Christopher Shaw for 'Mister Pip' by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)

Binding: Peter Jones for 'On Chesil Beach' by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)

FUEL That's Good for the Planet

FUEL is the London design firm of Damon Murray & Stephen Sorrell.

In 2005 they launched FUEL publishing and their latest title brings to print a selection of amazing images from the noteworthy blog BibliOdyssey. The book is titled BibliOdyssey: Amazing Archival Images From The Internet

"BibliOdyssey’s mission has been to search the dustier corners of the internet and retrieve these materials for our enjoyment. Thanks to the efforts of this singular weblog, a myriad of long-forgotten imagery has now resurfaced. Each of these fascinating images is accompanied by a commentary from PK, author and curator of BibliOdyssey, and a link to the source website."

Book Patrol puts it on the: Top Shelf.

"Philip Smith: Extraordinary Bindings From an Englishman"

Opening this month at the Multnomah County Library in Portland is an exhibition of the work of the pre-eminent bookbinder Philip Smith. An opening reception and illustrated lecture by Philip Smith is on May 19; the exhibition continues through July 11, 2007.

Philip Smith is one of today's most unusual and extraordinary bookbinders, often using unorthodox materials and approaches. He is a past President of Designer Bookbinders and has written and lectured extensively on bookbinding. Books include The Book: Art & Object (1982) and New Directions in Bookbinding (1974). The exhibition combines materials from public and private collections as well as from his own collection in England.

(Image of Finnegan's Wake binding from the gallery at the Society of Bookbinders.)

Book Arts Roundup: JAB, Kiefer, Buzz, Bindings and Hidy

It is nice to see JAB (Journal of Book Arts) being published again. After a few year hiatus issue 21 has just been released. The journal is now being published by Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts and is "Still dedicated to providing a forum for critical, theoretical, and creative engagement with artists’ books". A highlight of the new issue is Elisabeth Long's article Editioning One-of-a-Kind Multiples: Notes Toward An Understanding of Anselm Kiefer’s Books
I concur that the display of Keifer's book art (or book art as a whole) has suffered from museum curators not having the experience of displaying or a deep knowledge of book art. She also talks about how Keifer's pieces are unique yet part of one narrative. "The very use of the book structure implies an interest in narrative, but Keifer's visual narratives progress at an extremely slow rate." Of course another reason for the "extremely slow rate" is that Keifer's book pieces are huge. The piece discussed in the article "The Secret Life of Plants" has pages that are over 6.5 feet tall and almost 5 feet wide and are made of lead. :)



Buzz Spector's installation "The Big Red C" is on view at the Hirshland Gallery in Cornell's Kroch Library. The Big Red C" is a large architectural construction made entirely out of books written by people associated with Cornell University were Spector teaches. The exhibit premiered in New York in January

Ithaca Times article and interview with Spector






While we are in upstate New York The University of Rochester Rare Books & Special Collections has a stunning online exhibit titled "Beauty for Commerce: Publisher's Bindings 1830-1910. It is based on the tangible exhibit of the same name that took place in 2002.
What is a publisher's binding?
The first book covers that were designed and made with the masses in mind.
Don't miss the chance to play with the magnifying box that accompanies each larger image.

Thanks to Japonisme for the lead






Graphic artist Lance Hidy is designing the new Ansel Adams book “Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs” that is due at in the fall. His own typeface, Penumbra, will be featured in the titles and captions for the book (the typeface has also appeared on posters for the movie version of “The Da Vinci Code” ). Hidy's first high profile job was designing “Yosemite and the Range of Light” with Adams in 1978. He also took part in the selection of the photos to be included.
Article from the Daily News of NewburyPort with much on on Hidy's relationship with Adams.

Poster is a portrait of Barry Moser

The Book - Small & Large

Collecting miniature books is a popular area of specialization. Dating as far back as 2500 BCE miniature books - (less than 3 inches tall, wide or thick) - have evolved from Sumerian clay tablets to silicon chips. The first popularized history on this subject, Miniature Books: 4000 Years of Tiny Treasures, has just been published. The book is co-authored by bookseller Anne Bromer and Julian Edison, published by Harry N. Abrams in association with The Grolier Club of New York.

Accompanying the book's release, on May 16 The Grolier Club opens an exhibition on the miniature book, curated by Julian Edison. And this fall, Anne Bromer will be the keynote speaker at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair dinner on October 12. That same weekend the members of the Miniature Book Society will be meeting in Seattle for their 2007 Conclave.

Bromer & Edison describe the smallest book as being less than 1 mm. Just last month, however, Simon Fraser University’s Nano Imaging Lab in Vancouver BC produced an even smaller published book. Reading this book - "Teeny Ted from Turnip Town" - requires the use of an electron microscope as the book measures 0.07 mm by 0.10 mm. It’s smaller than the head of a pin. The story is a fable about Teeny Ted’s victory in a turnip contest at the annual country fair. The book is available in a signature edition of 100 copies from the publisher.

In contrast to the world’s smallest book, the Northwest is also the home of the world’s largest book, permanently housed at the University of Washington Libraries in Seattle. Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan is 7 feet by 5 feet and weighs 133 pounds, requiring a custom made exhibition case. A page is turned once a month.

Visuals

Dust jacket design by Bernard Blatch, 1968
Blatch won AGI's The Classic Award for Design Excellence in 2002

Dot-font Book Launch

Last evening, Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers was pleased to sponsor a reception and book launch of the newest books by award winning book designer and typographer John D. Berry - Dot-font: Talking About Design and Dot-font: Talking About Fonts (Mark Batty Publisher, 2007). The essays are a compilation of columns about design and typography that he has written since 2000.

In John Berry's words, "The purpose of design is to give clarity and form to the shapelessness of everyday life...We live in the midst of design every hour of the day." Take a look at the signage at your airport. Is it easy to find the way to your plane? Or what about the Florida ballots in the 2000 Presidential election. Did the design contribute to voter confusion? Choices of layout, size, and font have a huge impact on the effectiveness of a sign, a book, a newspaper,...or a ballot.

These books and other publications by John Berry are available at Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers where an exhibition of his book designs continues through the end of April.

Photos courtesy of Eileen Gunn.