Australian Bookbinders Exhibition

As you will all have noticed by the few blog posts, this year has been a bit of a write-off for me as far as my artists books are concerned.  I have been almost totally occupied with other unrelated things that needed priority.

I did however make a book about WWI called Si Vis Pacem which went to the exhibition "Pieces for Peace 14-18" which is due to open in a few weeks time in Ypres in Belgium and will be on exhibition from 21 November until 14 December at the Cultuurcentum Het Perron te Ieper.

I decided to make a small edition of 4, but one didn't quite meet the standard and got tossed, so it is now an edition of 3.  

Another one of these will be exhibited in the 2014 Australian Bookbinders Exhibition which will be held in the Art Gallery of NSW Research Library from the 19 November to 13 December, coincidentally almost the same dates as the exhibition in Ypres!

A Bit of Bookbinding

 



It's the time of year when I usually do some bookbinding for the Australian Bookbinders exhibition. This book is called Pressed and contains rubbed pencil etchings of pressed flowers.  I have used a French simplified binding with leather spine and rolled leather headbands.  The cover is of Cork veneer and leather with an onlaid cut-out of vellum and rubbed pencil etchings with attached linen thread and vellum.

 

 

I have also made a bookbinding version of my Al-Mutanabbi Street Project book Absence.

It is a French simplified binding with a soft leather spine and rolled leather headbands.  Lamali paper/fabric has been used on the cover with the paper side up and the collaged strips are of Lamali with the fabric side up and with some overlaid leather strips.

 

I have just packaged both books up to send down to Sydney for the Australian Bookbinders Exhibition to be held in the Research Library at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 6th November to 13th December.

 

Revisiting 'The River City'

I've been working on a more traditional bookbinding version of The River City. 

I've been participating in The Australian Bookbinders Exhibitions since 2008 and my skills at producing a designer binding are slowly improving.

The first time I entered a book in 2007, I sent a very creative book which I thought I had bound extremely well, but it was rejected because it didn't have a 'proper' spine.

Since then I've managed to make the cut, and have been working hard on French Simplified bindings.  The binding I have used here is a Simplified binding with cover of Japanese paper and onlaid leather with a leather spine, leather headbands and onlaid leather title. 

I can't seem to get enthusiastic about rebinding a ready-made published book so every year I remake the content of one of my books into a binding suitable for this exhibition. 

I do enjoy trying to be more disciplined and skilled with making these traditionally bound books and trying to master the skills of working with leather.

The 2012 Australian Bookbinders Exhibition will be held in the Research Library of the Art Gallery of NSW from 31st October to 14th December 2012.