Heroic Works - Designer Bookbinders International Competition 2017

Designer Bookbinders UK opened their 3rd international exhibit mid-July 2017 at the Bodleian Library, and I was pleased to be included.




The binding was of Ovid's "Metamorphoses", an edition from Shanty Bay Press, a good size plenty of room on the page in both english and greek, with some very nice photogravure work.







I printed the ends with oak leafs on sekishu tissue, the binding itself is a split board, three piece, bradel , or caped - binding - depending on who you talk to! There are a lot of different ways to describe essentially the same thing.










The boards are covered in sanded and airbrushed goatskin with matte foil tooling, suggestive of the pattern of an insect wing, with hints of gold leaf and turquoise onlays.

The exhibition goes to Birmingham, and later to St.Brides, before coming state-side to the North Bennett Street school in Boston.

Ive a number of new book projects and bindings to get stuck into so hopefully more technically challenging work to follow.

COMING IN FROM THE COLD - Binding Exhibitions in 2013, 2014, and 2017

Since leaving the city in 2014, I have made a concerted effort to complete and send bindings to exhibitions for display and just for me.

Afterall, I never became a bookbinder because I enjoyed making case-bindings and boxes.



Opposite at the top is a binding of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" which won First prize in the Argentinian International binding competition in 2014 (EARA 2014).

Before leaving New York in 2013 I was very pleased to be invited to send a binding for the Designer Bookbinders anglo-american exhibit, which toured the UK and the USA.

The next 2 shots feature this binding, "Lens of Crystal", dyed goatskin , with monoprinted endpapers.

This year I was very gratified that my binding will be featured in the up-coming designer bookbinders international competition.


The theme of the exhibit is "myths and heroes",
so having sourced a beautifully printed copy of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" printed by Shanty Bay Press, binding was completed in september of last year.

The last 2 shots on the right show details of the front and inside, aswell as dyed skin, tooled onlays, and monoprinted doublures.


I will post more about it after opening night at the Bodleian library in Oxford, UK, July 17th this summer - fingers crossed!

Ive got a few more things in the pipeline, so will endeavour to document and post the progress of those.