EXHIBITION BINDINGS

In additions to the large amount of regular artwork and designs I have created for books and boxes for various collectors over the years, I try to find time to create work for display at a number of exhibitions. These "Design Bindings" represent the best of my aesthetic response to the text, in terms of both design, and polished craft technique. Each project is researched, and my creative responses are usually scribbled in a notebook, and from a vague idea or image, a more structured plan begins to emerge. The work on each book is intensive and can take up to a month to complete, sometimes longer and has, in later years, usually required the mastering of a new technique with prototypes made along the way.

I have always started making the book from the inside out, that is, with what the viewer would see upon opening, namely the end-papers or fly leaves, and built the design around this initial design - sometimes with a definite idea of the outcome, but not always. The different aspects of the binding should weld together organically, with even the function and weight lending to a unique atmosphere and experience.