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Canberra Today 19°/23° | Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Craft / ‘Code X: Contemporary Fine Binding’

THE catalogue for this exhibition states that a book binding if truly accomplished, extends the text outwards to form the complete book. You should be able to get some sense of the book’s contents from the binder’s work – you can surely judge a book by its cover. 

In 1644, John Milton wrote that: “Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them …”

The works in this exhibition are definitely alive, and hold their precious contents with beauty and aplomb.

There have been very few binding exhibitions in Australia since the growth of studio craft. The first international binding exhibition was probably held in 1984 and a second show of Australian contemporary binding was held in 1992.

It will undoubtedly surprise many that just over half of the 47 exhibitors are from Australia, including Canberra.

The excellent catalogue tells us that now is a critical time for the art of contemporary fine design bindings. Once, professional practitioners earned their livings from repairs, restoration and commercial bookbinding. Fine bindings were the icing on the cake, liberating the professionals from the constraints of their day-to-day work. They could experiment, play and explore non-traditional materials and develop innovative techniques. As these professionals age and retire from the industry, they are not being replaced. 

Rene Haljasmae, (Estonia), Names, Words, Witch’s Symbols, Jurgen Rooste (Ed)

This exhibition is dense and requires a clear mind. There are 25 different binding styles all of which are described in the catalogue.

I highly recommend looking at the exhibition with the catalogue in hand. The nature of the objects means they are either standing up, or lying on one side, so it is hard to get the full impact of the bindings’ designs. Sometimes a design will take the full span of the front and back covers and the spine. On other works, the covers are mirror images.

Two works in particular stood out for me. The first is by Diane Kelly from NSW. “The Style of the Century” by Bevis Hillier is bound in double-backed covers with interwoven plain, patterned and fluoro metallic papers. The spine is extruded plastic. The catalogue image gives a better idea of the work than just the front cover. It is an original concept binding, and appears to have an innovative spine.

The second work which appealed to me is by Beverley Quenault from the ACT. A miniature handwoven kete sits in the cover, so one immediately knows that the book is about a ‘kete’ – a basket used by Maoris.

Both these bindings give us an idea of the contents of the books, meeting the stated requirement that text extends outwards.

This was not necessarily apparent to me in every case.

This exhibition is outstanding and I encourage everyone who has any interest in books, leather, binding, excellent craftsmanship and good design to spend some time viewing it.

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One Response to Craft / ‘Code X: Contemporary Fine Binding’

Chris Johnson says: 18 February 2017 at 6:22 pm

Lovely bindings. Shows off lots of leather work with fine and fiddly combinations of materials- very difficult, II’m still learning how to reach this standard. And some great relationships to the ideas inside, it really does need some work to learn to make the artistic connection.

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