Mass Production Bookbinding

An industrial film, ca. 1961, showing the work of bookbinders and the final steps in the process of manufacturing printed books. From the "Americans at Work" series. Courtesy of The Prelinger Archives.

After experiencing the slow process of making a hardbound book (codex) by hand, I was fascinated by this film and how the various processes were mechanized. The collating of book signatures was my favorite. I could not help thinking what a mess it would be if one of those ladies lost her rhythm, and was reminded of the Lucille Ball candy factory episode.

Perfect Binding

No, perfect binding does not refer to a flawlessly bound book but rather to a method of securing loose leaves into a solid text block by means of an adhesive rather than by sewing, stitching, etc. It is an easy binding to do. Photojojo has a nice how-to video of Judy Lee, owner of Five and a Half, a bookmaking and design studio specializing in journals made from sustainable materials, showing you how to make your own perfect-bound journal using two 4×6 photos for the cover, some paper, glue, and a few other tools.

Flickr: Coptic Binding

I recently discovered these beautiful examples of coptic stitch and caterpillar binding, by tussenpozen, on the Flickr website. I was surprised to read in her profile that she is ... a young, creative, legally deafblind, zenbuddhistic woman. See her work here.

Exhibit: Hand Bookbindings, Plain and Simple to Grand and Glorious

The craft and art of binding books by hand was vividly chronicled in an exhibition at Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Entitled Hand Bookbindings: Plain and Simple to Grand and Glorious, the exhibition ran from November 10, 2002 through April 20, 2003 in the Library’s main gallery. While conventional wisdom holds that books cannot be judged by their covers, visitors had a chance to do just that from the most humble of volumes to the most luxurious; from the monastic manuscripts of the twelfth century to the special editions of the twentieth.

Now that the exhibition has run its course, it has been turned into an online display of over two hundred beautifully photographed bindings, divided thematically into twenty-six categories. All the photographs can be enlarged and for even closer inspection, there is a magnifier (the square in the lower right hand corner of each book). Simply click and move it over the area you want to view.

The twenty-six categories:

Introduction - The Early Codex and Coptic Sewing - Early European Sewing and Board Attachment - Later Sewing And Boards Labor-Saving Methods And Materials - Endleaves - Endbands - Edge Decoration - Clasps, Furniture, and Other Closures - Blind Tooling - Panels And Rolls - Gold Tooling - Binding Waste - Aldines - Italian Bindings - German Bindings - French Bindings - British Bindings - Temporary Bindings - Onlays - Bindings For Collectors - Binders' Marks - Modern Conservation Binding - Large And Small, Fixed And Portable - Embroidered Bindings - Bindings From Early Americ - Twentieth Century English And American Bindings

Exhibit: Bookworks 8 (LitChick Blog)

The Cincinnati Book Arts Society (CBAS) is holding its 8th annual exhibit of traditional and contemporary handmade books in the Atrium of the Main Branch of the Cincinnati Public Library from May 2 to June 25. Check out this blog for more photos: LitChick: Art of the book celebrated in new exhibit.

Pictured Artist: Margaret Rhein

CBAS Study Group: Six-Needle Coptic Binding

I have been traveling the last two months and, regrettably, have missed the last two study groups, the second session of Interlocking and Woven Book Structures, covering Slit/Slot & Other Paper Hinging Techniques, (see Piano Hinging for part one), and most recently, Potato Print Papers.*

No photograph can convey the simple beauty of the potato print papers that were produced during this last meeting. Even so, I thought I would include one here. As you can see in the photograph above, many of these papers were used in today's project.

Here's a photo of our eager-to-learn group. All that was required of us was that, prior to our meeting, we pick up our precut book boards, covers for the book we were going to make, and cover them, preferably with the decorative papers made the month before.

Our first task was marking and making holes in the book signatures. For this, we used a hole punching cradle, a device to position the signature for accurate hole making.

Here is a closeup of both sides of the cradle, top and bottom. This one is made with medium weight binder's board.

Cran is instructing the group on how to accurately mark their covers for punching so the resulting holes will line up properly with the holes in their signatures.

Jeanne is sewing her first signature to her back cover. Coptic stitch can be done with one needle but we used six needles, worked in pairs. Once we got started, it was pretty easy going. If you are interested in this stitch, check out Keith Smith's Non-Adhesive Binding, Volume III: Exposed Spine Sewings. We worked from one of the diagrams in his book.

I didn't have any stamped paper so I used a paste paper I made in a workshop last year. The term refers to a method of decorating the surface of paper with acrylic or tempera paint mixed in a paste medium. I'll be writing more about this in a future post.

A closeup of the stitched binding. What is nice about the coptic stitch technique is that, once you catch on to the stitching, it is fast, it uses no adhesive (except for what is needed to attach decorative paper to the cover boards), and the book opens flat (nice for sketching and/or journaling).

*Red potatoes were said to be the best.

CBAS Study Group: Piano Hinge Books

The Cincinnati Book Arts Society to which I belong has a study group. We meet at a local library, nine times a year, on the third Saturday of the month.

Being a member of the study group means being willing to participate by being in charge of a program. It’s not as scary as you might think. We are a friendly, informal group and you do not have to have a background in the topic you want to share, just agree to learn about it and pass along what you have learned to the study group members. It is also fine to have a joint presentation with another study group member and while most of the meetings are about book structures, this year we are also planning a field trip to a member’s studio.

Our last program was the first of a two part demonstration of interlocking and woven books structures, specifically the piano hinge structure. The image at top left, Crown of Thorns by Tennille Shuster, believe it or not, is just such a structure. The one at top right by our program presenter, Cody Calhoun (who, incidentally has a book in the online Flag Book Bind-O-Rama Exhibit), is the more traditional format. Here is a free tutorial. Don’t be confused by the name, skewered book. Skewers are often used in the construction of this type of book, but piano hinge is the traditional name.

Free Online Bookbinding Books

I haven’t had a chance to get deeply into these books, but a cursory look impressed me.

The Art of Bookbinding by Joseph W. Zaehnsdorf
Bookbinding and the Care of Books by Douglas Cockerell
Bookbinding for Beginners by Florence O. Bean
The Binding of Books by Herbert P. Horne
The Story of Books by Gertude Burford Rawlings
A Book for All Readers by Ainsworth Rand Spofford
The Story of Paper Making by J.W. Butler Paper Company
Bookbinding by Paul N. Hasluck