Book artists had set up their tables
and chairs were out for
Tracey Bush's talk, which took in her books
on the Thames and also the making of her prize-winning book "
Dusk", based on moths and resembling a moth trap used in doing counts for surveys -
 |
| "Dusk" is the centre of attraction |
Batool Showghi had a range of her luscious unique books, based on photographs -
What struck my eye was the one about picnicking in Iran, the photos held down not by glue but by the Iranian textiles and machine stitching -
... which looked so graphic on the back of the page -
Good to see Camberwell Book Arts students represented -
Some artists - quite a few! - were new to me -
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| Louise Weir, with illustrations for Dickens' "Great Expectations" |
... and many more...
In the afternoon, at the monthly meeting of Hooked in London, I tried out a new book structure that was being demonstrated by
Anna Yevtukh, a single-page binding. I had to use the papers on hand ....
... and the result smelt of cherry liqueur ....
Subtle factors like smell and tactility were mentioned by Tracey in her talk. She had planned to do the cutouts in Dusk with a laser, but when it came to it she didn't like the effect ... because of the smell. [In library school, Prof Ettlinger pointed out this property of books to us neophytes - something we hadn't thought of before, but something he had relished for years!]
"Dusk" was enclosed in a japanese-style case, with velvet inside to increase the tactility - instructions for such a case are in this book -
which has been on my shelf for years. Shortly after buying it I used its instructions to make bookcloth backed with japanese paper -- and coincidentally this bookcloth turned up during the recent clearout of my papers (it wasn't thrown out; I still hope to use it for a book one day).
People laugh at me because often on lifting a book I will immediately smell it. Strangely I never do so at the shows but in bookshops, libraries and if someone hands me a book I without thinking open it and smell it. Once or twice when the library lent us a box of books for playgroup we returned one or two that smelt strongly of sick, they were always new books they lent us for playgroup so it was something in the manufacture of them.
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