Artists' books are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects.
A treasure binding or jewelled bookbinding is a luxurious book cover using metalwork in gold or silver, jewels, or ivory, perhaps in addition to more usual bookbinding material for book-covers such as leather, velvet, or other cloth. The actual bookbinding technique is the same as for other medieval books, with the folios, normally of vellum, stitched together and bound to wooden cover boards. The metal furnishings of the treasure binding are then fixed, normally by tacks, onto these boards. Treasure bindings appear to have existed from at least Late Antiquity, though there are no surviving examples from so early, and Early Medieval examples are very rare. They were less used by the end of the Middle Ages, but a few continued to be produced in the West even up to the present day, and many more in areas where Eastern Orthodoxy predominated. The bindings were mainly used on grand illuminated manuscripts, especially gospel books designed for the altar and use in church services, rather than study in the library.
Anthropodermic bibliopegy is the practice of binding books in human skin. As of May 2019, The Anthropodermic Book Project has examined 31 out of 50 books in public institutions supposed to have anthropodermic bindings, of which 18 have been confirmed as human and 13 have been demonstrated to be animal leather instead.
Book Art is the field of art that involves the creation of works that use or refer to structural and conceptual properties of books. The term also is used to describe works of art produced in this field. These works may contain text and/or images, or may be sculptural. Book art has existed for thousands of years, and can be seen in Egyptian papyri, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scrolls and books, Mesoamerican codices, and in one form or another, through all human history. In an interview within Cathy Courtney's book Speaking of Book Art, book artist Helen Douglas discusses her knowledge of livres d' artiste and twentieth-century Russian books as examples of book art from previous generations. Later in the interview Douglas continues to write about the genre of Book Art stating that "...you can talk about a "painting" and "sculpture" you should be able to talk about "book"." The term "Book Arts" refers to the creative and craft disciplines used to produce book art, such as printing, printmaking, papermaking, typography and bookbinding. As a field of contemporary art, Book Art has seen an explosive growth since the 1960s.
Rare Book School (RBS) is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based at the University of Virginia. It supports the study of the history of books, manuscripts, and related objects. Each year, RBS offers about 30 five-day courses on these subjects. Most of the courses are offered at its headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia but others are held in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. Its courses are intended for teaching academics, archivists, antiquarian booksellers, book collectors, conservators and bookbinders, rare book and special collections librarians, and others with an interest in book history.
Walter Samuel Haatoum Hamady was an American artist, book designer, papermaker, poet and teacher. He is especially known for his innovative efforts in letterpress printing, bookbinding, and papermaking. In the mid-1960s, he founded The Perishable Press Limited and the Shadwell Papermill, and soon after joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught for more than thirty years.
Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of paper sheets that are folded together into sections called signatures or sometimes left as a stack of individual sheets. Several signatures are then bound together along one edge with a thick needle and sturdy thread. Alternative methods of binding that are cheaper but less permanent include loose-leaf rings, individual screw posts or binding posts, twin loop spine coils, plastic spiral coils, and plastic spine combs. For protection, the bound stack is either wrapped in a flexible cover or attached to stiff boards. Finally, an attractive cover is adhered to the boards, including identifying information and decoration. Book artists or specialists in book decoration can also greatly enhance a book's content by creating book-like objects with artistic merit of exceptional quality.
Danny Flynn, is a D&AD award-winning designer and printer, specialising in limited edition book design and illustration, and letterpress and screen-printing. His work in design, typography and printing led to him working in post-production design for the opening title sequence of the Hollywood film Gladiator.
Richard P. Minsky is an American scholar of bookbinding and a book artist. He is the founder of the Center for Book Arts in New York City.
Daniel Gibson Knowlton was an American classicist bookbinder at Brown University. Knowlton was the nephew of illustrator Charles Dana Gibson and a descendant of Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford.
Edith Diehl was an American bookbinder and author of Bookbinding, its Background and Technique, a classic text and manual on the history and craft of bookbinding in two volumes. In 1947, in recognition of her accomplishments, Diehl was made an Honorary Life Member of the Guild of Book Workers.
Evelyn Hunter Nordhoff was America's first female bookbinder and printmaker.
William Henry James Weale was a British art historian who lived and worked most of his life in Bruges and was one of the first to research the Early Netherlandish painting extensively. He was also a pioneer in the study of early bookbinding, and a staunch promoter of Gothic Revival architecture.
Sybil Pye was a self-trained British bookbinder famous for her distinctive inlay Art Deco leather bindings. She was, along with Katharine Adams and Sarah Prideaux, one of the most famous women bookbinders of their period. She was the only binder in England and one of a few in the world whose specialty was inlaid leather bindings.
Sarah Prideaux was a bookbinder, teacher, historian and author of books on binding and illustration. She, along with Katharine Adams and Sybil Pye, was one of the noted women bookbinders of the period.
Oak Knoll is a bookseller and publisher based in New Castle, Delaware, United States. Oak Knoll includes Oak Knoll Books which specializes in the sale of rare and antiquarian books and Oak Knoll Press which is a publisher and distributor of in-print titles. Both divisions specialize in "books about books" on topics such as printing history, bibliography, and book arts. Oak Knoll has also been the sponsor of the book arts festival Oak Knoll Fest.
Hedi Kyle is a German-born American book artist and educator who has had a major influence on the development of book arts.
Roberta Allen is a conceptual artist and fiction writer. Her interest in language is the bridge that connects these separate pursuits. As a conceptual artist who combines image and text, she explores how language changes or informs our perception of images. Her works have included drawings, artist books, photo/text works, installations, digital prints and sculpture. Her works in the early 1970s were inspired by Kierkegaard’s belief that our deepest experiences occur in the form of contradictions and wherever there is contradiction humor is present. Through the 1970s, she exhibited alongside Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman and Carl Andre, among others, at John Weber Gallery in New York. In her writing, which includes, among other books, three micro and short story collections, a novel, a novella and a travel memoir, Allen questions the way we perceive the world and the self. Truths are relative and may change in a flash. The way our minds work and specifically the act of relating is her main subject. She presents disturbing views of the human scene which are often relieved by humor.
Laura "Polly" Lada-Mocarski, born as Laura Mitchell Klots (1902–1997) was an American craftsperson, rare book scholar, bookbinder, book preservationist, educator, and the inventor of the PolyCase, an exhibition display for old and rare books. She served as faculty in the Graphic Arts Department at Yale University.
Ignatz Wiemeler (1895–1952) was a German bookbinder and educator, internationally known and exhibited. He was part of the Offenbach School movement, alongside Rudolf Koch and the painter Karl Friedrich Lippmann.
