Enjoying the best that contemporary binding has to offer and catching up with an inspiration…
9th July 2024, The Benjamin Spademan Gallery, London
A wonderful trip to London for Aulwynd Bindery today visiting UNIQUE, a sale exhibition of contemporary bindings at The Benjamin Spademan Gallery in St. James. I knew in advance that this was not one to miss for any interested hobbyist or professional binder, as the bindings on display were entirely created by Fellows of the Designer Bookbinders society. This is an international organisation dedicated to promoting contemporary bookbinding at the highest level and providing a forum for professionals and dedicated hobbyists to interact or share work and knowledge. I myself am an Associate Member and for us professionals just starting out the society is an invaluable resource for developing relationships with other artisans and promoting work through the prestigious competitions and awards organised by them each year.
Given that the exhibition was showcasing major recent work by Fellows of the society I knew to expect some breathtaking examples and I was not disappointed. All the work on display was of the highest calibre but I will mention two bindings that innovated with form and technique in a way that caught my eye. Sue Doggett is a binder who has recently focused on the use of embroidered stitching on her covers and esoteric spiritualism as a design theme, and her binding of Shakespeare’s The Tempest on display here is no exception. The deep, kaleidoscopic pastel colours that make up her cover design picked out by detailed hand stitched embroidery come together to portray an alchemical impressionist scene – magical. Another binding, Réarrangement de Poupée by Mark Cockram, creates a new way for collectors to display books by deconstructing the form of a traditional book enclosure. Reimagined as an open frame that could be hung on a wall as easily as set on a shelf, the enclosure is left open at the centre with wings that fold in and hold the open cover boards of the book on display, allowing the endpapers and text block to stand on show while the book is not being used, incredible.
Mark himself is another reason I was particularly excited to visit the UNIQUE exhibition in London. As well as being a Fellow of the Designer Bookbinders society, Mark Cockram is a highly experienced artisan and teacher of traditional bookbinding, as well as being one of the six designer bookbinders who are retained by the Man Booker Prize to provide one off presentation bindings of the books that reach the final shortlist for the prize. He is also, in his capacity as a teacher, the man who originally tutored me in traditional bookbinding and started my passion for this career as a hobbyist all the way through to establishing Aulwynd Bindery this year. I had not caught up with Mark since moving into bookbinding as a professional, so it was a joy to visit him in his Barnes studio after the exhibition and discuss books, bindings and future tutoring together.
All in all a wonderful and inspiring day. I cannot recommend UNIQUE and the incredible artisans whose work the exhibition is championing enough and I am looking forward to continuing to work with Mark in the future. Designer Bookbinders competitions will be hearing from Aulwynd Bindery very soon!