I decided not to wait until I edit the video and the photos from the Boekkunstbeurs (Book Arts Fair in Leiden, the Netherlands) and summarize my impressions right after the two-day event has ended.
It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that moving to the Netherlands has changed my life. I've been teaching bookbinding and making books for years, but this year was the first (and the second) time I participated in a proper bookbinding fair.
After I visited the Bookbinders' Fair in Belgium this April, it was logical to attend an event made by the same people in Cologne, Germany. Bookbinders' Fair Cologne is smaller, but it doesn't mean it is less fun!
Every once in a while the Museum Meermanno in the Hague (The Netherlands) brings a new temporary exhibition. This time they show the works of Quentin Blake, an artist, who had illustrated multiple books, including stories by the world-famous author Roald Dahl.
Every spring there is a Bookbinders’ Fair in Belgium. It was started more than 20 years ago in Antwerp and is held in the nearby town of Sint-Niklaas.
Just a friendly reminder. This Sunday I’m joining other 65 participants and hundreds of visitors at the Sint Niklaas Bookbinders’ Fair in Belgium. If you will be somewhere near Antwerpen, join us and find my table to say hi! =)
My recent visit to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest, Romania, had made me muse on what exactly the book is as a medium. There are purists who would tell you that codex (with some basic alterations) is the only valid format. In the modern world of electronic media, this view seems to me a bit narrow. Even more, if you consider the long and diverse history of the book, you will see that codex may be a prominent format today, but it is only a small part of all of the invented book formats.
As in many other Eastern European countries, Romania had seen a steep decline in bookbinding craftsmanship in the post-Soviet years. There are some remarkable masters, including some younger bookbinders. However, book restoration and bookmaking are reasonably expensive services, and it is quite understandable that in one of the less developed European countries the demand is quite low.
Every month I add new blogs to my feed. It is really inspiring to see all these fine people writing about bookbinding and book conservation tricks, their projects and thoughts. At the same moment, it becomes harder to filter links for our monthly digest — there is just too much I’d like to share with you!
Last month’s digest of bookbinding, book arts, book history and book conservation posts was quite popular and we have decided to try establishing a new series of posts at iBookBinding.
We have already wrote about artists interested in the afterlife of books. They cut through the pages searching for the hidden images and new forms. Now you can compare different approaches from a score of creators: on the 5th of February a new exhibition opens at the Everhart Museum in Scranton (PA, USA).
In the end of November, the 2nd International Book Art Fair (2a Feria Internacional de Libro de Artista) will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico. Fair starts 29th of November and ends 2nd of December, 2015.
A bookbinding exposition at the Brussels’ Fine Arts Academy of St. Gilles opens 19th of November, 2015. It was proposed to celebrate 20th anniversary of creation of the binding and guilding workshop here at the Academy.
