Happy (belated) new year! Just a quick update on what is happening here at Ampersand Book Studio as we enter 2023.
A Personal Note
Before I discuss books, please forgive a personal note. Sadly, my family lost my father on Boxing Day. He was a gentle spirit who touched many people during his life as a university educator, social and environmental activist, and artist. Although my family and I are, of course, sad, we also know that he lived a good and long life (he was 89). His return to painting in retirement (after being a young artist in NYC in the late 1940s) helped inspired me to pursue book arts after my 50th birthday. My first foray back into the studio in this new year, was to print a letterpress announcement of his passing that is on its way to many of those whose life he touched. To all of you who have been awaiting you copy of The Ideal Book, thank you for your patience and understanding.
The Ideal Book Update: Is the “Bug” a Feature?
I am back in the studio and hard at work completing our edition of The Ideal Book. All copies have been sewn and the book blocks lined. The paper and vellum covers have been cut, titled in 22K gold, folded, and had inserts added.
All that is needed now is to finish “casing in” the books – attaching the covers to the text block. As noted in a previous post, this seems like a simple process; the first and last two leaves are pasted down to the vellum covers. Of course, things never are as simple as that. You see, the first couple of prototypes – although in their own rustic way, quite lovely and to my personal aesthetic – saw a new challenge: the moisture of the adhesive used for pasting down the leaves seems to have caused the vellum to develop ripples. Although I have only handled a few of the original Doves Press bindings myself, I have not seen this textural element in those exemplars.
I think that much of this has to do the ways in which paper and vellum each respond to the introduction of moisture. When adhesive is used on paper, very quickly it expands ever so slightly in size, only to return to its original size once dried. It is hard to believe how powerful the mechanical force of the stretching and shrinking paper is; it can easily warp the seemingly solid boards used to cover a hardcover book. With the semi-limp vellum of our edition, the effects can be quite noticeable. This discrepancy seems even more noticeable in the dry, desert environment in which I am working. The judicious use of a humidifier and low-moisture adhesives has helped mitigate this challenge. Yet with copies of The Idea Book being distributed to readers in various environments across the globe – from the Sonoran Desert of Arizona to the cool humidity of the Wales to the tropics climes of Thailand – it is hard to predict how the paper and vellum will acclimatize in the short-term.
Personally, this is one of the things that makes vellum so wonderful – and so confounding – for bookbinding. It feels like a living, breathing material. It responds to the reader’s touch over time, developing a unique patina. It responds to the environment while being extremely resilient. Each piece exhibits the natural patterns of the animal hide from which it is derived. Indeed, I think that it is these very elements that made it appeal to T.J. Cobden-Sanderson in his Doves Press bindings, an aesthetic he advocates in this tract.
So, although I hesitate to provide a specific date for completion, I can tell you that the end is in sight.
Planning the Next Project
In between waiting for things to both humidify and dry, I have been hard at work planning the next project for Ampersand Book Studio. And I can hardly wait to announce it! But such an announcement will wait until after all pre-ordered copies of The Ideal Book have been sent their recipients.
In the meantime, however, I cannot help but tease the project here. It will be a much larger project than The Ideal Book. It is one of my all-time favorite novels. At 360 newly designed, letterpress printed pages, it will be a large undertaking. However, over the past few months, I have been hard at work designing, planning, and collaborating with people from across the globe (quite literally) to make it happen. On board for the project are…
Two large publishers (one for the U.S. and one for the Commonwealth), as well as a literary estate, who have all generously agreed to provide the rights for a fine press edition;
An artist in Brazil who will provide new illustrations for the book;
Paper makers from Belgium, Japan and the Czech Republic;
A hand-marbled paper artisan in the U.K.;
A fine woodworker in Thailand;
Custom tool makers in England and Greece;
A specialty leather merchant who sources hides directly from cooperative in Nigeria;
A museum that will provide historic materials for inclusion in the binding; and
At least two MFA students who are studying book arts and/or print making and who will serve as both apprentices and additional labor for the printing and binding.
It is all very exiting. The plan is to announce this new project here on Substack in late February, followed by a more public announcement a day or two later. For the first time, we will be utilizing a Kickstarter campaign for the launch. There will be early access to the project offered exclusively to our Substack readers, so watch this space for updates.