Time has gotten away from me. I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last post.
So many things happened in 2014: some good, some great; some bad, and some very bad. Oddly, even the very bad stuff turned into some very good stuff. The main thing is that I went from being an antiquarian bookseller who obsesses over fine art bookbinding on the side (not at all bad), to a bookseller who obsesses over fine art bookbinding all the time (very, very good) at www.AbbySchoolman.com.
I’m so excited!
I’ll be in Cambridge this week for the opening reception at Houghton Library for the InsideOUT exhibit on September 10th. I will also get to see the ARA Canada exhibit La couleur du vent at the North Bennet Street School before it closes on September 14th. I will see so many contemporary fine art bindings in one day, I think my head might explode. Fortunately, I already have the InsideOUT catalog and have studied La couleur du vent online.
Who is going to be at the InsideOUT reception? I can’t wait to be in the same room with so many binders, librarians, and collectors of contemporary fine art bindings.
From now on I am going to be using the term “contemporary fine art binding” instead of “design binding.” Bindings are a form of fine art. Using the term “fine art” places the bindings in an understandable framework. Art collectors and most book collectors don’t know the meaning of the terms “design binding” or “contemporary fine binding.” The concept is too abstract. I’d like to present bookbinding within the construct of contemporary art, which is where I think it belongs. I see my change in terminology as a tiny step toward bringing bookbinding in a contemporary idiom to a wider audience.
That’s what we all want, isn’t it? A wider audience for the amazing work binders are turning out these days?
American Bound 