Monday, September 27, 2021

CONTEMPORARY BINDERS of LA PROSE DU TRANSSIBÉRIEN

Detail from Dominic Riley Binding
            

Detail from Monique Lallier Binding
  
           

Detail from George Kirkpatrick Binding
           

Detail from Sabina Nies Binding
 

                                                  

October 2, 2021 from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM PDT, 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM in the U.K. 

 

Zoom Event Sponsored by the Designer Bookbinders, and open to the public.

 

Kitty Maryatt, Creator of the 2018 La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation, will moderate this event.

 

Meet the U.S. and U.K. binders of the 2018 facsimile by Kitty Maryatt of the 1913 book, La Prose du Transsibérien, by Blaise Cendrars and Sonia Delaunay. The binders will discuss their process of designing and executing a binding for the new facsimile of a book that was groundbreaking for its time.

 

The binding by Paul Bonet of a copy of the original in 1963–64 was the inspiration for the idea to commission twenty-five binders to bind the 2018 facsimile, which replicated the original techniques of letterpress and pochoir. The resulting bindings were shown at the exhibit titled Drop Dead Gorgeous, which toured the country starting in San Francisco in 2019, and went to Los Angeles, and Boston in 2020. The exhibit closed in Minneapolis at MCBA on May 9, 2021 and shows in London from October 4 to 25, 2021. An exhibition catalog for Drop Dead Gorgeous is available. 


The Paul Bonet binding from 1963-64 was the inspiration for commissioning
25 fine binders to bind La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation 


The 1913 book was printed on four large sheets of paper, trimmed, glued into a scroll, then folded in half vertically and folded again into an accordion-fold book. The original binding was a piece of vellum, painted in oils, folded in half, which was to be glued to the top edge of the book. The Paul Bonet binding folded the pages differently from the original; he received the pages unglued, so he decided not to fold the pages in half first; then he folded them into an accordion book. The newly commissioned binders were free to glue and fold the book as they wished, though a few binders were given the book already glued and folded by the original method.

 

The eighteen participating binders will give presentations in groups of five, with breaks in between each of four sessions for brief questions and/or comments. It will be organized alphabetically, so that you can be sure to know when your favorite binders will be presenting. The slides for the missing binders will be presented by Kitty Maryatt. There will be time at the very end of all the sessions for the binders to ask each other questions, and to interact with the audience.

 

Session 1: Kathy Abbott, Servane Briand, Hannah Brown, Coleen Curry, Sue Doggett. Session 2: Samuel Feinstein, Erin Fletcher, Don Glaister, Derek Hood, Susan Hulme, Lang Ingalls, George Kirkpatrick.

Session 3: Midori Kunikata-Cockram, Monique Lallier, Kitty Maryatt, Sabina Nies, Patty Owen, Eleanore Ramsey.

Session 4: James Reid-Cunningham, Dominic Riley, Tracey Rowledge, Haein Song, Priscilla Spitler, Julian Thomas, Jonathan Tremblay.

 

Registration required for this Zoom event.








Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Drop Dead Gorgeous exhibition in London

Exhibit at San Francisco Center for the Book
Drop Dead Gorgeous was first shown at the San Francisco Center for the Book in the Fall of 2019. 
A catalog of the exhibit is available from SFCB; see details below.


DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, an exhibition of twenty-five fine bindings of La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation, will finally be shown at Maggs Bros. Ltd. Rare Books and Manuscripts in London from October 4 to October 25, 2021. The exhibit, originally slated for June 2020, had been postponed due to Covid. The exhibit was curated by Kitty Maryatt; Simon Eccles and Toby Schwartzburg are the Co-Curators. Twenty-five binders from the U.S., Canada and the U.K. were commissioned to bind a copy of this facsimile of the 1913 La Prose du Transsibérien by Sonia Delaunay and Blaise Cendrars, published in 2018 by Two Hands Press. The exhibit commenced in 2019 in San Francisco, traveled to Los Angeles and Boston in 2020, and was shown virtually at the Minnesota Center for the Book in 2021. The exhibit is open from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm during the week at 48 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DR.

 

You can still view the virtual MCBA exhibit in “past events.” 

 

There are several events coordinating with the DROP DEAD GORGEOUS exhibit at Maggs in October 2021:

 

1. October 2: Zoom event with the binders of La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation, 7:00 pm UK time, 11:00 PDT. More details to come on the next blog entry. Registration required.

 

2. October 9-10: Traditional French Pochoir Workshop at St. Bride’s Library, London, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Book here.

 

3. October 11: Showing of the hour-long documentary by Rosylyn Rhee, “The Re-creation of a Masterpiece: La Prose du Transsibérien”, at Maggs Bros. at 6:00 pm. Interviews with scholars, booksellers, collectors, and underwriters of the project, and demonstrations of traditional French pochoir technique. Reservations required: ben@maggs.com.

 

4. October 25: Special visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum at 1:00 pm to view an original copy of the 1913 La Prose du Transsibérien, Blaise Cendrars’ La Fin du Monde, and Sonia Delaunay’s 1925 portfolio Ses Peintures, Ses Objets, Ses Tissues Simultanés, Ses Modes. Reservations required: twohandspress@gmail.com.

 

The 110-page catalog for DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, Fine Bindings for La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation is available from the San Francisco Center for the Book for $50 plus tax and shipping, at www.sfcb.org. You can also purchase the catalog for £45 from Maggs Bros. at www.maggs.com. The catalog includes a fold-out of the facsimile and a section on traditional French pochoir. Photos from the catalog will be forthcoming in the next blog.



 
Binding by Haein Song



Binding by Lang Ingalls



Binding by Coleen Curry



Binding by Tracy Rowledge



Binding by Derek Hood