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Meditations on Bookbinding

A Vox

By Taylor vvestmacottPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 5 min read
3
taken by the author

Recently I began binding my own journals and novels, advancing on a baby-faced dream to become an independent publisher. I also bind journals for charity.

Let me make this article something of substance foremost, and send you off to people smarter than myself. This is Sea Lemon's YouTube channel, invaluable to anyone thinking about picking up the craft:

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Section 1: Preamble

The kettle stitch was the first I learned.

The craft itself is based upon a few core movements: the folding of paper, to make signatures; the measuring and marking of lines, to prepare holes; the puncturing of holes; the threading of needle and thread, to bind the signatures; and the threading and rethreading and knotting of needle and thread – restitching, stitching, and stitching again, to create a solid block.

Finally, there is the glue and the compressions.

These are interesting movements, but not the moment of the craft that interests me today. Why?

Submitted to the DMC Threading the Needle Challenge, this article began as an exegisis of the meditative nature of bookbinding. But any kind of product-producing labour is intrinsicly distinct to solemn meditatons. Mindfulness is where I first conceived to find my breath. Bookbinding, undoubtedly distinct to the production of carbon-dioxide sans corporeal incident, is the production of a thing.

Bookbinding, for me, is the opposite of mindfulness. It has of course a ryhthm of focus and attentions, a repetition, which, intersecting with one's inwardness, melds you with a thing.

Undoubtedly, bookbinding is a meditation.

But the product of mindfulness is found in non-productivity: true meditations, if such things exist, are devoid of attachment, product, conclusion, of aims and ends – even thoughts.

Or at least the thoughts are the rocks by which the river finds its way: the clouds upon the mount which, without conflict, intersect, pass across, through, and into, that very mountain, yet not quite over or above.

Zarathustra descends the mount, having learned...?

Or lost himself?

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Section 2: My Short History

Let me take you through some of what I've created, repaired, and written.

i.

i. These are some of my basic plain-paper journals – kettle stitch with glue.

ii.

ii. These are similar journals. Front and back covers have been made: two feature the repurposed art of Tiepolo, and the third uses a 1910 work by the poster printers Camis. These artworks were taken from some of the countless art books I have ammassed throughout the years, and glued onto coloured card, reinforcing their strength and durability.

iii.

iii. This cute rebinding of Moby-Dick uses thin plain white paper for both its front- and back-end. I love books which 'tell a story' – over time, the reader's battle with this edition of Melville's Leviathan is to be found in the paper's degradation, in its inescapable wrinkles, rips, and stains.

iv.

iv. This small book repurposes a broken edition of Aesop's Fables. Five of the fables are contained within, with several blank pages interspersed. What began as an experiment with different kinds of thread and stitch, turned into a small book of my own mediocre poetry.

v.

v. I resented one of my copies of Moby-Dick, which claimed to be 'unabridged', but which secretly omitted the novel's entire front-matter. I transformed it into an 'action only' edition, which is very short, and features only the narrative climax and epilogue of Melville's epic.

vi.

vi. This book is made of thick watercolour paper, and features a brush holder on its spine. Black card and duct tape are added as reinforcement, whilst also serving aesthetic explorations.

vii.

vii. This photo depicts my repairing of John Steinbeck's The Pastures of Heaven in media res. The original card is used for support, and a cutout of an old yoga mat is used as a cover. My makeshift bookpress, consisting of Royal Commissions and textbooks, can be seen underneath.

viii.

viii. One of my proudest creations thus far: a paperback edition of my third novel, The Beast of Baltimore. Kettle stitch with glue on red card.

ix.

ix. Another angle of my unusual novel.

x.

x. Finally, one of my stranger experiments. Two outdated translations: Aristotle's Poetics and Goethe's The Sorrrows of Young Werther. I now own superior translations of both of these works. I also have a general disdain for Dover Thift Editions. Some kettle stitching, with art-paper, white card, and a yoga mat, has rebound them into this abhorrent tome.

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Section 3: And Beyond

Thank you for reading.

At present, I am continuing to amass a collection of blank-page journals and books, which I sell for charity. This was the primary propulsion of my hobby – which, decreasingly a hobby, is becoming one of my human passions, or something trite like that.

If you enjoyed this article or found it interesting in anyway, I encourage you to make a donation to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. You can do so through this link:

What is the ILF?

Being able to read opens so many doors. But in very remote Indigenous communities, books can be scarce and literacy levels are often much lower than anywhere else in Australia. [The ILF seeks] to make a difference to the lives of Indigenous families by not only gifting thousands of new, culturally appropriate books - with a focus on early literacy and first language - but also by running programs to inspire the communities to tell and publish their own stories, in the languages they choose.

If you'd like to find out more about the ILF, you can do so here:

Please note, although I am a doner and fundraiser for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, this article and profile is not directly affiliated or endorsed by them.

Please do not tip this article.

Again, I instead urge you to make a donation directly to the ILF:

https://donate.ilf.org.au

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with love

- T VV

diy
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About the Creator

Taylor vvestmacott

Taylor is a screenwriter and novelist who lives and works on Kaurna land.

https://linktr.ee/taylorvvestmacott

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