Laura's fine touch..

this is important

sad news from the literary world.  Crad Kilodney, absurdist street poet and grumpy person of long standing has died in Toronto.

It was great fun in the '80's to run into Crad selling his books on the sidewalk, usually with an enigmatic sign around his neck- my favourite  said "POTTERY"- and I was able to purchase many of my favourites: Sex Slaves of the Astro-Mutants, Bang Heads Here Suffering Bastards, and "gainfully employed in limbo". Crad predicted in his 1973 book, "World Under Anaesthesia" that his death would be in Hungry Horse, Montana in 2025. He didn't make it.

New from Pointyhead - WINTER: Images from Testing Season

a few spreads from the new and almost complete book from Pointyhead Press. "Winter" is my contribution to the "Deer Press Travel Exhibition Project" soon to be launched into the world by Manu Beuchting.   The mandate was a book 4"x4" on the subject of one of the 4 seasons.  I was assigned Winter.

Catch me and all my little book friends at Wayzgoose in Grimsby ON on 26 April.

And now for the annual paper decorating orgy

an on again off again sort of tradition in the bindery. gather a few friends, boil up a little paste and "commencez l'emeute!''

bookbinding II winter 2014

nice results from the bookbinding II class this winter.  everyone glad to have the split board binding done and dusted.  (last class on Sunday and we're kicking back with a German case binding.)

Now on Display at Massey College

Just installed this at Massey College, U of T:

DON TAYLOR

Stealing Time: Design Bindings and Artist’s Books

www.dontaylorbookbinder.com

In the past 30 or so years, seemingly whether time has permitted or not, I have occasionally caught myself taking this precious commodity away from my work as a bookbinder and restorer to produce what I have always called “my own” work. This has usually taken the form of design bindings, i.e. interpretative fine bindings of an existing text, and artist’s books in which I have acted as creator of both text and binding. 

The impetus has frequently been to take part in book arts exhibitions such as “The Art of the Book”, a major Canadian show mounted every five years by The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild.  And in recent years, I have had to sneak periods of up to a few weeks on the trot to take part in shows conceived and executed within the small community of letterpress printers, binders, calligraphers, and others committed to the book arts. These are my friends and colleagues.  I have tried to spin the enormously creative contact available from such people as George Walker, Will Rueter, Margaret Lock, Susan Warner Keene, Nancy Jacobi and my studio partners, Reg Beatty and Kate Murdoch, into experiences that take me deeper into exploration of skills or new directions.  These moments of stolen “me time”, as much as they are challenging and even infuriating, are as wonderfully luxurious and satisfying as an extended bubble bath.

Nevertheless the market for such work lies in the range between small and non-existent. So what is the point of this kind of larceny?  Love of the materials, respect for collaborators, and the desire to “make”- that’s what makers do-all in the name of keeping books, in all their incredible variety, going strong. After all, the book is of course incomparably civilization’s greatest achievement.  Let’s not forget that. 

I am grateful to Massey College for the opportunity to show these results of my long-term embezzlement.  DT March 2014

Submission to the "Contemporary Bindings of Private Press Books Touring Exhibition 2014-15"

A new binding for submission to the "Contemporary Bindings of Private Press Books Touring Exhibition 2014-15".  "Tonge's Travels" was published by The Old School Press in Bath and features watercolour illustrations by John Watts.   The original was a manuscript travel diary from 1857 recording Mr. George Tonge's boat trip through the Mediterranean.     I used my paste papers cut into strips and onlaid onto the full calf binding to suggest both water and the notion of a hand-written document.  I added a couple of Moleskine style touches including a pocket in the back which I supplied with paste paper "postcards" of sights along the route, and a foredge strap, here depicted lying in front of the open book. The show opens at St Bride's Church, Fleet St., London on May 14 of this year.  See you at the opening!