A few years ago I started following a course in hand bookbinding, in this course I gained knowledge about book structures, materials used in bindings, skills and techniques, the traditions used in the craft and of course of the book as an object itself. Because of this course and the ones I followed after my first course the ideas and assumptions I had about books changed. I saw possibilities in how the form of the book structure could look and could contribute to the general appeal of the book. In that way my ideas about the book as an object changed because of the knowledge I gained from the craft. It gave me a wider field of possibilities that I could incorporate into future projects. In my thesis I am researching if the time and energy input in creative craftsmanship is still relevant in today’s society. And with that if the knowledge you gain from practicing a craft gives you different ideas opposed to not practising it.
Craftsmanship is defined as “skill in a particular craft.”1 But what does craft mean exactly? It is said that craft is something that is made by hand and require skill and knowledge in order to create. This means that any profession for which you create a product or object where you use your hands could be defined as a craft. From a builder to a goldsmith to a glassblower they are all crafts that are still practised today. Each of these crafts requires knowledge of principles, materials and skill to work with your hands. With that another aspect arrives that influences the craft in different parts of the world and that is called tradition. Tradition makes sure that the cultural aspects of objects and products are valued.
For my thesis, it is important to define what the outlines are of the group of workers that practice their craft as an creative craftsmanship or artisan. Therefore, I want to show the difference between three groups of creatives. The first group consist of artists and designers, the second group consists of artisans and creative craftsman And the third group consist of the craftsman.
The Artist or designer is someone who comes up with ideas and strategies were the starting point is always a thought. This thought evolves into an idea or strategy and from there the artist or designer does research to find out if this idea is possible to create and if the idea is able to develop. The starting point of the artist or designer is rarely from the knowledge of a certain craft or technique but it starts more out of curiosity for something or from dreams of the impossible. To say it simple to create through creative problem solving.
The point of the artist is to contradict craft to design something impossible and make it possible. As an example, if you come up with the idea of creating a 3000 kilo metal ball that balances on a stick. A craftsman will say it is impossible because he learned practical principles and he knows about the materials he handles. But in the eyes of the artist these principles and the knowledge about these materials doesn’t matter and he will research and try to achieve his or her goal anyway.
A Craftsman is in contrary to the artist or designer, someone who creates from knowledge of certain principles and the feeling for materials. For example, from the principle of making books. The techniques and the usage of tools in making these books he acquired by watching and repeating. The craftsman creates products that serve a general purpose. The design of the product and design decisions around that are generally made by others than the craftsman. In most cases the designer or artist makes these decisions and let the craftsman create their visual ideas. There are some situations when the artist or designer asks for the expertise of the craftsman so they can use that information to come up with the best solution to their artistic problem.
A creative craftsman is a kind of craftsman that has evolved from solely standing on knowledge and principles of a certain craft to involving an artistic view on the products that they produce in their craft. The combination of the artistic view and the knowledge of principles embodies the symbiosis between the decorative part and the functional part of an object. For example, it is not about the content of a book, rather it is about the structure of the book in combination with the decoration of its cover and structure. And the more general approach of bringing the artistic values and the functionality of the craft together.
The creative craftsman originates from the need of the craftsman that want to fully understand the whole process of the creation of a certain object. With the knowledge of these objects they want to evolve these objects by coming up with creative solutions that go hand in hand with the technical part of the object. The creative craftsman tries to find a balance between the functional and esthetical where he takes the functionality more into account then his counterpart the artisan which derived from the artist point of view.
An artisan is a worker that sits between craftsmanship and artist. The word originated in the 16th century and derives from the Latin word “artitus”, which means instruct in the arts.”2 Therefore, you can say an artisan is someone who uses skill and knowledge of principles and techniques from an art¬istic point of view. The artisan is in that sense similar to the creative craftsman. The artisan also works in between the functional and the aesthetic just like the creative craftsman. But the key difference is that the artisan originates from the artist and designer group.
Tools are the best friend of a craftsman. He tries to put a lot of effort and time in mastering these tools and fully understanding their functionality. Was it always like that and why did we make tools in the first place? Since the word craft is defined as creating something with your hands.
As humans we evolved and at some point, started to create with our hands. We as humans found out it takes quite a long time to create with your own hands and therefore we invented tools in order to create more advanced products and objects.1 This was the start of technological advancement. These tools embody certain principles of creating. As we evolved further these tools became of higher quality because certain tools gave access too materials of better quality and these materials where more suited for the job. You could argue this is a bad thing because the originality of the product is getting lost but on the other hand it gave technological advancement.
So, at first there was a stone axe. At some point, it changed to an iron axe and we got knowledge how to keep these axes sharp. All these stages of the evolution of these tools created more and more embodiment of the process of the original tool. If you would explain all the steps of the change of the state an object is in you get a better understanding of that object and evolved that object into a direction more suitable for certain uses.
The process of creation lies in these tools and we reached an age where tools get more and more complex and knowledge of certain principles and techniques are no longer the norm. When the internet came around the access to knowledge is easier than ever. Because of the internet you don’t need the knowledge yourself anymore you have access to it whenever you want and where you want. But the question arises “are you still a specialist”? “Do you know how these principles of making really work and make your creations better”? “Or do you have become a machine yourself”?
Machines nowadays are one of the most complex things created by mankind. The machine takes on tasks and completes these tasks in a certain order. The more complex the machine gets, the longer the chain of processes gets that are used within the machine. We sometimes call these processes also a function or functionality. A functionality or function can be a book which is a physical object, but it could also be a function or functionality that purely exists digitally, as a piece of data. Because this function or functionality can take on so many forms and involves so many processes machines become very complex.
To make clear the complexity of machines I will describe what kind of machines are needed to make something simple as a boiled potato in your own home. Let’s see what is needed: In order to be able to boil the potato you of course need a potato. Water to boil it might also be handy. And of course, a pot and a cooking place are very important too. Let’s start with the background of what is needed for the harvest the potato itself. It is an interesting vegetable that got cultivated and the way we harvest it changed over the course of time. With that the way of farming the potato also changed. You need a tractor that pulls a potato harvest machine and a machine that washes and selects the potato afterwards. And let’s not forget that in order to make these machines you need other machines. And to get the resources needed for these machines you need more machines.
You can see that even though I just started describing a little bit about the harvest of the potato a lot of tools and machines are involved. The different tools and machines needed for making a boiled potato get you trapped in a complex web of machines that have built machines and rely on each other. It is a result of humanity wanting things faster and faster. Because of the speed companies can earn more and more money. Because we as humans also sped up and want our products fast and if it is possible as ready as it can be. Even more so with things like food. These machines don’t care about the quality. They just care about quantity and time savings that earn companies money to give you that boiled potato that you now can buy in every supermarket.
It is a shame we lost the craft of creating a product with our hands and with it we slowly start to lose the tradition behind it. Machines start to take over crafts and replace the tools that where used as an extension of the hand. The machines have multiple processes in them which makes them bigger and less an extension of the hand. It makes the understanding of the origin of creating more complicated. Why do we have to make things more complex and faster? Why can’t we enjoy the purity of something plain and simple and value the time it takes to do things with your hands?
As humans it is easy to lose yourself in all these machines that take on tasks and processes for you. It is nice to make life easier but to what extend do we want to do that? The problem that we created and why we get lost in machines is the fact that we started to make machines that take over processes and make machines that create machines again. We are starting to become human beings that don’t understand the principles of tools and processes. This is happening because what takes place inside a machine is not always visible to us or the machine is so complex that it requires many years of studying and working with them in order to fully understand that machine. Eventually this leads to a spiral where we create machines because we need machines. Where the funny thing is that we create things too make life fast phased but we require more time and energy to specialize and understand these machines that should make our lives easier and give us more time.
In order to understand something about the mechanization of the book we first have to take a look into the history of bookbinding. Before the Industrial revolution there is a significant difference in how books where constructed. The book block and boards where connected first before the book was decorated and finished. This all changed during the industrial revolution when we started to assemble the case after it was covered. Next to that over a lot changed over time in the way how and how much we decorated books and the materials that were used to create these books. All these things had an influence on the craft involved in making these books but also the quality of the bindings created. And besides that it changed the way how we look at the craft of bookbinding and practice the craft of binding today.
One of the earlier examples of a binding is the codex which was a type of binding that was basically sewed pages of velum (a type of parchment made of animal skin) or papyrus sheets together. During the 5th century these bindings where used and in very special cases the binding was trimmed and looked a little bit like a book we know today.
In the 9th century there was a binding called the Carolingian Binding1. The book block was made out of parchment because in this time this was the main material to write on. The book structure uses a sewn construction on ropes witch where attached to the wooden boards. The spine of the book was covered in leather with big flaps witch where called “tongues” and stuck out on both sides of the book. During this period books were not vertically stored as how we are used to it today but instead they were stored horizontally. That is why it is thought that the tongues that stick out where used to make it easier to pull a book out from underneath a pile.
The Romanesque binding 2 came up around the 12th century.The bindings created in this era where not really eye catchers and the binding structure was relatively simple. Note that during this time the book block and the boards still had the same size.
In the 13th to 15th century the book evolved and the gothic binding 3 was invented. This structure began to use a solid backing in order to protect the book more in the spine and uses a “hinge”. The book block was most of the time a mixture of paper and parchment because paper as a material still had to prove its qualities and durability. Besides that the book got more decoratively internally as well as on the edge and cover of the book during this time materials like ivory and gems and the art of goldsmithing and silversmithing got involved in the bindings. These days the books where still bound with wooden boards that gave these big books the protection needed. Most of these books where made by monk copyist who wrote letter by letter and literally copied a book and then bound it together.
During the 17th century the gothic binding 3 didn’t evolve so much structure wise. The most important things that changed where the use of full paper book blocks and the margin that the boards had changed. The boards where made bigger so they would protect the book block more. Next too that the way to glue everything together changed from starch too animal based glue. One of the reasons why the book couldn’t be mechanized is the use of the materials which was wood. And from the 17th century onward the materials used to protect the book changed from wooden boards to paste boards.
In the 18th and 19th century the book evolved slightly further where the most significant change was that the books now used pasteboards instead of wooden boards. Next too that the bookbinding process was made simpler because of the upcoming efficiency of printing techniques and the general industrialization during that time. The structure of the book was more smoothened out. And metal works and locks where left more and more out. The book block sometimes changed too. Because of the advancement of the printing technique witch where printed on Plano pieces of paper the technique of “lumbecking” and “driegen” where used to connect these lose sheets together.
During the 20th century the mechanization of the book finally came off ground in the period of the 18th and 19th century the binding structures got simpler in order to produce faster and more. Books became less “unica’s” and trough printing techniques the simplification and use of certain materials bookbinders started to use machines to produce books in larger quantities. An interesting example is the German staple machine that significantly reduced the quality of books and nowadays leave rust spots in the folds of the signatures.
Besides the German staple machine to improve the production speed at the end of the 19th century there where several machines in almost every bindery. Each machine took on a single task on itself of the binding process. There were cutting machines, sewing machines bevel machines and gilding machine and so on. Also, the mechanization set in another trend where certain materials where produced in more efficient and less time-consuming ways that led to the loss of quality that we now know of today.
For example, at the end of the 19th century the papers produced where mainly produced from wood and before that time they were made from different resources like cotton and flax. This results that the quality and the look of the paper changed. It became fragile in a shorter time frame and the sun also affected the colour of the paper. It turned yellow over time.
Each of these machines took little steps or processes over of the hand bookbinder who did everything mostly with his hands and tools that extended his hands. Around that time there was still a demand for high quality bindings so even in the beginning of the 20th century the hand bookbinder still could exist and his expertise and precision where highly valued for those who could afford it.
Especially in France there were several professions involved around the binding of books that worked together and each had their own expertise. In the Netherlands, it was different where the binder did the whole process of binding with the inclusion of the decorating of the book.
From the time of the industrialization we don’t speak so much about tools anymore but we speak of machines. The process and with it the tools used in that process developed. A human still needed to guide each step that was done by the machine and make small correction if necessary in order to make productions.
The 20th century led to books being produced where the cover was separately produced from the book block and then assembled together. This way of working greatly increased the mechanization of the modern book. Because the smaller processes of the book making where easier to convert to a machine.
Gradually the machines that where created in the 19th century evolved in the 20th century where the main changes where that the machines changed from hand powered to steam power to electrical powered machines. Where the essence of the process and the task the machines took on stayed almost the same. As a fun fact, some things stayed the same even longer. We still use animal glue today when we produce books.
At some point bookbinding machines started to become more sophisticated and use different methods of assembling the book. The use of hot glue became more and more popular to lumbeck lose sheets of paper together was the main way to assemble the book block and the softcover was immensely popular. The purpose of the book structure became almost obsolete with these softcovers. Because of the material use for the cover and the lumbecked sheets who were mainly held together with glue. The sturdiness of the book was greatly compromised.
This way of binding let too a great output of lower quality of books but managed to reach a broader audience. But with that the way society sees the book also changed. Quality standards where lowered and accessibility to knowledge was more important. Especially in the era where internet was up and coming and the book had to compete with the information available on the internet.
That is why production and material cost were significantly lowered and production methods where made more efficient. In these days, small binderies where still using different machines were the output had to be changed by hand each time a machine finished. But the big binderies had full automatic assembly lines were the input is sheets of paper and the end result is a book.
Some of these big bookbinderies evolved and saw potential to deliver single books for a relative cheap price and jumped in the marked of publishing on demand. Because of the potential of digital printing and being able to deliver a book in a certain format and with certain materials. They were able to give customers that didn’t got a contract with a big publishing house to create and publish a book themselves without having a huge stock. For a relative low price.
During the history of the book there have been some changes in materials used in creating books. The question arises is the change in materials good for the book? Did the quality of the book decrease at some point?
Since we have technological advancement we created products and objects and processed materials. All these things started to become of higher quality which means the material and products and objects last longer over a span of time and are more durable. At least that is what we assume. There might be a turnaround point where quality is changed because of these technological advancements. We settle with products that are off less quality and are less durable because of their making process an interesting example is leather and its counterpart fake leather. Fake leather is still less durable then natural leather.
In England, there are still several craftsman that do leather tanning by hand. Most of them use unnatural chemicals to tan the leather. But by using these chemicals the natural strength of the leather also gets partly lost in the process because actually these processed chemicals are too strong in comparison to chemicals processed through natural methods. There is still a tannery in the united kingdoms that uses the old technique of oak bark tanning to produce their leather. The oak bark is ripped from oak trees and is dried for 2 to 3 years. After that the oak bark gets chipped in small pieces and mixed with cold water. The Tannin that is present in the oak bark is soaked up by the water over a period of several days. Therefore, the process of making leather is called “Tanning”.
The down part of this natural process it that it takes quiet long. It takes 12 months for the skins to turn into leather. Also take into account the earlier mentioned time of drying the oak bark. Because this process is slower than the chromium tanning that was introduced because of its efficiency and much faster result it got abandoned. Nowadays this single oak bark tannery still exists and they can exist because of the quality leather they produce. It is said that their leather last way longer and apparently there is a market for it. Mostly they sell it to craftsman that make exclusive bags but some of the leather is also used for fine bindings.
At some point the covering material of leather disappeared because of the cost of the material but also because machines could more easily handle linen clothing as covering material. So, in the late 19th and early 20th century this material was mainly used to bind books. During the 20th century the use of linen became less and less popular and the paper cover came more and more popular. It had the advantage to show a design.
The soberness of books today is an indication that books nowadays in general are not high quality and valuable objects anymore but easy accessible mass products. During a certain period in the history of bookbinding the book was always bound and then decorated by different craftsman that combined their specialities. For example, in France you had and still have craftsman that where solely specialized in gold tooling and edge gilding the book. Where in the Netherlands the bookbinder took on the whole process of binding and decorating. To these days there are examples of bindings that make use of ivory carved cover displays and gold tooling that decorated the edges and covers of the book. All this hand work made the book very expensive next to the fact that during that time these books where hand written. Witch required a lot of effort and time. Although the expenses needed to be made in order to produce a book the importance of it was significantly enough to produce these books.
Throughout the 15th till 18th century there are also examples of book blocks that were sold separately because they were already expensive and special in itself. And if one could afford it then they brought these blocks to the bindery where it was bound. The book that was bound was an exclusive object that where held in (private) libraries.
It is important to note that there are two distinctions in determining the quality of an object. One is the artistic value so to speak. It is the way the object is decorated and stands out from its surrounding and the use of high quality materials that are involved in the making. So, the artistic quality of the book decreased over time while the structure in general improved until the industrial revolution made an end to the quality of the structure. Fast and cheap products that where accessible to everyone where the new norm and quality of the book structure but with that also the decoration became of less importance.The quality of a book structure is mostly determined by the use of certain methods and techniques to strengthen and bring together the book block and the cover. Of course, materials also play a role in the quality of the book structure but the way of bringing it together and making extra connections between the cover and book block has always been the main way of creating and the most important task of the binder.
Back in the day the book block and cover where made as one and where not assembled as how we do it today. This meant that the book structure in general was more sturdy and compact, most older books are thick or weigh heavy. The books that had boards that where larger than the book block show that the spine of the book collapses under the weight of the book block. Pages aren’t aligned properly anymore and the strength of the structure is getting compromised. Besides that the handling of the book becomes way harder since the pages are harder to flip because the signatures are more pressed inwards. Remember that some of these objects are older than 300 years and still function very well.
Today the French binding is still considered as one of the strongest bindings that give a book real sturdiness and strength. In the traditional way the block and cover are produced as one and not separately witch greatly enhances the quality. There is still to date no machine who can reproduce this exact type of binding. Which is produced till today by hand bookbinders and creative bookbinders.
Structure wise there is not so much development in the sense that it is about the strength of the book structure. The developments that are made are more based on the decorative aspect. The design is something that is visible to customers and they see what they get. It is different if it is about strength. The French binding is sturdy enough that it can last 100 years if the object is appreciated and handled with care. So in that sense there might be no need in development of the structure as it lasts long enough. Although the French binding is pretty labour intensive since it can only be made by hand it is bought by those who appreciate the book as an art form. And request special bindings from hand bookbinders or designer bookbinders.
Humans now a day tend to do less with their hands. Today we mostly think about ideas and let machines do the job we used to do with our hands. This results in a shift where we only use our brain while the brain and hand was first a strong union that functioned in the process of creation.
The designer should be both a craftsman and a designer. If he or she is this person in one. Then something special happens. It is not that a designer can’t hire the expertise of the craftsman but it has certain limits and aspects that make a key difference in having the knowledge yourself or asking someone else for the expertise.
Because the idea is always born first you won’t take into account different structures of books that fast because you simply don’t have the knowledge about the possibilities. You stay within the borders of what you already know. Maybe you use your intuition or slight cross the border of knowledge you’re your own assumptions. But the potential of fully understanding the process of a craft makes sure you become a master and are able to give endless forms to your design. And this is where the symbiosis between function and design is the biggest! This doesn’t mean that a designer who hires a craftsman can’t reach the same result but it will be for sure more difficult and there is a different symbiosis because in that case the designer must come to the craftsman basically straight after the idea is born and involve the expertise of the craftsman and change the idea.
On the other hand sometimes it is interesting to have a fresh mind to come up with new ways to do things. A good example for that related to books is Irma Boom. She has a design office in Amsterdam and designs exclusive books for big brands. Her approach is in general very content driven. She has some fresh new ideas about what a book should be as she shows with the book she made for Channel and the book she made for Victor and Rolf. The way how she works interests me. Because she said she makes a dummy for each and by that she uses her hands to create. She states that a book is tactile and should be created away from the screen.
On the other hand it is interesting to see that she makes books but has very little knowledge about the strength of book structures and the history of bookbinding and bookbinding as a craft in general. On several occasions in the documentary “Boom maakt boek” she asks the binder at the industrial bindery she works with if the books they produce have enough strength. The binder shows it by holding one page and claims it has enough strength because it doesn’t fall out. She gets advised that this book is of sufficient quality but in reality the strength is not only defined by the fact if a page falls out or not. There is more too it then the way the pages stick together. It is about the quality and thickness of the paper. The amount of glue used the way the book is sewn and how the holes in the signatures are divided. And if there is a cover it Is also about the way the block and cover are assembled and how much they are bound together.
Next to that holding a book on one page upside down is something odd, if a user uses the object correctly he would never do something like that. So it is striking to me that the binder measures the strength that way. It is more about the sturdiness of the block and the way the cover and block are bound together. Next too that the amount of holes that are sewn in comparison to the format is also an important aspect to take into account in the strength of a book. If a book is heavy it needs extra care as explained before in the history of the book, in general old books had a lot of volume and where heavy that is why these books often have a weak spine because the weight of the book block was to heavy to be able to keep the shape of the book block the same. That is why you have to take extra measurements into account when you create heavy books. Because in general their durability is harder to maintain. All these things together will define the strength and therefore the durability of the book.
Strength and quality can sometimes only be measured by waiting a long time and see how long a book really last through the years when it is handled and used by the user. Then all of a sudden the flaws start to show up.
Next to that it is interesting to see that she also asks for advice from the binder that works for the large printing company that produce these books. In the documentary the binder advises her about the amount of stiches and talks about the limits of the machine that sews these stitches. This scene in the documentary caught my special interest because it has two interesting aspects that really illustrate why it is so important to have proper knowledge of the total process of a product.
The first thing that caught my attention is that she is discussing the amount of stitches while the book is already printed. That means that a large part of the book is already settled and the form that Irma Boom decided on from the start can’t be changed that much. This is because the product is already partly finished. The size of the book is already determined and the type and weight of the paper are already set in stone. The thing that interests me is the fact that the amount of joints should be defined by the aspect of strength witch is the result of the type of paper, size, glue type and the volume and all the other aspects that define the strength of the book together that I described earlier. As Irma boom is making high end books you would assume she really takes all these things into account. I feel like the amount of stitches and its placement should only be considered as an aspect of durability and not by its looks. If you use not enough joints in ratio to the size or the placement of the joints is odd the strength of the book will be partly compromised.
Irma Boom overlooks this effect and finds the look of the stiches more important than the strength. And as she discusses this in the later stage after she already set on the size of the book shows a lack of knowledge from her side where she should have involved the discussion about the amount of stitches and its placement in an earlier stage. This is a good example why it is good to know a craft as a creative in comparison of hiring one. Because you always see things with a different eye if you look at it from a functional perspective. It is important to note that when an idea is born and you don’t have the knowledge and you want changes in a later stadium it is in fact hard to really use the full potential of the book.
The next thing that caught my eye was the way the binder spoke about the amount of stitches. You can really tell that he operates a machine and that the process got lost in that machine. He talks about the limits and capabilities of that machine. And doesn’t look beyond that to advise on the decision of the book structure. I say this because Irma Boom is asking for a certain placement of the holes for the sewing and it should be regular. The machine is unable to achieve what she asks of it.
The binder can’t just help it and advises something within the capabilities of the machine while the request that Irma Boom had could have been solved by doing the work by hand. The machine has a range of settings and with that comes an amount of holes and a margin on the size of the book it can handle. These settings make sure the book has enough strength versus efficiency and cost.
Hand labour is very costly these days, especially in a society where mass consumerism is a big thing. This means that a lot of processes are not done by hand but by machines. The printers and binders are now preaching the capabilities of the machine and they don’t look past it and the endless possibilities that the medium has.
In 2012 Benjamin Elbel founded Elbel Del Libro in Haarlem, the Netherlands. This bookbinding company is specialized in exclusive handbook binding the body of work is of exceptional quality and there are interesting book structures that are used. With that Benjamin Elbel founded “Bookbinding out of the box” where he supplies tutorials for fellow bookbinders and bookbinding enthusiast. In these tutorials, he explains recently developed and innovative techniques of different book structures surprisingly they are often based on old binding techniques. He does this to show the possibilities and importance of book structure and also to increase the general quality of the bookbinding field.
As an example, I would like to talk about the Union binding he developed. It is a beautiful way of making a book structure. The way the connection is made is by folding and gluing paper around each other forming sort of union rings when you look at the side of the book. It gives a beautiful effect when you use two different colours of paper because it enhances the look of the book. It is a new way of thinking of binding the papers together and with that strengthening the spine. The disadvantage is that there is a bigger space between each page but the binding and idea behind it have definitely some potential.
Next to the different tutorials with different innovative book structures Benjamin wrote several articles where he describes in detail the experiments he did revolved around bookbinding. One of the articles is about the Dos Rapporté’ Structure. It is a structure that actually already existed but he developed it for a restoration project he did while he was doing an internship in Germany. It is interesting to me that we can look into his thought process and what he finds important in this book structure. He takes every small detail into account and looks at the binding and structure not only from a perspective of strength but also of beauty.
Elbel has a lot of focus on how the hinge of a book structure works and how it looks. He mainly focusses on it from an astatically point of view which makes the structures he develops maybe a bit less sturdy but it also shows that we as designers tend to forget the possibilities these forms of hinges could bring to the general design of a book.
You really need knowledge about the traditional craft that is bookbinding to come up with these kinds of ingenious structures and ideas. It gives a whole different perspective on how you could bind things together and the further development of book structures in the future and for the future. Yet a back in the 16th century there where already creative bookbinders who tried to innovate and make special book structures. A good example is Jakob Krause that made a six-folded binding. Luckily there are still a few examples left of this special binding but non-the less it is quite a rare binding. Between the boards there is a hinge in the middle so the binding could be divided in six different books. Four smaller books are horizontally put in the book structure while two bigger titles are put in it vertically. Next to that the binding is tooled and decorated in a beautiful way.
In my eyes this is what a creative craftsman does, he is busy with the craft and is developing it. And at the same time looking at new ways and solutions to develop old traditions and bringing the craft to a next level. Even back in the 16th century bookbinders understood that it is important to fully understand the craft and look into different ways of binding. It is interesting that Benjamin Elbel also stays true to the book. He makes his tutorials only available as physical booklets that are send to you and not as digital files you can download. It goes against the nature of the book; the book is something real and it should stay that way.
What I see in Benjamin’s work is that the techniques and knowledge he has about the craft define his thoughts and ideas about how a book should look and the potential the object has. He not only looks at it from a design perspective but also from a craftsman perspective and considers the type of material used to ensure quality. The symbiosis between the esthetical and functional makes all the facets of the books that are produced remarkable the binding structure is part of the design and you can see that every detail is thought off. This is truly different too how Irma Boom works. You can see that she is a good designer but has a totally different approach on what in her eyes a good book structure is. And often uses big binderies which in general define a big part of the book structure and the quality of the object for her although she might not even have intended that.
There is a key difference between having the knowledge yourself or hiring the expertise. It already would help if you touch and consider all aspects of the making process within a craft. In order to fully use the potential of its techniques and traditions you can bring the idea about an object to a next level. This is different if you would hire the expertise since the idea is always formed first. Considering all the aspects in the process of making within a craft helps you in developing truly creative solutions to the problems you have to deal with as an artist or designer. And with that makes you really a creative craftsman or artisan instead of designer. Also, it unravels partly the complexity of machines we are using and dealing with on a daily basis. This is because of the simplification and small steps that a craft uses in order to come to a product. A machine takes these different steps of process and combines them. This makes machines more complex and less understandable unless you are fully aware how the different steps work together and separately. Working with your hands is equally as important as using your brain. It is about going back to the basics of creating and using full focus and energy and time to your advantage to inform yourself about the making process. And hopefully more people become aware of the potential of the creative craftsman and the benefits this way of working has.
I would like to thank everyone from colleagues to friends that helped me getting into and trough the process of writing my thesis. It was sometimes a struggle and your kind words, critiques and notes on my writings made me write an even better thesis. I would like to thank a few persons specifically in particular Merel Boers who exceptionally guided my thesis. And Leo Scholte ter Horst and Jonna Cohen for their encouragements and talks about craftsmanship and all the help they offered me during the process. Frans Cornelissen who helped me in the beginning to get started with writing and Vanessa Kappler for reading my texts and hearing out my struggles.
1. The three ways of working as a creative.
2. The use of tools and understanding them.
3. How do we lose ourselves into machines?
4. The history and mechanization of the book.
5. The turnaround point, quality versus quantity.
6. The idea is always born first.
7. The ideas of a creative bookbinder.
8. Bibliography.
A few years ago I started following a course in hand bookbinding, in this course I gained knowledge about book structures, materials used in bindings, skills and techniques, the traditions used in the craft and of course of the book as an object itself. Because of this course and the ones I followed after my first course the ideas and assumptions I had about books changed. I saw possibilities in how the form of the book structure could look and could contribute to the general appeal of the book. In that way my ideas about the book as an object changed because of the knowledge I gained from the craft. It gave me a wider field of possibilities that I could incorporate into future projects. In my thesis I am researching if the time and energy input in creative craftsmanship is still relevant in today’s society. And with that if the knowledge you gain from practicing a craft gives you different ideas opposed to not practising it.
Craftsmanship is defined as “skill in a particular craft.”1 But what does craft mean exactly? It is said that craft is something that is made by hand and require skill and knowledge in order to create. This means that any profession for which you create a product or object where you use your hands could be defined as a craft. From a builder to a goldsmith to a glassblower they are all crafts that are still practised today. Each of these crafts requires knowledge of principles, materials and skill to work with your hands. With that another aspect arrives that influences the craft in different parts of the world and that is called tradition. Tradition makes sure that the cultural aspects of objects and products are valued.
For my thesis, it is important to define what the outlines are of the group of workers that practice their craft as an creative craftsmanship or artisan. Therefore, I want to show the difference between three groups of creatives. The first group consist of artists and designers, the second group consists of artisans and creative craftsman And the third group consist of the craftsman.
The Artist or designer is someone who comes up with ideas and strategies were the starting point is always a thought. This thought evolves into an idea or strategy and from there the artist or designer does research to find out if this idea is possible to create and if the idea is able to develop. The starting point of the artist or designer is rarely from the knowledge of a certain craft or technique but it starts more out of curiosity for something or from dreams of the impossible. To say it simple to create through creative problem solving.
The point of the artist is to contradict craft to design something impossible and make it possible. As an example, if you come up with the idea of creating a 3000 kilo metal ball that balances on a stick. A craftsman will say it is impossible because he learned practical principles and he knows about the materials he handles. But in the eyes of the artist these principles and the knowledge about these materials doesn’t matter and he will research and try to achieve his or her goal anyway.
A Craftsman is in contrary to the artist or designer, someone who creates from knowledge of certain principles and the feeling for materials. For example, from the principle of making books. The techniques and the usage of tools in making these books he acquired by watching and repeating. The craftsman creates products that serve a general purpose. The design of the product and design decisions around that are generally made by others than the craftsman. In most cases the designer or artist makes these decisions and let the craftsman create their visual ideas. There are some situations when the artist or designer asks for the expertise of the craftsman so they can use that information to come up with the best solution to their artistic problem.
A creative craftsman is a kind of craftsman that has evolved from solely standing on knowledge and principles of a certain craft to involving an artistic view on the products that they produce in their craft. The combination of the artistic view and the knowledge of principles embodies the symbiosis between the decorative part and the functional part of an object. For example, it is not about the content of a book, rather it is about the structure of the book in combination with the decoration of its cover and structure. And the more general approach of bringing the artistic values and the functionality of the craft together.
The creative craftsman originates from the need of the craftsman that want to fully understand the whole process of the creation of a certain object. With the knowledge of these objects they want to evolve these objects by coming up with creative solutions that go hand in hand with the technical part of the object. The creative craftsman tries to find a balance between the functional and esthetical where he takes the functionality more into account then his counterpart the artisan which derived from the artist point of view.
An artisan is a worker that sits between craftsmanship and artist. The word originated in the 16th century and derives from the Latin word “artitus”, which means instruct in the arts.”2 Therefore, you can say an artisan is someone who uses skill and knowledge of principles and techniques from an art¬istic point of view. The artisan is in that sense similar to the creative craftsman. The artisan also works in between the functional and the aesthetic just like the creative craftsman. But the key difference is that the artisan originates from the artist and designer group.
Tools are the best friend of a craftsman. He tries to put a lot of effort and time in mastering these tools and fully understanding their functionality. Was it always like that and why did we make tools in the first place? Since the word craft is defined as creating something with your hands.
As humans we evolved and at some point, started to create with our hands. We as humans found out it takes quite a long time to create with your own hands and therefore we invented tools in order to create more advanced products and objects.1 This was the start of technological advancement. These tools embody certain principles of creating. As we evolved further these tools became of higher quality because certain tools gave access too materials of better quality and these materials where more suited for the job. You could argue this is a bad thing because the originality of the product is getting lost but on the other hand it gave technological advancement.
So, at first there was a stone axe. At some point, it changed to an iron axe and we got knowledge how to keep these axes sharp. All these stages of the evolution of these tools created more and more embodiment of the process of the original tool. If you would explain all the steps of the change of the state an object is in you get a better understanding of that object and evolved that object into a direction more suitable for certain uses.
The process of creation lies in these tools and we reached an age where tools get more and more complex and knowledge of certain principles and techniques are no longer the norm. When the internet came around the access to knowledge is easier than ever. Because of the internet you don’t need the knowledge yourself anymore you have access to it whenever you want and where you want. But the question arises “are you still a specialist”? “Do you know how these principles of making really work and make your creations better”? “Or do you have become a machine yourself”?
Machines nowadays are one of the most complex things created by mankind. The machine takes on tasks and completes these tasks in a certain order. The more complex the machine gets, the longer the chain of processes gets that are used within the machine. We sometimes call these processes also a function or functionality. A functionality or function can be a book which is a physical object, but it could also be a function or functionality that purely exists digitally, as a piece of data. Because this function or functionality can take on so many forms and involves so many processes machines become very complex.
To make clear the complexity of machines I will describe what kind of machines are needed to make something simple as a boiled potato in your own home. Let’s see what is needed: In order to be able to boil the potato you of course need a potato. Water to boil it might also be handy. And of course, a pot and a cooking place are very important too. Let’s start with the background of what is needed for the harvest the potato itself. It is an interesting vegetable that got cultivated and the way we harvest it changed over the course of time. With that the way of farming the potato also changed. You need a tractor that pulls a potato harvest machine and a machine that washes and selects the potato afterwards. And let’s not forget that in order to make these machines you need other machines. And to get the resources needed for these machines you need more machines.
You can see that even though I just started describing a little bit about the harvest of the potato a lot of tools and machines are involved. The different tools and machines needed for making a boiled potato get you trapped in a complex web of machines that have built machines and rely on each other. It is a result of humanity wanting things faster and faster. Because of the speed companies can earn more and more money. Because we as humans also sped up and want our products fast and if it is possible as ready as it can be. Even more so with things like food. These machines don’t care about the quality. They just care about quantity and time savings that earn companies money to give you that boiled potato that you now can buy in every supermarket.
It is a shame we lost the craft of creating a product with our hands and with it we slowly start to lose the tradition behind it. Machines start to take over crafts and replace the tools that where used as an extension of the hand. The machines have multiple processes in them which makes them bigger and less an extension of the hand. It makes the understanding of the origin of creating more complicated. Why do we have to make things more complex and faster? Why can’t we enjoy the purity of something plain and simple and value the time it takes to do things with your hands?
As humans it is easy to lose yourself in all these machines that take on tasks and processes for you. It is nice to make life easier but to what extend do we want to do that? The problem that we created and why we get lost in machines is the fact that we started to make machines that take over processes and make machines that create machines again. We are starting to become human beings that don’t understand the principles of tools and processes. This is happening because what takes place inside a machine is not always visible to us or the machine is so complex that it requires many years of studying and working with them in order to fully understand that machine. Eventually this leads to a spiral where we create machines because we need machines. Where the funny thing is that we create things too make life fast phased but we require more time and energy to specialize and understand these machines that should make our lives easier and give us more time.
In order to understand something about the mechanization of the book we first have to take a look into the history of bookbinding. Before the Industrial revolution there is a significant difference in how books where constructed. The book block and boards where connected first before the book was decorated and finished. This all changed during the industrial revolution when we started to assemble the case after it was covered. Next to that over a lot changed over time in the way how and how much we decorated books and the materials that were used to create these books. All these things had an influence on the craft involved in making these books but also the quality of the bindings created. And besides that it changed the way how we look at the craft of bookbinding and practice the craft of binding today.
One of the earlier examples of a binding is the codex which was a type of binding that was basically sewed pages of velum (a type of parchment made of animal skin) or papyrus sheets together. During the 5th century these bindings where used and in very special cases the binding was trimmed and looked a little bit like a book we know today.
In the 9th century there was a binding called the Carolingian Binding1. The book block was made out of parchment because in this time this was the main material to write on. The book structure uses a sewn construction on ropes witch where attached to the wooden boards. The spine of the book was covered in leather with big flaps witch where called “tongues” and stuck out on both sides of the book. During this period books were not vertically stored as how we are used to it today but instead they were stored horizontally. That is why it is thought that the tongues that stick out where used to make it easier to pull a book out from underneath a pile.
The Romanesque binding 2 came up around the 12th century.The bindings created in this era where not really eye catchers and the binding structure was relatively simple. Note that during this time the book block and the boards still had the same size.
In the 13th to 15th century the book evolved and the gothic binding 3 was invented. This structure began to use a solid backing in order to protect the book more in the spine and uses a “hinge”. The book block was most of the time a mixture of paper and parchment because paper as a material still had to prove its qualities and durability. Besides that the book got more decoratively internally as well as on the edge and cover of the book during this time materials like ivory and gems and the art of goldsmithing and silversmithing got involved in the bindings. These days the books where still bound with wooden boards that gave these big books the protection needed. Most of these books where made by monk copyist who wrote letter by letter and literally copied a book and then bound it together.
During the 17th century the gothic binding 3 didn’t evolve so much structure wise. The most important things that changed where the use of full paper book blocks and the margin that the boards had changed. The boards where made bigger so they would protect the book block more. Next too that the way to glue everything together changed from starch too animal based glue. One of the reasons why the book couldn’t be mechanized is the use of the materials which was wood. And from the 17th century onward the materials used to protect the book changed from wooden boards to paste boards.
In the 18th and 19th century the book evolved slightly further where the most significant change was that the books now used pasteboards instead of wooden boards. Next too that the bookbinding process was made simpler because of the upcoming efficiency of printing techniques and the general industrialization during that time. The structure of the book was more smoothened out. And metal works and locks where left more and more out. The book block sometimes changed too. Because of the advancement of the printing technique witch where printed on Plano pieces of paper the technique of “lumbecking” and “driegen” where used to connect these lose sheets together.
During the 20th century the mechanization of the book finally came off ground in the period of the 18th and 19th century the binding structures got simpler in order to produce faster and more. Books became less “unica’s” and trough printing techniques the simplification and use of certain materials bookbinders started to use machines to produce books in larger quantities. An interesting example is the German staple machine that significantly reduced the quality of books and nowadays leave rust spots in the folds of the signatures.
Besides the German staple machine to improve the production speed at the end of the 19th century there where several machines in almost every bindery. Each machine took on a single task on itself of the binding process. There were cutting machines, sewing machines bevel machines and gilding machine and so on. Also, the mechanization set in another trend where certain materials where produced in more efficient and less time-consuming ways that led to the loss of quality that we now know of today.
For example, at the end of the 19th century the papers produced where mainly produced from wood and before that time they were made from different resources like cotton and flax. This results that the quality and the look of the paper changed. It became fragile in a shorter time frame and the sun also affected the colour of the paper. It turned yellow over time.
Each of these machines took little steps or processes over of the hand bookbinder who did everything mostly with his hands and tools that extended his hands. Around that time there was still a demand for high quality bindings so even in the beginning of the 20th century the hand bookbinder still could exist and his expertise and precision where highly valued for those who could afford it.
Especially in France there were several professions involved around the binding of books that worked together and each had their own expertise. In the Netherlands, it was different where the binder did the whole process of binding with the inclusion of the decorating of the book.
From the time of the industrialization we don’t speak so much about tools anymore but we speak of machines. The process and with it the tools used in that process developed. A human still needed to guide each step that was done by the machine and make small correction if necessary in order to make productions.
The 20th century led to books being produced where the cover was separately produced from the book block and then assembled together. This way of working greatly increased the mechanization of the modern book. Because the smaller processes of the book making where easier to convert to a machine.
Gradually the machines that where created in the 19th century evolved in the 20th century where the main changes where that the machines changed from hand powered to steam power to electrical powered machines. Where the essence of the process and the task the machines took on stayed almost the same. As a fun fact, some things stayed the same even longer. We still use animal glue today when we produce books.
At some point bookbinding machines started to become more sophisticated and use different methods of assembling the book. The use of hot glue became more and more popular to lumbeck lose sheets of paper together was the main way to assemble the book block and the softcover was immensely popular. The purpose of the book structure became almost obsolete with these softcovers. Because of the material use for the cover and the lumbecked sheets who were mainly held together with glue. The sturdiness of the book was greatly compromised.
This way of binding let too a great output of lower quality of books but managed to reach a broader audience. But with that the way society sees the book also changed. Quality standards where lowered and accessibility to knowledge was more important. Especially in the era where internet was up and coming and the book had to compete with the information available on the internet.
That is why production and material cost were significantly lowered and production methods where made more efficient. In these days, small binderies where still using different machines were the output had to be changed by hand each time a machine finished. But the big binderies had full automatic assembly lines were the input is sheets of paper and the end result is a book.
Some of these big bookbinderies evolved and saw potential to deliver single books for a relative cheap price and jumped in the marked of publishing on demand. Because of the potential of digital printing and being able to deliver a book in a certain format and with certain materials. They were able to give customers that didn’t got a contract with a big publishing house to create and publish a book themselves without having a huge stock. For a relative low price.
During the history of the book there have been some changes in materials used in creating books. The question arises is the change in materials good for the book? Did the quality of the book decrease at some point?
Since we have technological advancement we created products and objects and processed materials. All these things started to become of higher quality which means the material and products and objects last longer over a span of time and are more durable. At least that is what we assume. There might be a turnaround point where quality is changed because of these technological advancements. We settle with products that are off less quality and are less durable because of their making process an interesting example is leather and its counterpart fake leather. Fake leather is still less durable then natural leather.
In England, there are still several craftsman that do leather tanning by hand. Most of them use unnatural chemicals to tan the leather. But by using these chemicals the natural strength of the leather also gets partly lost in the process because actually these processed chemicals are too strong in comparison to chemicals processed through natural methods. There is still a tannery in the united kingdoms that uses the old technique of oak bark tanning to produce their leather. The oak bark is ripped from oak trees and is dried for 2 to 3 years. After that the oak bark gets chipped in small pieces and mixed with cold water. The Tannin that is present in the oak bark is soaked up by the water over a period of several days. Therefore, the process of making leather is called “Tanning”.
The down part of this natural process it that it takes quiet long. It takes 12 months for the skins to turn into leather. Also take into account the earlier mentioned time of drying the oak bark. Because this process is slower than the chromium tanning that was introduced because of its efficiency and much faster result it got abandoned. Nowadays this single oak bark tannery still exists and they can exist because of the quality leather they produce. It is said that their leather last way longer and apparently there is a market for it. Mostly they sell it to craftsman that make exclusive bags but some of the leather is also used for fine bindings.
At some point the covering material of leather disappeared because of the cost of the material but also because machines could more easily handle linen clothing as covering material. So, in the late 19th and early 20th century this material was mainly used to bind books. During the 20th century the use of linen became less and less popular and the paper cover came more and more popular. It had the advantage to show a design.
The soberness of books today is an indication that books nowadays in general are not high quality and valuable objects anymore but easy accessible mass products. During a certain period in the history of bookbinding the book was always bound and then decorated by different craftsman that combined their specialities. For example, in France you had and still have craftsman that where solely specialized in gold tooling and edge gilding the book. Where in the Netherlands the bookbinder took on the whole process of binding and decorating. To these days there are examples of bindings that make use of ivory carved cover displays and gold tooling that decorated the edges and covers of the book. All this hand work made the book very expensive next to the fact that during that time these books where hand written. Witch required a lot of effort and time. Although the expenses needed to be made in order to produce a book the importance of it was significantly enough to produce these books.
Throughout the 15th till 18th century there are also examples of book blocks that were sold separately because they were already expensive and special in itself. And if one could afford it then they brought these blocks to the bindery where it was bound. The book that was bound was an exclusive object that where held in (private) libraries.
It is important to note that there are two distinctions in determining the quality of an object. One is the artistic value so to speak. It is the way the object is decorated and stands out from its surrounding and the use of high quality materials that are involved in the making. So, the artistic quality of the book decreased over time while the structure in general improved until the industrial revolution made an end to the quality of the structure. Fast and cheap products that where accessible to everyone where the new norm and quality of the book structure but with that also the decoration became of less importance.The quality of a book structure is mostly determined by the use of certain methods and techniques to strengthen and bring together the book block and the cover. Of course, materials also play a role in the quality of the book structure but the way of bringing it together and making extra connections between the cover and book block has always been the main way of creating and the most important task of the binder.
Back in the day the book block and cover where made as one and where not assembled as how we do it today. This meant that the book structure in general was more sturdy and compact, most older books are thick or weigh heavy. The books that had boards that where larger than the book block show that the spine of the book collapses under the weight of the book block. Pages aren’t aligned properly anymore and the strength of the structure is getting compromised. Besides that the handling of the book becomes way harder since the pages are harder to flip because the signatures are more pressed inwards. Remember that some of these objects are older than 300 years and still function very well.
Today the French binding is still considered as one of the strongest bindings that give a book real sturdiness and strength. In the traditional way the block and cover are produced as one and not separately witch greatly enhances the quality. There is still to date no machine who can reproduce this exact type of binding. Which is produced till today by hand bookbinders and creative bookbinders.
Structure wise there is not so much development in the sense that it is about the strength of the book structure. The developments that are made are more based on the decorative aspect. The design is something that is visible to customers and they see what they get. It is different if it is about strength. The French binding is sturdy enough that it can last 100 years if the object is appreciated and handled with care. So in that sense there might be no need in development of the structure as it lasts long enough. Although the French binding is pretty labour intensive since it can only be made by hand it is bought by those who appreciate the book as an art form. And request special bindings from hand bookbinders or designer bookbinders.
Humans now a day tend to do less with their hands. Today we mostly think about ideas and let machines do the job we used to do with our hands. This results in a shift where we only use our brain while the brain and hand was first a strong union that functioned in the process of creation.
The designer should be both a craftsman and a designer. If he or she is this person in one. Then something special happens. It is not that a designer can’t hire the expertise of the craftsman but it has certain limits and aspects that make a key difference in having the knowledge yourself or asking someone else for the expertise.
Because the idea is always born first you won’t take into account different structures of books that fast because you simply don’t have the knowledge about the possibilities. You stay within the borders of what you already know. Maybe you use your intuition or slight cross the border of knowledge you’re your own assumptions. But the potential of fully understanding the process of a craft makes sure you become a master and are able to give endless forms to your design. And this is where the symbiosis between function and design is the biggest! This doesn’t mean that a designer who hires a craftsman can’t reach the same result but it will be for sure more difficult and there is a different symbiosis because in that case the designer must come to the craftsman basically straight after the idea is born and involve the expertise of the craftsman and change the idea.
On the other hand sometimes it is interesting to have a fresh mind to come up with new ways to do things. A good example for that related to books is Irma Boom. She has a design office in Amsterdam and designs exclusive books for big brands. Her approach is in general very content driven. She has some fresh new ideas about what a book should be as she shows with the book she made for Channel and the book she made for Victor and Rolf. The way how she works interests me. Because she said she makes a dummy for each and by that she uses her hands to create. She states that a book is tactile and should be created away from the screen.
On the other hand it is interesting to see that she makes books but has very little knowledge about the strength of book structures and the history of bookbinding and bookbinding as a craft in general. On several occasions in the documentary “Boom maakt boek” she asks the binder at the industrial bindery she works with if the books they produce have enough strength. The binder shows it by holding one page and claims it has enough strength because it doesn’t fall out. She gets advised that this book is of sufficient quality but in reality the strength is not only defined by the fact if a page falls out or not. There is more too it then the way the pages stick together. It is about the quality and thickness of the paper. The amount of glue used the way the book is sewn and how the holes in the signatures are divided. And if there is a cover it Is also about the way the block and cover are assembled and how much they are bound together.
Next to that holding a book on one page upside down is something odd, if a user uses the object correctly he would never do something like that. So it is striking to me that the binder measures the strength that way. It is more about the sturdiness of the block and the way the cover and block are bound together. Next too that the amount of holes that are sewn in comparison to the format is also an important aspect to take into account in the strength of a book. If a book is heavy it needs extra care as explained before in the history of the book, in general old books had a lot of volume and where heavy that is why these books often have a weak spine because the weight of the book block was to heavy to be able to keep the shape of the book block the same. That is why you have to take extra measurements into account when you create heavy books. Because in general their durability is harder to maintain. All these things together will define the strength and therefore the durability of the book.
Strength and quality can sometimes only be measured by waiting a long time and see how long a book really last through the years when it is handled and used by the user. Then all of a sudden the flaws start to show up.
Next to that it is interesting to see that she also asks for advice from the binder that works for the large printing company that produce these books. In the documentary the binder advises her about the amount of stiches and talks about the limits of the machine that sews these stitches. This scene in the documentary caught my special interest because it has two interesting aspects that really illustrate why it is so important to have proper knowledge of the total process of a product.
The first thing that caught my attention is that she is discussing the amount of stitches while the book is already printed. That means that a large part of the book is already settled and the form that Irma Boom decided on from the start can’t be changed that much. This is because the product is already partly finished. The size of the book is already determined and the type and weight of the paper are already set in stone. The thing that interests me is the fact that the amount of joints should be defined by the aspect of strength witch is the result of the type of paper, size, glue type and the volume and all the other aspects that define the strength of the book together that I described earlier. As Irma boom is making high end books you would assume she really takes all these things into account. I feel like the amount of stitches and its placement should only be considered as an aspect of durability and not by its looks. If you use not enough joints in ratio to the size or the placement of the joints is odd the strength of the book will be partly compromised.
Irma Boom overlooks this effect and finds the look of the stiches more important than the strength. And as she discusses this in the later stage after she already set on the size of the book shows a lack of knowledge from her side where she should have involved the discussion about the amount of stitches and its placement in an earlier stage. This is a good example why it is good to know a craft as a creative in comparison of hiring one. Because you always see things with a different eye if you look at it from a functional perspective. It is important to note that when an idea is born and you don’t have the knowledge and you want changes in a later stadium it is in fact hard to really use the full potential of the book.
The next thing that caught my eye was the way the binder spoke about the amount of stitches. You can really tell that he operates a machine and that the process got lost in that machine. He talks about the limits and capabilities of that machine. And doesn’t look beyond that to advise on the decision of the book structure. I say this because Irma Boom is asking for a certain placement of the holes for the sewing and it should be regular. The machine is unable to achieve what she asks of it.
The binder can’t just help it and advises something within the capabilities of the machine while the request that Irma Boom had could have been solved by doing the work by hand. The machine has a range of settings and with that comes an amount of holes and a margin on the size of the book it can handle. These settings make sure the book has enough strength versus efficiency and cost.
Hand labour is very costly these days, especially in a society where mass consumerism is a big thing. This means that a lot of processes are not done by hand but by machines. The printers and binders are now preaching the capabilities of the machine and they don’t look past it and the endless possibilities that the medium has.
In 2012 Benjamin Elbel founded Elbel Del Libro in Haarlem, the Netherlands. This bookbinding company is specialized in exclusive handbook binding the body of work is of exceptional quality and there are interesting book structures that are used. With that Benjamin Elbel founded “Bookbinding out of the box” where he supplies tutorials for fellow bookbinders and bookbinding enthusiast. In these tutorials, he explains recently developed and innovative techniques of different book structures surprisingly they are often based on old binding techniques. He does this to show the possibilities and importance of book structure and also to increase the general quality of the bookbinding field.
As an example, I would like to talk about the Union binding he developed. It is a beautiful way of making a book structure. The way the connection is made is by folding and gluing paper around each other forming sort of union rings when you look at the side of the book. It gives a beautiful effect when you use two different colours of paper because it enhances the look of the book. It is a new way of thinking of binding the papers together and with that strengthening the spine. The disadvantage is that there is a bigger space between each page but the binding and idea behind it have definitely some potential.
Next to the different tutorials with different innovative book structures Benjamin wrote several articles where he describes in detail the experiments he did revolved around bookbinding. One of the articles is about the Dos Rapporté’ Structure. It is a structure that actually already existed but he developed it for a restoration project he did while he was doing an internship in Germany. It is interesting to me that we can look into his thought process and what he finds important in this book structure. He takes every small detail into account and looks at the binding and structure not only from a perspective of strength but also of beauty.
Elbel has a lot of focus on how the hinge of a book structure works and how it looks. He mainly focusses on it from an astatically point of view which makes the structures he develops maybe a bit less sturdy but it also shows that we as designers tend to forget the possibilities these forms of hinges could bring to the general design of a book.
You really need knowledge about the traditional craft that is bookbinding to come up with these kinds of ingenious structures and ideas. It gives a whole different perspective on how you could bind things together and the further development of book structures in the future and for the future. Yet a back in the 16th century there where already creative bookbinders who tried to innovate and make special book structures. A good example is Jakob Krause that made a six-folded binding. Luckily there are still a few examples left of this special binding but non-the less it is quite a rare binding. Between the boards there is a hinge in the middle so the binding could be divided in six different books. Four smaller books are horizontally put in the book structure while two bigger titles are put in it vertically. Next to that the binding is tooled and decorated in a beautiful way.
In my eyes this is what a creative craftsman does, he is busy with the craft and is developing it. And at the same time looking at new ways and solutions to develop old traditions and bringing the craft to a next level. Even back in the 16th century bookbinders understood that it is important to fully understand the craft and look into different ways of binding. It is interesting that Benjamin Elbel also stays true to the book. He makes his tutorials only available as physical booklets that are send to you and not as digital files you can download. It goes against the nature of the book; the book is something real and it should stay that way.
What I see in Benjamin’s work is that the techniques and knowledge he has about the craft define his thoughts and ideas about how a book should look and the potential the object has. He not only looks at it from a design perspective but also from a craftsman perspective and considers the type of material used to ensure quality. The symbiosis between the esthetical and functional makes all the facets of the books that are produced remarkable the binding structure is part of the design and you can see that every detail is thought off. This is truly different too how Irma Boom works. You can see that she is a good designer but has a totally different approach on what in her eyes a good book structure is. And often uses big binderies which in general define a big part of the book structure and the quality of the object for her although she might not even have intended that.
There is a key difference between having the knowledge yourself or hiring the expertise. It already would help if you touch and consider all aspects of the making process within a craft. In order to fully use the potential of its techniques and traditions you can bring the idea about an object to a next level. This is different if you would hire the expertise since the idea is always formed first. Considering all the aspects in the process of making within a craft helps you in developing truly creative solutions to the problems you have to deal with as an artist or designer. And with that makes you really a creative craftsman or artisan instead of designer. Also, it unravels partly the complexity of machines we are using and dealing with on a daily basis. This is because of the simplification and small steps that a craft uses in order to come to a product. A machine takes these different steps of process and combines them. This makes machines more complex and less understandable unless you are fully aware how the different steps work together and separately. Working with your hands is equally as important as using your brain. It is about going back to the basics of creating and using full focus and energy and time to your advantage to inform yourself about the making process. And hopefully more people become aware of the potential of the creative craftsman and the benefits this way of working has.