dddots: Treasures Of A Chinese Studio - Art of The Book 2018 Competition Art of The Book 2018 w
dddots: Treasures Of A Chinese Studio - Art of The Book 2018 Competition Art of The Book 2018 was a competition that was organised by the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists’ Guild (CBBAG) earlier this year. Entries for the competition had to reach Canada in April 2018, and amidst all the life difficulties and challenges, I managed to complete my book and submit it for judging. The greatest news for me this year was to find out that my book has been chosen to be exhibited amongst the prize winners for 2 years in Canada. This means that my book will be seen by many people from all around. I am also proud to say that I am the only Singaporean bookbinder to be exhibited in Art of The Book 2018. An even greater surprise was that I received a cheque for 50 Canadian Dollars as an exhibitor! Treasures of A Chinese Studio was a very experimental binding. The textblock is bound using unsupported link stitch. The boards are made up of 50 laminated sheets of hand torn Chinese bark paper. I had to measure the thickness of each sheet, then multiply it so that it makes up the thickness of board that I require. The edges of the board has been left as is, with the furry edge of a hand torn paper, accumulated over the layers. The title has been cut out of laminated sheets and covered over by the final few sheets of bark paper to finish off the covering. Each of the 4 treasures are represented in a part of the binding structure. The embossed title on the cover of the Mandarin characters of the 4 treasures, with the little well in the center that has the English title represents the Ink Stone (硯). The paper used for the covering of the binding represents the Paper (紙). The edge decoration and the brush strokes of the endpapers represents the Brush (筆) and finally the black contrast against the white paper represents the Ink (墨). This is the beauty of design bindings, where the binder gets involved in the designing of the binding of the book, incorporating ideas and inspirations from the content of the book. I enjoy this aspect of my work a lot, and often explain to people that my job as a designer bookbinder is to bridge the visual arts to the literary arts. -- source link
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