But, why books?

Leather, Payhembury Paper by Katherine Brett in Cambridge, England, and a Monaie Française Saint Germain des Pres commemorative coin.

There is so much to love about paper: its manufacture, texture, history, decoration, and the myriad of uses to which we put it. Paper has been decorated through block-printing and marbling since long before moveable type made Gutenberg’s Bible an iconic historic object. Humans have been making paper for more than five thousand years, and the world currently manufactures more than 300 million tons of the stuff annually. It’s not all fantastic; in fact, most of it is put to brief, quotidian use. Paper is most often disposable.

Make it stand out

Hand-marbled paper by Tracy Jarrett in Muncie, Indiana. Ball marker from the Old Course at Siasconset, Nantucket

I fell in love with paper and began collecting it about forty years ago. I have traipsed down narrow alleys in Florence in search of contemporary paper marbling artists, gone “over budget” in book-binding supply stores at home and abroad, and bought out troves of vintage maps and blue prints in flea markets and antiques stores. I’ve learned paper marbling techniques and practiced them. I have surrounded myself with paper at my book binding bench for decades.

Collecting beautiful paper is an unwieldy problem; it’s fragile, big, and very vulnerable to almost everything in its environment from mice to moisture. If you have acquired a beautiful sheet of paper, you’ll quickly find that it is impractical to carry it around to meetings or cozy up next to it with a cup of tea. But, if you bind it into a book, it becomes both functional and portable. It’s a comfort to carry a beautiful journal into a meeting or to sit down with a richly-decorated sketchbook and jot down ideas. Book binding is the functional art that makes paper portable, stable, and functional. I learned to bind books so that I would always have inspiring paper close at hand.

Map of Italy from 1949 with a 1911, 20 lira coin embedded.

Similarly, I am drawn to regional or historic trinkets: coins from other realms, vintage sports trophies, little things made from precious or useless metals that people have imbued with significance or value. I have collected these small talismans and carried them in my pockets, on lapels, on chains around my neck. Recently, it occurred to me that I could embed these into the covers of books, making them as portable as nice paper.

This isn’t my invention. Treasure bindings, book covers laden with gems or ivory carvings have been with us for more than 1,600 years. They might be ornate and impractical to shelve or carry about, or streamlined and simplified like the books I’ve been building. Finding beautiful paper or a venerated or ironic object to include in a book is a moment of everyday magic. I hope that finding a journal or sketchbook that speaks to you feels much the same, and that this functional art makes life a little more welcoming and beautiful.