If you’ve read my pages on Designing a Book, you’ll know that I’ve started working on a new set of books this week. The design decisions have almost all been made, so next week I’ll be moving on to the more mechanical aspects of making books – the sewing, the pasting, the cutting. I think the enjoyment I find in creating books, or my towers, comes from the duality of the process. There’s a lot of thought and creativity that goes into the design phase, but that is followed by rote work. To do it properly, one has to be careful and precise, but the sewing and pasting doesn’t take much thought. Attention, yes, but not thought. I can relax and daydream a bit. Not too much or the textblock goes into the covers upside down!
It would be boring to just do the making part and it would be frustrating to just design with no product. Combining design and execution makes a very fulfilling whole. I’m sure there are hundreds of hobbies and skills that would yield equal satisfaction, but this works for me!
In case you missed them, these are the books I’m currently making.
