News

UNIQUE Exhibition

Interview with Stuart Brockman

2nd July, 2024

The society of Designer Bookbinders in holding an exhibition of recent works by its members at The Benjamin Spademan Gallery in St James’s. ‘UNIQUE‘ will run from 5th to 13th July 2024. We spoke to Stuart Brockman of James and Stuart Brockman Ltd.

Tell us a little bit about how the society started and share some of the highlights from the last fifty years.

The society began in 1951 as a small group of like-minded binders who wished to exhibit their work. This evolved from The Hampstead Guild of Scribes and Bookbinders to the Guild of Contemporary Binders in 1955, then, with a much greater following, into Designer Bookbinders in 1968. The society was awarded charitable status in 1981.

The society, over the years, has had some of the very finest bookbinders as Fellows. It has hosted conferences, four international competitions, in conjunction with The Bodleian and Mark Getty, and countless exhibitions, annual competitions and training events. The society, currently with around 500 members, publishes the foremost annual bookbinding journal, The New Bookbinder. This publication has 44 back issues, with number 45 at the planning stage now.

At this year’s exhibition, ‘UNIQUE’, thirty-five bookbinders will be showing their latest fine bindings, book arts and artists’ books. Who are the well-established artists exhibiting and who are the ones to watch?

Glenn Bartley is head binder at Windsor Castle. My father James Brockman MBE established our business in 1976 and has been binding for 63 years. I joined him 29 years ago! Angela James, Flora Ginn, Lester Capon, Peter Jones and Rachel Ward-Sale are long-established fellows and in most cases past presidents.

The up and coming gifted binders are Miranda Kemp and Ted Bennett. We have the largest number of licentiate binders ever, currently numbering nine.

The full list of contributors.

Glenn Bartley, Richard Beadsmoore, Jenn Belfield, Joanna Bird, James Brockman, Stuart Brockman, Hannah Brown, Lester Capon, Mark Cockram, Sue Doggett, Flora Ginn, Kate Holland, Angela James, Peter Jones, Midori Kunikata-Cockram, Tom McEwan, Glenn Malkin, Nicky Oliver, Rachel Ward-Sale Jane Adams, Ted Bennett, Miranda Kemp, Amy Kitcherside, Andreas Maroulis, Jeanette Koch.

The exhibition will showcase a huge variety of styles and techniques – which ones really stand out for you? Do you feel that contemporary binders are developing a new style or styles while embracing traditional techniques? Are there new trends?

It is always fascinating to see how different binders engage with materials. We pride ourselves on using traditional materials in a modern fashion. That said, this exhibition includes some less traditional materials including glass, perspex and wood. The techniques used are wide and varied including airbrushing, leather dying, surface gilding of leather, and embroidery.

It’s often intriguing how binders interpret texts from within or in some cases produce their own complete work.

Tell us a little bit about the binding you have made for the exhibition – where did you take your inspiration from?

I have two bindings of my own and a collaborative one with my father in the exhibition. 20 Duets is a full leather binding with twenty raised colourful onlays. These are arranged within a gold tooled framework to leave twenty spaces, making partners to the twenty onlays. The edition is limited to fifty, my book is number 20!

The other binding is a remarkable fine press book ‘Of A Feather, illustrated with wood engravings by Colin See-Paynton. This is limited to 150 copies and is arguably the finest book ever produced by Gwasg Gregynog, the very famous Welsh press. The binding design has bird silhouettes in front of ten glass panels, depicting birds flying in front of rays of sunlight. The binding is very striking, combining black and yellow goatskin with gold tooling.

I am getting the impression that bookbinding has always attracted women – is that historically correct? What is the percentage of female fellows of the society? Do you see a rise in younger bookbinders as well?

There is a long history of women in bookbinding. Traditionally, women were employed to sew the books, but this changed mainly due to the establishment of The Guild of Women Bookbinders at the end of the 19th century. Today, women continue to be attracted to bookbinding – DB has twenty-nine fellows, sixteen of whom are men and thirteen of whom are women.

Young people are increasingly engaged in bookbinding. DB has an initiative called Transferring Design which teaches students at colleges around the UK. This is attracting young people to engage with bookbinding and in turn Designer Bookbinders. Our current crop of nine licentiates is the most the society has ever had. This demonstrates an increasing desire for people to make things.

Find out more about the ‘UNIQUE’ exhibition here: Unique | Designer Bookbinders

Find out more about the society of Designer Bookbinders here: About Us | Designer Bookbinders

Sign up to The Book Collector‘s free fortnightly newsletter for more interviews, news and reviews from the book world.