Vellum and steel: the artistry of bookbinding

Clockwise from top left: Bookbinder Gavin Dovey at work; woodcut print; a sample binding design; bookbinding in process;  fossils. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

By LEISHA DOUGLAS

Master bookbinder Gavin Dovey believes in combining traditional techniques with modern methods. His two-story studio in Pound Ridge houses his bookbinding business, Paper Dragon Books, a treasure trove of everything related to bookbinding — from a wall lined with brass finishing wheels for applying gold leaf, various European and American-style book presses — to several large wooden worktables holding tools, decorative papers, fabrics, leathers, and book cloths, along with book projects at various stages of completion. 

Dovey’s enthusiasm for the craft and art of bookbinding is clearly visible and infectious when he displays and discusses previous and current commissions.

When asked about the cost of one of his commissioned books, he laughed and said, “It’s not about the money. It’s always about the work. I am very grateful that I sell my work, but that’s not why I do it. If I wanted to make money, I wouldn’t do this. I would have continued my trade work.” 

One recent project combines vellum and laser-cut steel lettering to create a striking, black-paginated, limited edition book on the multiple functions and history of carbon. To offset the book’s weightiness, Dovey designed an original binding by incorporating small steel rods into the binding itself. Use of vellum, made from animal skin, dates back to ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece and Rome. During the Middle Ages, scribes and artists favored vellum for its durability and commonly used it for religious texts, legal documents, and illuminated manuscripts. Although a major component of classical bookbinding, especially in book conservation and repair, Dovey admits he still finds the use of animal skin somewhat off-putting.

His perusal of first editions in the remainder library at his high school in a 900-year-old converted monastery in the North of England introduced him to what a book is, how it could be handmade, and convinced him that books are precious objects. Eventually, he ended up apprenticing himself to a master binder.

His 30-year career included working in various trade binderies in Europe and studying under several master binders after graduating from the London College of Printing, University of the Arts London. In the early ‘90s, he immigrated to New York in search of a wider playing field on which to express and explore his passion for his profession. Being grounded in the traditional craft of bookbinding gave him the capacity, knowledge and technical skill to experiment and develop artistically.

“I came to this country in 2003 to see what New York was like. I made the calculated guess that America didn’t have enough well-trained bookbinders,” he said. “America has much more a history of book art, not many people trained in traditional binding. I figured I could do OK here. I fell in love with this country.” 

He established himself as a renowned bookbinder relatively quickly and ran his own shops, first in Chelsea and later, for 10 years, in Brooklyn, before moving to Pound Ridge. His business included conservation and restoration work for libraries, museums like the Metropolitan Museum to private collectors.

“I was on PBS once on this series called “New York Originals” which I am so proud of because I came here with $150 in my pocket and became a New York original. Nowhere on this earth is that possible but this country. There is so much freedom here to be whomever you want to be.”

Cross-fertilization between artists, writers and bookbinders appears to be intrinsic to the field and Dovey is inspired by a multiplicity of ideas and techniques derived from others. For example, the woodcuts of Connecticut-based artist Bryan Nash Gill, who created prints from cross-sections of trees inspired the endpapers Dovey fashioned and printed on special Japanese paper for a recently commissioned book. 

“I am not a printer,” he said modestly. “Making this one book, I learned a whole new technique of printing ingrained woodprints.”

The international community of fellow bookbinders is somewhat of a subculture.

“All my really good friends are bookbinders, printers or artists,” he said. “In my former Brooklyn shop, my door was always open to people who would come from Europe or different parts of the country. I’m still friends with those people today. It is a small community.”

Rather than focusing on the commercial trade side of bookbinding, which includes working for libraries, repair work, stamping, galleries, presentations, and period binding, Dovey concentrates on the design aspect. 

“I must be interested,” he said. “Something has to catch my attention.” 

One recent project, a collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History, involved exploring the scientific foundations of Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eighty Days,” first published in 1864, and accessing the museum’s vast archive of fossils as well as input from experts on mineralogy and paleontology. Dovey’s eyes lit up like a child’s when he described seeing actual dinosaur bones and other fossils.

Over the years, he also taught at the Center for Book Arts in Manhattan, San Francisco, and locally at Silvermine Art Center in New Canaan, Conn.

Abiding by the motto, “Never the same book twice,” which he adopted from a colleague, he added, “I let the book dictate how it wants to come together. I want to marry the old with the new.”