2020 Vision
featuring nineteen wood engravers, one collector, and the artists who inspired them
bound by Robin Brandes
Compiled and introduced by Nigel Hamway
Edited by Peter Lawrence
Nomad Letterpress and the Society of Wood Engravers, 2020
345 x 265 x 30mm

'A year on the press, this book links past with present, and provides a fitting tribute to the skills of the engravers and the part they play in society.'

Fine binding with laced-in cords. Full leather covering of Harmatan white Katsina goatskin. Black goatskin onlays. 'VISION' title hand-cut leather onlays by Dominic Riley. Silk endbands. Edge-to-edge doublures made with Harmatan mint goatskin. Black pig suede flyleaves, End sheets laser-printed with pattern designed by the binder. Bound in 2022 during the 4-week Design Binding Intensive Master Class at the San Francisco Center for the Book under the guidance and inspiration of Dominic Riley.

The cover design was inspired by the wood engraving by Geoffrey Wales, (1912 - 1990), “The Waves”, 1969, which originates in the shape of shells, rocks, and the shoreline of Norfolk, England. Abstract images were not common to British wood engravers. Most images developed took their shapes and design from landscapes or still-life forms. .A wood engraver carves the “light” into their wood block leaving the remaining wood to be inked and printed. To pay tribute, I created this binding to appear as an oversized wood engraving. To emulate the raised surface of an engraved wood block, 125 cushioned onlays were applied.

FIRST PLACE WINNER of the Rocky Mountain Guild of Book Workers 2023 Traveling Exhibition.

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A Plea For Captain John Brown
bound by Gray Parrot
Illustrated and printed at the Chevington Press

Bound in Harmatan 'Pepper' goatskin.

bound by Sascha Lammerts

A book I made during my internship with Hannah Brown. I used the many colours inspired by Jan Sluijters’s ‘Moon Night’ painting to portray the landscape of Somerset, with Glastonbury Tor in the far distance. The layers of the landscape are primarily onlays and a little bit of embroidery.

Love Poems
edited by Imtiaz Dharker
bound by Ted Bennett

Winner of the Harmatan & Oakridge Sympathetic Handling of Leather prize, the Bernard C, Middleton Finishing Prize and the Elizabeth Greenhill Gold Tooling prize in the Designer Bookbinders UK Bookbinding Competition, 2023.

Photo: Maggs Bros/Ivo Karaivanov.