The Book Book

Bo Press, Riverside CA 2010
2 3/16" x 1 11/16"

This is a little book designed to explain little books, or rather, little case-bound books. Case-binding constructs the body of the book separately from the boards, and combines them at the end of the binding process. It's a quick and reasonably sturdy way of bookbinding, and almost all commercial hardbound books are produced like this. Every part of this book's binding is labeled, and I've left the back cover unglued to show the inner workings of the spine and hinges.

The pages of the book itself contain publication data, each page labeled as itself, all the way from half-title to colophon. I've included everything I could think of that a book might possess: a tipped-in plate and barrier sheet, a fold-out diagram of the relative sizes of books (from double elephant folio to 64mo), a laid in list of extraneous matter which includes the list itself, and a note on the type, written in the typefaces I used in labeling the book's parts.

The book also has examples of things attached to books: a bookplate, an interior pocket containing a miniature Bo Press bookmark with a tiny tassel, a binder's ticket, a slipcase, and a vellum belly band.

It's a wonderful self-referential little reference toy for lovers of publishing and binding alike.

This product was added to our catalog  July 16, 2010