About the Binding:

William Anthony’s dedication to teaching has greatly influenced the education of generations of bookbinders in the United States. Many Book Artists who create even the most innovative or non-traditional work, received training rooted in traditional craft that can be directly traced to the lineage of William Anthony and his students. My intent with this work was to honor this legacy by creating a binding using the traditional materials and techniques of my craft while pushing the boundaries of conventional book form.

This binding is covered in full goat leather with goat leather onlays and blind tooling. The endsheets are pastepaper on bugra paper and the endbands are sewn with silk thread. The boards are composed of many layers of binders board that have been sanded and shaped for a heavily cushioned and sculptural effect. The board attachment and lining are experimental and were inspired by Gary Frost’s work with sewn board attachments. The colors and design choices are directly correlated with the exhibition catalog and the William Anthony bindings featured therein.

Estimated Value: $2000

About the Artist:

Anna Embree is an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor for the MFA in the Book Arts Pro­gram in the School of Library and Infor­ma­tion Studies at The Uni­ver­sity of Alabama. She teaches courses and work­shops in book­bind­ing, box mak­ing, and spe­cial top­ics in book preser­va­tion and book his­tory. Anna has a strong inter­est in the phys­i­cal and mate­r­ial aspects of book struc­tures. She has col­lab­o­rated with print­ers and paper­mak­ers on lim­ited edi­tion hand­made books, and has exhib­ited widely.

To bid on any of the bindings, please email us at lib-prescons@uiowa.edu. Bids will be accepted until the end of the silent auction, 7 pm CST on Thursday November 13th.