binder - Don Taylor

WORKPLACE
don taylor
BOOK
BINDER
PHOTOGRAPHED by Erin Monett
DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DO ON A DAILY BASIS.
The work here is quite varied. On a given day we
might be working on making a movie prop,
repairing or making a protective box for a
family bible or for an antiquarian book for a library
or collector, building a portfolio for a photographer,
binding an edition of a self-published memoir,
putting together a commemorative album or book
for presentation at an event — just recently Will
and Kate received a very special copy of a book
about the RCMP’s Musical Ride in a very fancy
presentation box produced here. We might be
working with an artist on a piece for an art
installation, or prepping materials for teaching a
workshop on the up-coming weekend.
Step into the world of Don Taylor, a traditional bookbinder
and preserver of treasured tomes. His workshop, located in
Toronto, is littered with interesting details — from ancient books,
letterpress letters of every variety, gold leaf , fascinating tools
and of course a grand whirlwind of paper.
HOW DID YOU COME TO BE A BOOKBINDER
AND RESTORER?
I got into bookbinding as a hobby when I was a
kid of about 14 years old. I used to like to buy old
books from the Goodwill or Salvation Army Store
in Windsor where I grew up and then take them
apart to see how they were made. Eventually I
made my first (disastrous) attempts at fixing them.
At the time I was working from an article called
“How to bind your magazines into a Book” which
was in the 1959 Daily Mail Boys Annual that I had
got from my grandmother in England.
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In 1977 I moved to Toronto and was able to get
some lessons at night school classes and eventually by some miracle a full time one year course in
hand bookbinding was started at Sheridan College
in Oakville. I took the course and then started my
business in 1980. After that I was able to take 2 more
years of lessons with Betsy Palmer Eldridge. That was
an invaluable experience and gave me the knowledge
needed to do restoration work.
IN A WORLD OF INCREASING DIGITIZATION, WHAT
DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS FOR WHAT YOU DO?
Digitalization seems to be making certain kinds of
work disappear, at least temporarily. The demand for
photograph albums, even wedding albums seem to
have disappeared for example, although I think that
sooner or later people are going to want a permanent
album again rather than just viewing their pictures
on their computers. On the other hand, computers
are assisting more and more people to research and
write a family history or memoir and binding these is a
growing part of our business. So the digital world is a
mixed blessing for us.
“I used to like to buy old books from
the Goodwill or Salvation Army Store
in Windsor where I grew up and then take
them apart to see how they were made.”
WHEN WE MET YOU DESCRIBED A GROWING
TREND OF PEOPLE WRITING MEMOIRS. CAN YOU
TELL OUR READERS ABOUT THAT AS WELL? WHAT
DO YOU THINK IS BEHIND THAT TREND? WHAT
TYPE OF PERSON IS WRITING MEMOIRS?
The trend in memoir writing seems to be powered by
the same kind of impulse that makes us tell our stories
orally to our children and families. It doesn’t hurt that
there are programs online that assist with organizing
one’s memories and genealogical information. And
the fact that you can format and print the material
yourself just makes it more feasible. I’ve bound
memoirs by people who have had amazing lives –
business tycoons, Holocaust survivors, and by people
who have had much less exciting or tragic experiences
but who are writing because they or their families
want to record the story. My mother is a good
example. I finally cajoled her into telling us about her
life and initially she was sure that it wouldn’t
interest anyone. But her book had hair-raising tales to
tell about life in London during the Blitz in WWII and
great stories about moving to Canada and making a
life in this country. So I would have to say that a very
wide variety of people and particularly retired people
are producing these kinds of books.
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the books
WHAT TYPES OF BOOKS TO YOU MOST OFTEN WORK ON? WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE?
In terms of restoration work, family bibles are definitely the most popular candidates for
restoration. After that come all the other sentimental favourites such as a greatly loved
children’s book to be passed on to a grandchild, and believe it or not, dictionaries are very
popular. People love their dictionaries. The most satisfying books to restore are some of the
17th and 18th century books that some of our collector customers bring in. The handmade
paper and the workmanship are invariably beautiful and make them a joy to handle.
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“People love
their dictionaries.”
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WHAT IS INVOLVED IN BASIC RESTORATION?
Restoration work can be simple or very involved and part of the art is in knowing what’s necessary and then in
executing the work in a manner that is sympathetic to the piece. When we receive a book for restoration we go
through it with an eye on how it was put together in the first place and look at the sewing, hinges, corners and text
and the nature (is the binding in cloth or leather for example?) of the materials and their condition. We may have to
dismantle the book and /or remove it from its cover in order to fix the sewing or spine linings and then choose
material -frequently cloth or leather of a suitable colour, weight and texture to match the original binding.
Very frequently the hinges are broken are we use the new material to re-hinge or reattach the spine which may have
become detached. Finally we attempt to touch up the colours and clean surface dirt off the boards. We try to make
everything as discrete as possible without compromising the strength of the repair.
WHERE CAN SOMEONE INTERESTED IN BOOKBINDING LEARN THE CRAFT?
People wishing to get started in bookbinding can get information about courses from
the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild. They are at www.cbbag.ca and run a
lot of workshops and courses suitable for beginners. Other places that have book arts
programs include Harbourfront, The Japanese Paper Place and The Haliburton School of
the Arts. There are links to all these sites on my website — dontaylorbookbinder.com
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LETTER PERFECT
A collection of tools and letterpress
type used for book spines and titles.
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