A GLOW IN THE DARK BOOKBINDING
This is Megan Rosenbloom's "Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin" bound by the acclaimed UK bookbinder Dominic Riley in 2021 in brown goatskin and tooled in silver and luminescent foil.
This is Megan Rosenbloom's "Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin" bound by the acclaimed UK bookbinder Dominic Riley in 2021 in brown goatskin and tooled in silver and luminescent foil.
In his artist's statement, Dominic writes: “This is a puzzle book, that is, both Megan’s work and mine. The human figures on the covers are the well- known image of the chalk outline of the CSI dead body. They are cut up in the manner of animal butchery. [...] 1/2
.... The cryptic lines at top conceal the title. Whilst most of the tooling is done with silver, the bodies’ outline and the individual letters of the title are tooled with glow-in-the-dark foil." 2/2
"The lines which come off the bodies become a seemingly disordered matrix in which are hidden the letters of the title. You can pick them out if you know they are there, but a further puzzle/trick awaits you — they glow in the dark. [...] 1/2
Exposing the cover to bright lights, and then turning off the lights in a dark room, reveals the bodies and the title shining out. This is meant to be fun for the reader as well as a serious reference to Megan’s work — shedding light on the darkness of anthropodermics." 2/2
I hadn't realized that Megan Rosenbloom in on Twitter - she is, and her Twitter name is especially appropriate for this book and even more so for this binding: @LibraryatNight
This book was one of 6 designer bindings commissioned by @LuxMentis, in collaboration with @LibraryatNight and the publishers Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Proceeds from the sale of each book will be donated to fund a BIPOC-focused scholarship program at the Guild of Book Workers.
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