BOUND: What Makes A Book

January 3-February 25, 2024 ::: Evanston Public Library

1703 Orrington ::: Evanston Illinois

Third Floor Exhibition Space

BOUND: What Makes A Book

A (Very Brief) Introduction

Bookbinding has a long and storied history. Before Johannes Gutenberg brought moveable type to the Western world in the 1400s* with his letterpress machine, most Western books—called codices—were carefully hand-lettered and bound by monks and scribes. 

After Gutenberg, books could more easily and quickly be printed. More books being printed meant that more books were being bound, still by hand, by binders across the Western world, and the spread of ideas through the printing press was a key factor in the spread of the Renaissance.

A few centuries later, with advancement in letterpress printing machines and with the advent of machine binding in 1868 by David McConnell Smyth, the publishing industry expanded again. 

Even with industrialization, expansion, and proliferation of the publishing industry, the art and craft of bookbinding by hand has endured over the years. Please enjoy this introductory exploration of hand bookbinding.

*Moveable type was already utilized in East Asia, 400 years  before Gutenberg!