What condition was ‘Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists’ when you came across it? The book covers had been re-attached with crude leather straps that went horizontally around the spine and onto the brown sheepskin covers. It was also broken into two parts, approximately half way through the book.

Can you say something about the treatment you have applied to the cover of this binding? And how was this design informed by your initial findings? I decided that I didn’t want to envisage what the book would look and feel like before starting work. Instead, I only made enough decisions to begin the process of re-binding the book. From that point on I made decisions simultaneously: it left me wondering along the way if I always need to aim at making something beautiful. This took me back to working far more intuitively – enabling me to be more open to respond to materials as I was in the process of working with them. This meant my blinkers were off: I wasn’t set on a fixed ending. It may seem difficult to fathom but it was the way that Dieter Roth worked that guided me through this process.

Your second binding ‘Imperatoris Iustiniani Institutionum Libri IIII’ sat in your possession for some time before you began working on it. Is there often a gestation period between acquiring a book and working on it? Or does each book’s cycle vary? Each book’s gestation period varies: in all honesty if it takes a long time, it’s normally because I don’t have a deadline or its due to the fact that its out of sync with my technical dexterity. It took a long time for me to be able to add to this binding, as I questioned if any addition I made would actually detract from its integral beauty. I also questioned if I could technically resolve adding a spine without disturbing the sound structure of the book and binding.

What condition was this book when you came across it? As you see it now but without the added decorative spine covering. The covering material was gone, but the original boards were still soundly attached to the alum-tawed thongs the book was sewn on.

This piece is adorned with an intricate pyramid motif. You said in our conversations that you had become ‘a little bit obsessed with triangles’ was that a personal obsession which fed into your bookbinding, or a professional concern to start with? And do you think it matters? My complete obsession with triangles is a current personal obsession. To start with it felt indulgent to explore the possibility of a triangular pattern, but I sensed it would work if I made a small enough triangular brass tool and if the gold tooling was in the same tone as the book boards. So, a personal obsession was transferred into a professional concern: this tells me that I should in future always be open to this transference.

Approximately how much time did the making of each of these bindings take? From making a decision on what to do, to completion. I don’t keep a record of times for this type of work, but roughly I can tell you that ‘Imperatoris Iustiniani Institutionum Libri IIII’ took years and ‘Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists’ took months. This doesn’t of course mean I work on each continuously over these periods, but on and off, so there was space for thinking time and making time, then more thinking time and either re-making or continued making time!

1 Imperatoris Iustiniani Institutionum Libri IIII,(1625), 2013 Vellum, Moongold leaf and Evacon R adhesive.

2 Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists in three books by R Dodsley, (c. 1788), 2013
Hand-made paper, acrylic paint, linen tape and thread, acidfree buffered board, paste and Evacon R adhesive.

Dieter Roth producing two-handed speedy drawings. “Trophies” , a series of 2 x 5 drawings, Chicago/Stuttgart 1978.
Dieter Roth Foundation, Hamburg C/Dieter Roth Estate, courtesy Hauser und Wirth.