Beautiful Readable Objects was an exhibition of experimental approaches to contemporary book binding.  This show was the second in The Aram Gallery’s Beautiful Objects series showing contemporary designs alongside designers’ objects of inspiration.

 

All pieces were made by members of the international bookbinding collective ‘Tomorrow’s Past’ whose manifesto is to make modern conservation bindings for antiquarian books. 9 members of the collective showed new work at The Aram Gallery.

 

Bookbinding is often seen as the preservation of antiquarian books, in an antiquarian style. Tomorrow’s Past work only with damaged books, making conservation bindings which return a book to function, rather than copying a traditional aesthetic. The Aram Gallery uses this exhibition to demonstrate how these rescued books are restored through sensitive and thoughtful design. Experiments in articulating hinges, maquettes of book jackets, tests of the suitability of a fabric or paper will be exhibited for visitors to handle, to understand how this collective solve the design problems they are presented with.  

 

To accompany each makers exhibit was a contextual object; something which was related to making of the piece. It could be a sound which prompted the use of a particular material or a building which inspired a similar mini architectural construction. These background objects shed light on a designer’s methods - they are a snapshot of their thinking.

 

An interview with each participant about their exhibits also sits alongside their work conducted by the exhibitions’ curator, Héloïse Parke.

 

Tomorrow’s Past participants are:

Kathy Abbott (UK), Carmencho Arregui (IT), Cristina Balbiano d’Aramengo (IT), Sun Evrard (FR), Charles Gledhill (UK), Katinka Keus (NL), Peter Jones (UK), Jen Lindsay (UK), Tracey Rowledge (UK)

 

Photographer Christina Theisen