Beautiful Readable Objects is an exhibition of experimental approaches to contemporary book binding. This show is the second in The Aram Gallery’s Beautiful Objects series showing contemporary designs alongside designers’ objects of inspiration. All pieces have been 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 show 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 will be 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 Parker.

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).

The Aram Gallery
110 Drury Lane, Covent Garden
London WC2B 5SG United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)20 75577526
gallery@thearamgallery.org
www.thearamgallery.org

Opening hours
Monday - Saturday
From 10am to 6pm

Related images

  1. Kathy Abbott, The Farmer’s Boy: A Rural Poem by Robert Bloomfield (London 1820), 2008, Hand‐decorated hand‐made paper, coloured machine made paper and linen thread, 161 x 101 x 16mm, Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
  2. Jen Lindsay, Charles II’s speech and Lord Chancellor Finch’s speech to both Houses of Parliament at the eighteenth session of the second parliament of Charles II on 21st October 1678 (London 1678), 2007, Laminated grey Khadi paper, grey/black pigskin; pen lettering by Sue Hufton, 290 x 185 x 9mm, Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
  3. Tracey Rowledge, Essays on Shakespeare’s Dramatic Characters of Richard the Third, King Lear, Timon of Athens and Hamlet by William Richardson (1784), 2007, Hand‐coloured hand‐made paper, gold tooled, 154 x 101 x 19mm, Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd