Miniature books

Great Little Book of Elephants is a book I made in collaboration with Wouter Bijlsma in 2005.

The inkjet printed photographs in this book zoom in on elephants. Images, printed on japanese paper, are mounted on handmade paper, made by de Middelste Molen. This Dutch papermill also made the paper for the endleaves in the book. The endleaves were specially made for this edition from elephant faeces that the makers got from Artis Zoo in Amsterdam. The book does not smell.
The covers are of antique upholstery leather. The book has a little elephant tail (with horse hair) growing out from its spine.

The Great Little Book of Elephants is housed in a leather “drum”, lined with parchment and sewn with sinew.

It is a miniature binding, measuring  69 mm tall and 64 mm wide.

An edition of five books.

Also featured in the Miniature Book Society exhibition catalog 2005.

Here is an golden oldie from the archives… I still love it!

Ovid: An Elegy
76×53mm
A commissioned miniature binding of a limited edition book. The text is printed on a soft, japanese paper, and the book is illustrated with line drawings of a female figure.
I had forwarded the book with its red Mingeishi endpapers, completed my own design of a female torso in relief, but then had a full stop; my idea to use natural calf for the covers did not work. Calf made the relief ‘kinky’ whereas I was looking for ‘sensual’. After a lot of frustration, I woke up to the realisation; let the book speak. So aside with my calf and feel. Result; the boards and their relief recieved three layers of paper. First a creamy handmade paper from the Meirat-mill in Spain. On that a layer of the japanese Mingeishi, and the finishing touch; a fiberous japanese paper. Perfect.