Vendredi. Michel Tournier. Original illustrations by Claire Illouz.

(France: Biennales Mondiales de la Reliure d’Art, 2014.)

19.8cm x 28.2cm x 3.6cm

Edition in French; copy #316 of 800; signed by the author.

This title was submitted to the publishing competition, along with several other bindings by affiliates of the American Academy of Bookbinding. The Academy was awarded Second Prize.

Bound in traditional style in manipulated violet goat. Design elements include hand-sewn silk endbands, leather hinges, marbled paper pastedowns and suede flyleaves. Sun image and title hand tooled on cover by binder. Bound in 2015.

I chose this skin as it reminded me of the ocean and the moodiness of the story. I tooled a sun on the cover as the sun is such a powerful image in the book. “And then the sun rose. A cricket chirped. A gull glided down on the water and rose again with a little fish in its beak. One after another the flowers opened their petals.” And just so, Robinson was reborn.