Water. (A selection of poems on the theme of water for Designer Bookbinders.) Illustrated by C. Curtis, B. Eastman, R. Graham, V. Hall, E. Hasse, P. Kershaw, A. Muir and M. Walmsley.

(Oldham, England: Incline Press, 2008.)
19.2cm x 26.5cm x 2.1cm
Printed in several languages; one of the edition of 400 printed for the International Competition of Designer Bookbinders.

Bound in the French technique in bright blue goat with cover design created by incision and tooling. Design elements include hand-sewn silk endbands, colored top-edge, leather hinges and custom paste papers for the pastedowns and flyleaves. Titling is hand-tooled in palladium down the spine. Bound in 2009.

I found the woodcuts of Clare Curtis so delightful that my inspiration came directly from her illustrations, particularly the seaweed. The spine of the goat makes a subtle horizon across which the seaweed lay — abstractedly, as parts are slightly colored and parts remain the same, sizes change, parts are unformed.