Bookbinding has been added to the Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the German UNESCO Commission 2021. The declaration calls out the role the bookbinding trade has had in ennobling the printed word in all its aspects, as well as preserving that record. While the images below call attention to the art of printing books, without bookbinders there would be no books. Printing was added to the Inventory in 2018. The bookbinder is always the last in the chain of production, and often overlooked in colophons and elsewhere, even in fine press books. No more! Image below featuring Bauer's 500 Jahre Buchdruckerkunst, 1440 - 1940 (500 Years of Book Production), and Fritz Otto, from the Pirckheimer-Gesellschaft's blog. The Bauer tunnel book is now part of RIT's Cary Graphic Arts Collection.
From the Pirckheimer-Gesellschaft's blog |
Fritz Otto feels it is past time to correct this oversight in print, and is pushing to create a tunnel book on the theme of bookbinding. Hmmm, we'll see what we can do.