Celebrating 2020 Vision & SFCB’s Design Binding Intensive Students

This event celebrates the conclusion of SFCB’s month-long Design Binding Intensive workshop, which took place in July 2022. Workshop instructor Dominic Riley will give a brief talk; this year’s student cohort will share their completed fine bindings and stories related to creating their individual works of art. 

2020 was the one-hundredth anniversary of the Society of Wood Engravers(link is external). To mark the occasion, Pat Randle of the Nomad Press (link is external)collaborated with collector Nigel Hamway to create this remarkable book. In an edition of 340 copies, 2020 Vision is being hailed as one of the most important private press books of our time. Hamway commissioned nineteen contemporary artists to create a new engraving, also asking them to choose a historical artist who has inspired them. Additionally, Hamway provided original blocks from his own collection for the printing of the book; Oak Knoll Press writes about 2020 Vision “The result, printed by Nomad Letterpress at the Whittington Press, places the engravings of twentieth-century greats – John Farleigh, John Nash, Monica Poole, Geoffrey Wales, Gertrude Hermes et al. – alongside today’s artists and presents the viewer with a snapshot of the changing nature of the engraver’s craft.” 

Over the course of SFCB’s month-long immersive class, students worked through the steps involved in making a fine design binding in a small group setting. In-class lessons addressed complex design execution, leather decoration, creative gold tooling, and box making. Additionally, workshop students worked closely with instructor Dominic Riley, acquiring tips and tricks of the trade garnered from Riley’s thirty years as a fine binder, conservator, artist, teacher, and exhibitor.

*Masks are encouraged but not required at SFCB events.