Herringbone Bindery
Erin Fletcher : Fine Binding & Edition Binding
Fully open binding of An Idea of Geometry with a white background. Frontispiece and title page for An Idea of Geometry. Front cover of An Idea of Geometry binding on a white table. Close-up of back cover of An Idea of Geometry binding on a white table. Close-up of front cover of An Idea of Geometry binding on a white table. Detail of engraving from text that inspired cover for An Idea of Geometry. Endband detail and stubs for binding of An Idea of Geometry. Front interior of An Idea of Geometry binding on a white table. Detail of engraving from text that inspired doublures for An Idea of Geometry. Back interior of An Idea of Geometry binding on a white table. Back interior detail of An Idea of Geometry binding on a white table. Box spine of An Idea of Geometry binding on a white table. Detail of box spine of An Idea of Geometry binding on a white table. Box interior with binding of An Idea of Geometry inside on a white table. Box interior of An Idea of Geometry on a white table. Box interior detail of An Idea of Geometry on a white table.
An Idea of Geometry: Celebrating the Gannets of Cape St. Mary’s - Texts by Marnie Parsons & Bill Montevecchi
Engravings by Abigail Rorer
The Lone Oak Press, 2017



French-style fine binding with laced-in boards. Bound in light grey buffalo skin with back-pared onlays in Arches white, Zerkall cream and Stonehenge black paper. Onlays are embellished with embroidery using various shades of white and cream, painted with gouache in white and tooled with light and dark teal metallic foil. Background tooled in blind. Leather wrapped endbands in turquoise buffalo with bands of dark turquoise thread. Text sewn on stubs of alternating light and dark teal handmade paper. Edge-to-edge doublures in Arches white hand painted with gouache in ivory white with hand-cut onlay in Stonehenge black paper. Matching leather hinges. Handmade paper fly leaves from Atelier Retailles in mottled moss with Zerkall cream endpapers.

Book is housed in a clamshell box covered with a metallic teal leather and mottled moss handmade paper from Atelier Retailles. The trays are covered in handmade teal paper from the Morgan Conservatory and lined with dark teal Silsuede. Title stamped in dark teal metallic foil on Zerkall cream paper label and embedded onto the spine.



Exhibition History
  • Exhibited in 40 Years of Bookbinding and Preservation Carpentry, North Bennet Street School, 2026
    • North Bennet Street School, Boston, MA



Artist Statement
I was lured into this text by Abigail Rorer’s engravings; particularly, the plunge of gannets on a rocky cliff. Reducing the bodies of the birds to simple shapes, I created a scene on the cover using the heavily textured buffalo skin as the rocky landscape. The gannets are subtlety textured with embroidery, paint and tooling. The color palette is pulled straight from the text as well, everything is muted minus the striking teal eye of the gannet.