The Bindery: It's increasingly all in the image

Some web updates are way overdue, so I've been neglecting this blog, lately focusing in on whether my new personal site should star this pic on the splash page (by Dale Bennett, photographer and tanguero extraordinaire):

or this (admittedly, one of the cover-idea outtakes for China Under the Covers):

Or maybe it should be this (by Katrina Van Heest, photographer and editor extraordinaire):

I ponder these design questions while taking regular trips to the post office to further disperse China Under the Covers, now halfway through its first printing.

I'm thrilled the book now has international distribution in the U.K. with Alan Isaac Rare Books and the Netherlands with Lidy Schoonens Boeken. Aside from Oak Knoll Books, stateside you will very soon be able to order from Washi Arts and in Oregon get your hands on copies at the upcoming Focus on Book Arts in Forest Grove. Of course, you can always PayPal me through the links at top right above, too.

Ready for a lesson in bookbinding history?
Photo by Denise Szott

Above all, the best marketing (or better: connecting) occurs in person. What a joy it was to sign books and give my Chinese-bookbinding spiel as the last formal event held at 23 Sandy Gallery, where for 10 years books took center stage.