The University of Kansas

Kentucky artists are featured at Spencer

“ ‘Stone Eye’: 31 Bindings of a Single Text” is on exhibit at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library through June 23.
“Stone Eye” is a collection of poetry produced by Richard Taylor, former Kentucky poet laureate, and Gray Zeitz, letterpress printer and publisher of the Larkspur Press in Monterey, Ky.
Thirty-one bindings of the book have been individually designed and hand-bound by members of the Guild of Book Workers, an international association of bookbinders. The exhibition illustrates the interpretive art and handiwork of bookbinding. A variety of styles are represented, from the traditional to the avant-garde. The materials used include leather, balsa wood, concrete, plastic, cowhide and stone.
One of the 31 bindings featured was designed and prepared by Meg Brown, conservator for KU Libraries.
The exhibition is complemented with other examples of fine typography, illustration, and bookbinding from Spencer Library’s extensive special collections. These include an 18th-century German binding featuring a resplendent, hand-painted coat-of-arms on the front cover and a contemporary American text that is bound accordion-style with aluminum covers and is nearly 20 feet long when unfolded.
The Guild of Book Workers was founded in 1906 to “establish and maintain a feeling of kinship and mutual interest among workers in the several hand book crafts.” The Midwest Chapter is sponsoring the “Stone Eye” exhibit, which will be exhibited in Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Louisville later this year.
Exhibition hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.