Brien Beidler
Charleston, South Carolina

Brien Beidler began learning traditional hand bookbinding under the tutelage of Marie Ferrara in 2009, while he was a student at the College of Charleston. He has since become the Director of the Bindery and Conservation Space at the Charleston Library Society, where he oversees the conservation of their collection and various binding projects. After meeting Jim Croft and becoming his biggest fan in the fall of 2012, Brien has been obsessed with rediscovering old-world book technologies and materials. When Brien is not at work, he is reading about bookbinding history, working on his own bindings, making hand tools for bookbinding, or at the flea market buying old hand tools to make more hand tools.

Website: brienbeidler.com

Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology, 1881

Ancient myths and legends are not simply fictional stories of great deeds and heroism; they are vessels that contain all aspects of humanity, from its most epic triumphs to its basest blunders, and as such they remain highly relevant to us today. I wanted to express the content's ancient origins and mod- ern relevance by binding Bulfinch's Mythology in a medieval style with a more contemporary aesthetic. Integral and pack sewn on five double hemp cords laced and pegged into mulberry boards; secondary weaving on endbands with silk thread, full undyed goatskin with exposed wood of the cover; blind tooling executed using two tools; brass clasps cut and shaped from at stock. I omitted the title from the cover so that the viewer has to open and experience the book in order to see the contents within, like a cookie jar with no label.
Undyed goat skin, mulberry wood, brass, linen thread, hemp cord, silk thread, airplane linen.
8.25 x 6.25 x 2.5 inches; 21 x 16 x 6.5 centimeters. Created 2014.