Graham Patten
Chicago, Illinois

Graham Patten is the 2014-16 Conservation Fellow at the Northwestern University Library. His artistic pursuits often focus on dynamic sculptural and mechanical elements, and he enjoys merging these features with book structures. He recently completed the master's program in art conservation at Buffalo State College, focusing in rare book conservation. Graham also holds a BA in music performance on the violin.

Website: grahampatten.weebly.com/bookbinding.html

Ethnogeographic Board and the Smithsonian Institution for the United States Office of Naval Intelligence, Survival on Land and Sea, 1943

This binding of Survival on Land and Sea, while representing a vessel itself, is literally found within a vessel. Inside the corked jug, this WWII-era seafarers' manual for surviving after a shipwreck goes one step beyond a message in a bottle. The book rests open to Men Against the Sea: Making Fish Hooks, pp. 14-5.
Three-piece case binding with blue and green leather spine and fore-edge trim. Spine blind tooled and titled in gold. Salvaged German marbled paper sides reminiscent of seafoam. St. Armand Denim Blue endsheets. Sewn allalong inside the bottle, over two parchment strips. Black sewn silk endband. Rigid cover boards composed of a sandwich of 4-ply matboard strips between 10-point sheets. Bound entirely within an intact 1-gallon Anchor Hocking bottle.
Book: 5.5 x 4.75 x .5 inches; 14 x 12 x 1.5 centimeters; Bottle: 11.5 x 6.5 x 6.5 inches; 29 x 16 x 16 centimeters. Created 2015.