The Island, by Geert Mak
Back in 2017, an International Miniature Bookbinding Competition was organised by the Hand Bookbinding Foundation together with the publisher De Buitenkant and Museum Meermanno. I have not posted the pictures of my entry because strangely, the pictures went missing in Louis’ photo archive and no matter how we searched, it just couldn’t be found.
Just last week, while Louis was compiling some photographs for his upcoming residency, he found my pictures. I was super relieved and happy that I did have photographs of this book documented.
This book measured 76 x 54 x 18mm. My book unfortunately was trapped in customs upon arrival into The Netherlands and did not make it in time for judging. However, it was listed in the Second Selection Round. This book is a permanent exhibit at Museum Meermanno in Haag.
The book was sewn on recessed cords. It has acrylic covers with acetate cut-outs of faces representing the individuals who lived on the island, interacting with each other. The boards are slightly translucent and you can see through both from the outside and the inside, where it also acts as the doublure. The transparency reflects on the fleeting moment of the existence of the community on that island. The endpapers are handprinted with the lower case ‘i’ for the island, and also an icon of a human. I made the box to match the binding, using primarily red and green as to match the prints in the book.
I am glad that this book can finally be shown. This is the 2nd miniature out of the 3 I have done so far. More to come, I hope.