The Book Binder Artist
Erzebet Barthold Interview
Co-founder of Hadean Press and founder of Papaveria Press, Erzebet Barthold has been behind some of the more fantastic occult releases of the past handful of years. Jake Stratton Kent's "Pandemonium" and the phenomenal "The Book of St. Cyprian: The Sorcerer’s Treasure" by José Leitão are among those who have had her touch as editor and designer.
Her work as an artist & traditional bookbinder makes her one of those rare publishers who have their hands dirty at every level of the book making process. From fantastic fairy spellbooks, to delicate assemblage Erzebet is a bookbinding artist of high regard. I thought an interview was long overdue.
What came first the bookbinding or the publishing world?
The bookbinding came first, though not by much. I had a vague suspicion that I wanted to bind books for years before I acted on it. I spent a lot of time hoarding materials, reading books on binding, and talking to people who had studied in the field. I was a single mother of three, so money was tight, which meant formal studies were out of the question. In 2001 I felt ready to start taking it all seriously. I created Papaveria Press, and released my first small book, a collection of my own micro-tales called "Simple Stories". My thinking was that if I messed it up, at least I wasn’t wrecking someone else’s work. It was pretty awful, but it was also encouraging, and it did wonders for my self-esteem, which had taken a battering in the previous years. I had achieved something - it may not have been brilliant, but I knew that if I kept going, I could only improve.
Your work is rather intimate in details. The tiny run of volumes you did from Folger ms Xd 234, "The Binding of the Fairies" was exquisite. Down to the last stitch beautiful, shame I missed getting it when it was released. What guides you in terms of your choices for the hand bound treatment?
Thank you, that one was a joy to bind. It’s always the text that guides me, what period it’s from, what it’s saying to me, what it’s saying about itself. Fairies, for example, demand a combination of seriousness and whimsy. That text made me laugh - the very idea of someone attempting to bind a fairy! That kind of thing never ends well. So it was with a sense of reverence as well as mirth that I set forth to find the materials that would, I hoped, bring that contradiction to the final work.
What is your favorite bound edition that you have done so far?
That's like asking me which is my favourite daughter! You'll get the same answer they get when they ask me this question -- all of them. Each book has posed a different challenge and led to a new triumph.
What future handbound magic do you have up your sleeve?
I thought I might, for fun, edit and reissue the very first book I released through Papaveria Press, but that's a maybe. After all these years, I'd like to do it justice. What I'm really looking for are more unique little snippets of manuscripts, like ms Xd 234, so if any of your readers can point me in the right direction I'd be grateful. I may also have one or two things coming in from authors, but I won't comment on those until they happen.
You operate both as Hadean Press and Papaveria Press, where is the distinction between the two?
The most obvious distinction is that Papaveria is for poetry and fiction, while Hadean is (so far) non-fiction only. One deals in fantasy and the other in magic, although some would say those two things are the same. Papaveria is for flights of fancy and fairy tales. Hadean is for the spirits of those living and dead.
Do you collect books yourself? Publishers tend to be all or nothing with collecting.
It’s difficult to resist collecting books when so many publishers are releasing such gorgeous editions into the world! I’m in the middle, where I spend my time being torn between buying books or buying the materials I need to make books.
Any particularly rare or interesting pieces in your library that you want to tell us about?
There is one that I love dearly, "The Book of the Shield: Ancient Saxon Wytchecrafte", published by Catweasel Productions, Highgate, London in 1982. With all of the grand bindings of occult literature, this one stands out for me because of its simplicity. It was bound by Ars Obscura, who should need no introduction here, and it smells utterly delicious, that combination of old leather and paper. Here is part of the copy from 1982:
"The Book of the Shield is rewritten from an old copy of the book owned by the present High Thegn of the Order. It has been rewritten and clarified to meet the requirements of the contemporary reader and to be clear and concise. Although the work of the Shield is very old, it is not at all difficult or hard to approach and learn. It contains the law of the Shield, the governing positions, ritual tools, garb, blessing of the salt and water, calling the elements, the anointing, raising the power, pentacle ritual, work by the moon, the seasons and festivals, the 3 charms or magicks being the stones, the knife and circle, and the Runes, traditions of gifts, tithes, courtship and Pagan Marriage."
You've come from America originally like myself. What storm washed you up on the shores of Britannia?
The spirits called me here, which sounds a lot simpler than it actually was. I had come as a tourist in the spring of 1998, and spent three glorious weeks here, mostly in Bath, with one wild weekend in Wales and a jaunt to Glastonbury on the side. I can’t say exactly why, but I fell in love with England during that time, and when I went back to the states I warned my daughters that someday I intended to move there. Maybe that set me up for the later call to these shores, for which I will be eternally grateful even though at the time it was incredibly annoying. I really don’t know any other way to put it, except to say the US had become bat country and I could not stop there.
I can relate to the experience of 'you can never go home' with the states. Where are you located in the UK? Your blog says West Yorkshire moors but I believe you recently relocated?
We have recently moved from Haworth to the neighbouring village of Oakworth, so we are still in the heart of Brontë country, just on the other side of the valley from where we were. I often think about moving farther south, but this area is very special to me.
How does being in the English countryside affect you as an artist and a bookbinder?
It affects me in every way imaginable. No matter where I live, I am a creature of the land, but I have long been seduced by the myths and legends of this particular land, and when I arrived here I felt immediately at home. Then came the years of learning the names of everything: glens, fells, dales, and moors (you can't imagine a moor until you've gotten lost on one). There is that language, and then there is the language of the seasons, the birds, the trees, of light and cloud, and of course the language of the spirits inherent in it all. I really don't know why I have such an attachment to this place, but I have found hope and healing here, and those are the best ingredients for my art as a whole.
Any announcements from Hadean you can give us the scoop on? I am looking forward to the deluxe binding of the St Cyprian and have heard a rumor of a new José Leitão work?
The St. Cyprian deluxe is the thing I'm most looking forward to myself. This is a work of devotion for me, as really all bookbinding is, but I owe this saint and his Book a great deal so this project is very dear to me. Most of my profits for that one will be donated to the Witchcraft and Human Rights Information Network (www.whrin.org), as are much of the proceeds from anything I do Cyprian-related, so that adds another level of importance to it, for me at least.
José Leitão's next title with us is the Bibliotheca Valenciana, and I'm going to break with my own tradition and offer a fine binding as well as our usual trade editions. It's a hefty work -- translations of three texts by Jerónimo Cortez which are relevant to the Cyprianic current: The Non Plus Ultra Do Lunario, Physiognomy and Various Secrets of Nature, and Treatise of the Animals. We also have two pamphlets which will be released quite soon, one an addition to our small catalogue of folk saints and the other on the art of invoking the serpentine spirits.
That sound absolutely wonderful! Looking forward to the upcoming Leitão especially!
Visit Erzebet to explore her work in more detail at :
