Donald Glaister

Bound in cut-away black Harmatan leather, with exposed sewing structure, lining materials, and painted cover boards; windows cut into both covers expose collages of images found in the text through lightly painted mylar; endpapers stamped in gold; top edges partially gilt; in a black cloth drop-spine box. 

Donald Glaister was born in Los Angeles, California in 1945. His formal education culminated in 1969 with an M.F.A. from San Jose State University in Painting and Sculpture. Between 1972 and 1976 he privately studied design bookbinding in San Francisco with Barbara Hiller. In 1976 he moved to Paris to study bookbinding with Pierre Aufschneider and finishing with Roger Arnoult. In 1977 he returned to California and began teaching bookbinding and accepting private binding commissions. He developed his art in Palo Alto, California until 1984 when he moved to Ashfield, Massachusetts where he worked and lived with his wife, Suzanne Moore and their dog Folio. He currently lives and works on Vashon Island, Washington. Don’s bindings may be found in private collections throughout the United States and Europe. His work is also included in the collections of the Library of Congress, The Pierpont Morgan Library, the Copley Library, Stanford University Special Collections Library, and other institutional collections in America and Europe. He is the Director of the Fine Binding Program at the American Academy of Bookbinding.

BINDING

“The binding is cut-away black Harmatan leather exposing sewing structure, lining materials and painted cover boards. Windows are cut in both recto and verso boards exposing collages of images found in the text, seen through lightly painted mylar. Gold stamped flyleaves reflective of the title page are also visible through the windows. The top edge is partially gilt. Simply put, you can quite literally judge this book by its cover because you can see many parts of the book through the cover. The binding says what the book is in a way that a spine title can not.”