Go Ahead, Judge a Book by Its Cover

Four of the best contemporary bookbinders employ centuries-old techniques to create enduring works of art.

Dec. 2, 2015, The Wall Street Journal

<strong>HANDLE WITH CARE</strong> | ‘I start by reading the book at least once to get into the energy,’ says 63-year-old Jack Fitterer, a calligrapher and printer who has been binding books since 1983. Based in the Adirondacks, Fitterer bound William Butler Yeats’s <em>Irish Fairy & Folk Tales</em> in goat and calf leather. The cover features the face of a wailing banshee—the harbinger of death in Irish mythology. <em>Irish Fairy & Folk Tales, by W.B. Yeats (private collection), bound by Jack Fitterer, <a href="http://www.fittererbookbinding.com/" target="_blank" >fittererbookbinding.com</a> </em>

Seen above: ‘I start by reading the book at least once to get into the energy,’ says 63-year-old Jack Fitterer, a calligrapher and printer who has been binding books since 1983. Based in the Adirondacks, Fitterer bound William Butler Yeats’s Irish Fairy & Folk Tales in goat and calf leather. The cover features the face of a wailing banshee—the harbinger of death in Irish mythology.

Irish Fairy & Folk Tales, by W.B. Yeats (private collection), bound by Jack Fitterer, fittererbookbinding.com

Photography by Nicholas Alan Cope for WSJ. Magazine, Prop Styling by Summer Moore.