For Christmas one of my daughters gave me a Paul Johnson Book.
I was fascinated by its construction. The pages are made
from a single sheet of paper cut to give 8 panels and folded to give 5 pages.
I worked out the cuts needed for each panel
And played with altering the shapes of the basic rectangles
needed to make the folded structure
And tried it cutting a piece of gelli printed paper to give
three pages
I wanted to keep the chunky feel of the thick spine that
Paul Johnson used but instead of a single folded sheet stuck to the spine with
a couple of flaps I didn’t want to use glue and I wanted my panels cut in pairs
(so three separate pieces) .
I liked it but decided to change to format to a square
Looking through the holes in the pages to the sheets behind
it put me in mind of a maze or hedge. So I thought about making the cuts
spikier.
The gelli printed paper is not good at holding a crisp fold
over time so I thought I’d experiment with making double sided paste paper in
appropriate colours.
I think they worked.
I covered thin card with more paste paper. I would have
liked something more substantial but the binding method I concocted needs thin
slits cutting into the spine and I thought the thin card might be neater
And I bound the pages. The double spreads wanted to splay
open which spoiled the hedge effect I was after so I held them shut with a thin
strip of paper slotted over the fore edge.
I have written the words and even managed to get to Hot Bed
Press to typeset them. They need living with for a few days before I go back
and print them for an edition.I also need to make a whole stash of paste papers.
There’s a lot of work in each of these books so I’m thinking
probably an edition of 5
