Bookbinding in Naoshima

To aid with our documentation, we had to bind our own books to encompass our experiences and findings. This involved the repetitive process of threading through a durable thread through signatures of washi paper pages, beginning from both the front and back of the book and meeting in the middle.

Threading the signatures together from both ends of the book and meeting in the middle- as demonstrated here.

Once in the middle, the threads were tied together. This process was satisfying to complete, though it was difficult to keep signatures tightly threaded. This benefited my artistic practice by enabling myself to become more familiar with paper techniques, perhaps allowing for me to expand my presentation of drawings into a structured, bound together presentation. To complete this is Naoshima on tatami mats made me associate the binding process with a calm, craft activity- generating a sense of nostalgia from when I would complete crafts on my carpet back at home.

The finished binding result- genuinely surprised with my ability to make it appear so neat.