Building the Seventh Sin, Part V

The backbones are finished! I fold them up to see how they will fit into the book covers… and then begin the construction of the covers.

Setting cover board on book cloth

Before the backbones could go into the covers, the linoleum print pages needed to be sewn in the backbone. Silk thread with a simple stitch pattern secured the pages.

Print pages being sewn in and secured to the backbone

The end of the book was covered in book cloth while the outside and the inside of the covers were covered in marbled or printed papers. The backbones all had a large tab that was fitted onto one side of the book cover and covered with marbled or printed paper.

Attaching printed sheet to inside of book cover

The other side was not connected to the book cover so that it could be unfolded to produce an accordion effect.

Finished backbones unfolded

I had decided that these artist books would all need slip covers to protect and strengthen them. So once the book covers were made (and tested to make sure the backbone fit inside the cover), the book board was cut for the slip covers.

Measuring book board for slip cover

A slip cover was made for each book and the same marbled paper that was used for the book cover was also used on the slip cover.

All five artist books, assembly complete.