Annesi Bindings | Paradosis Press

Bookbinder & Aspirant Publisher

Where handbound and digital meet...

I bind handbound leather books that I sometimes sell here. These are usually biblical and early Christian texts that I have typeset and published myself under the Paradosis Press imprint. If you don't see any here, that is because they have sold out. I don't take commissions, but usually put a batch of books up for sale and announce the details the day before. Please follow me on Instagram or Facebook to be notified of updates.

However, I am also starting to sell digital packages that will enable anyone with a printer and a bit of glue to bind their own book. These Bind-Your-Own-MiniBook packages are still in development and this website will hopefully be updated soon, with news of similar packages for my larger hand-sized books.

Where Handbound and Digital Meet: About Bind-Your-Own-Books

As we all know, technological developments in recent years have led to major developments in the world of reading and publishing. Yet repeated studies show that, useful as digital texts no doubt are, many people prefer reading from a physical book, and engage better with the text when doing so. This is particularly true of sacred texts, which beckon us to a slow reading that engages multiple senses.

The last few years have also witnessed a notable interest in the world of bookbinding. While this was partly sparked by people having time on their hands during the pandemic, it is arguably also related to our need for the tactile and grounding reality of working with our hands. Moreover, in Christian perspective, how we relate to matter matters, for, as Saint John of Damascus tells us, it is by assuming material reality that God has saved us. This is why Saint Benedict tells his monks that the pots and pans are to be treated with the same reverence as the vessels of the altar.

This Bind-Your-Own-Books project stands at the intersection of these two realities. It takes advantage of the technological developments that have made historical texts increasingly available, and have enabled their publication and distribution around the world. But it also offers people the possibility of transforming these digital files into physical books, through a process that will enable them to gain skills and relate to texts in new ways.

In practical terms, this means that anyone with access to a printer, paper and a bit of glue will be able to transform these digital files into a physical book. Each of the digital products consists of a PDF tutorial, a file for the textblock that is printed out in black and white, and a file providing resources for the cover and endpages that are printed out in colour. There is also a tutorial on YouTube, together with videos for additional options that will continue to be expanded.

This project is still in its pilot stage and is currently only available for miniature books, which are being sold at a 50% opening discount. B it will soon also be available for hand-sized books, with various new titles currently in the pipeline, and you can sign up here to be notified of developments.

About Me

Macrina Walker

I have loved books for as long as I can remember, but becoming a bookbinder was an unexpected development. I read, wrote, and edited texts in a previous life, and even dabbled in layout. But I never stopped to think about how a book is actually held together. That changed when I entered an enclosed monastery in the Netherlands and was assigned to work in its bookbindery. I was gradually initiated into the various facets of bookbinding and discovered, to my joy, that binding could be combined with various creative impulses to create works of real beauty.

I later left the monastery in order to become an Orthodox Christian. Returning to South Africa, I turned to bookbinding as a way of supporting myself.

More recently still, I have been returning to the world of typesetting and layout as I have begun to produce my own text blocks. In this way I hope that I will be able to share with others treasures that I have discovered along the way,

Contact me

annesi.bindings@gmail.com

annesibindings.com/

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