Art of The Fold by Hedi Kyle & Ulla Warchol

The Book Art Object Group were contacted by Laurence King Publishing about receiving an advance copy of the book the – The Art of the Fold: How to Make Innovative Books and Paper Structures by Hedi Kyle & Ulla Warchol  – which will be available on 1st October 2018.  I was looking forward to receiving the book, but when it arrived it was much more than I expected.

The content is obviously more important than the appearance of a book, but when a book manual (about making beautiful books) is itself visually pleasing it makes the whole experience of reading it and handling it feel so right. As well as being inspirational it is a beautiful object in itself.

Going from the title I thought it would be useful for my next project – I intend to make a folding book.  If I’m totally honest I don’t do much paper folding in my work – it has never really appealed to me – Concertina was about as complicated as I would get.  My preconceived notion of this book was that it would hopefully have a few techniques that would help me in the making of basic folding books and that rest would probably be way above my head and only for serious paper wranglers.

I was wrong – this is more than a book about folding books. My first delight was to see at least 2 structures that would help me with unresolved ideas that I could bring to fruition in my own practice.  Then I realised there were a lot of other structures that would inspire me to make new books, and also various ideas that had been rattling round my head I could now see taking form in some of the other books shown.  Also if you are a total beginner there is a comprehensive and excellent overview of materials, tools (always one of my favourite bits), and techniques at the beginning.

The book is beautifully laid out – the instructions and diagrams are clear and concise. Despite my talent for being able to put Ikea furniture together quite easily, I sometimes get confused by instructions in book making manuals. There was no such confusion here, I could easily visualise how I would go about making most of the structures shown.

I then found myself getting excited and I just wanted to get stuck in. When I saw the Star Box structure with the Feathers in it that was it – sold!  I’ve been collecting found feathers for years and storage has always been a conundrum. This will be one of the first I will attempt (in fact I’ve already made a start – I couldn’t wait).

I have numerous books about book making going all the way back to the Craft of Bookbinding: A Practical Handbook by Eric Burdett – I have a feeling this will be one of my favourites. This is definitely more than a one off read – it is an extremely valuable reference and definitely a book I could turn to if I was ever stuck for inspiration.  Finally, thanks to Laurence King Publishing for sending me this lovely book.

The Art of the Fold: How to Make Innovative Books and Paper Structures by Hedi Kyle & Ulla Warchol