A Kickstarter Campaign for _Bones of the Book_ by Timothy Ely
Mark Dimunation, Chief of Rare Books-Library of Congress-Tribute
Tribute to Mark Dimunation, Chief of Rare Books- Library of Congress
Mark Dimunation retired as Chief of Rare Books at the Library of Congress on March 30, 2023. As he is no longer a government employee, we are now able to carry out a long-planned tribute to Mark, his dedication to the Library of Congress, and its remarkable collection of artist books. Mark has often referred to his work as being at “The People's Library,” and it is our hope and intent that The People celebrate his 25 years of dedication to the growth and evolution of the collection by placing Timothy Ely's Bones of the Book, long coveted by Mark for the collection, in the Library of Congress in his name.
Timothy Ely-Creates Single-copy Handmade Books
Timothy C. Ely is a contemporary American painter, graphic artist, and bookbinder, known for creating single-copy handmade books as art objects.
Timothy Ely began a self-motivated study of bookbinding in 1975.. He began to fabricate the work he is known for today, a fusion of largely English-style binding techniques with visionary drawings of an unknowable future.1
His mastery of bookbinding techniques coupled with artistic innovation follow in the footsteps of monastic illuminators and bookbinders, continuing the long legacy of book arts.2
Ely has spent his career creating books and learning the ways to do this which deliver an experience of mystery and delight — attempting to create an artifact which delivers the surprise one might feel encountering an unusual and compelling work hidden within a rare book collection.
The work which developed turns out to be thoroughly contemporary while also rooted in knowledge of the past — including methods chosen to deliver both the visual interest and the mechanical operation he envisioned.3
A Planetary Collage-Timothy C. Ely.
Barbara Basbanes Richter. The Alchemy of Book Art: 8 Works by Tim Ely. Fine Arts and Collectibles. (July, 2016)
Matthew Crawford, in a section of his recent book “The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction”, explores the way that contemporary organ makers and restorers both build upon and extend a craft tradition that stretches back centuries. He describes the relationship they have with both their predecessors, whom they study and from whom they learn, but also future practitioners, who they have a reasonable expectation will study and learn from their own work centuries from now. Crawford characterizes it as a conversation in which they see themselves extending something ancient. They participate fully in a tradition neither as devotees of the past nor as revolutionaries dedicated to overturning it. When I was reading the book I was struck by how unusual it is for any craftsman to imagine (realistically) that his work might be if interest to anyone four hundred years from now. Thomas Ely, however, certainly belongs in that rarefied set. I loved his description of the interest he took in the book binding technique he encountered early in his life. I think I am going to start paying closer attention to this craft myself.
I love books, but I haven’t really considered them until just now as the physical repository of an ancient craft. And yet they surely are. Perhaps I felt it intuitively, since I still have a somewhat irrational bias for purchasing the hardcover option of a book when I have the option to do so. If it wasn’t 2:30 in the morning I’d get up now and go look at some of the books in my own library and see what’s there, physical things beautiful in their own right quite apart from the explicitly semantic content which they carry through time.
Thank you for this. As a retired artist (erstwhile composer/arranger) I salute you and all the artists you have brought to our attention.