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About Stephen Conway | |
| Bookbinding | Stephen in Action | Examples of His Work |
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STEPHEN CONWAY
DESIGNER BOOKBINDER
Stephen Conway was indentured as an apprentice in the bookbinding trade
for the traditional five year term with Edward Mortimer Ltd, printers of
Halifax, Yorkshire in 1974.
Leaving school at sixteen and being offered the choice between setting
type and bookbinding, he chose the latter as the nearest of the two trades to
his schoolboy artistic ambitions.
This trade apprenticeship caught the dying years of both hand bookbinding
and the apprenticeship system in England, a providential start.
He moved on to work for the Scholar Press Fine Bindery, Ilkley, after
two more years gained further experience with Smith Settle in Otley and in
1985 set up his own bindery.
He's a family man with three young children and spent the first ten years
establishing his new business with the 'bread and butter work' of repairs and
trade binding. He slowly moved
into limited edition binding and has developed a working partnership with the
Incline Press of Oldham. An artist at heart, eventually his creative needs
drew him to designing fine bindings, developing his own style and techniques,
divorced from any direct educational influences.
His sound foundation as a journeyman bookbinder blossomed into major
success when he first presented his work for outside assessment.
In July 1997 he won his first prize in the Society of Bookbinders'
competition, in October 1998 he was elected Licentiate of Designer Bookbinders
and a month later scooped four prizes in the national bookbinding competition.
The First prize winner, his binding of the Folio Society 'The Jubilee
Years', in the 'set book' category, was gothic in feel with panelled boards
and studs, rich reds and oranges in the laminated paper panels echoed the
colour of the illustrations. He
also won the Silver Medal for the best book in the competition, the first
prize for the open choice book and the Friends of the British Library award.
A recent project for Incline Press 'In Praise Of Patterned Paper', a
collection of essays on the subject, is a major edition of 300 'ordinaries' bound with a cloth
spine and patterned paper sides, 50 copies with six sheets of patterned paper
in a folder within a slipcase and 10 'specials' with leather spines, hand
painted paper sides and a recess in the front board containing five samples of
patterned paper. The complete
edition a challenge for the binder, 96 different tip-ins creating difficulties
with an uneven textblock.
Stephen achieved success once again in 1999 winning First Prize in the
Society of Bookbinders competition with his complete book 'All My Heroes Sang
the Blues', the second work in this project.
The first work on this title was printed by Incline Press in an edition
of five. This work is a major achievement.
Stephen Conway, the musician, wrote both the lyrics and music, played
the guitar on the recording (CD included in the piece) and Stephen Conway ,
artist bookbinder, designed and bound each of the five different books.
These designs explore the musical characteristics of the blues and are
executed in leather, linen and hand painted papers.
In the few years during which his work has been in the public arena of British art bookbinding Stephen has received numerous accolades, his progress should be closely observed over the coming years.
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Last Modified: 30 October 2000
