RILEY (Dominic) & ROSENBLOOM (Megan)

Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin.

DEFINITELY NOT BOUND IN HUMAN SKIN
First edition. 8vo., 22x15cm, X, 274, \[2\]pp. Finely bound by Dominic Riley in full brown goatskin, covers tooled in a phosphorescent silver colour to a design of a human silhouette bisected by dotted lines and radiating angular straight rules, turn-ins tooled in blind with the same design of a silhouette at tail and stylised lettering of the title at head, reverse calf free endpapers, edges stained pink in abstract pattern, stamp signed by Dominic Riley on lower turn-in, with original brown cloth drop-back box lined with red velvet, with red goatskin spine label lettered in black with crossword-like arrangement of letters. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.

£5,000.00

Fine.

One of a small number of bindings commissioned from contemporary bookbinders to celebrate the launch of Megan Rosenbloom’s fascinatingly morbid investigation into the history and mythology of books bound in human skin. Dominic Riley’s binding, in which a human figure is seemingly laid out and dissected before our eyes is not only striking for its design and precise tooling, but also because, if you dare to turn out the lights, you will find that the flayed figure glows in the dark.

Stock No.
251664