For its second publication, Byzantium presents Marbled Paper, a book that explores how paper influences the appearance of marbling. Written and marbled by Barbara Hodgson and bound by Claudia Cohen, Marbled Paper follows the tradition set by the pair’s previous books — Paper Botanists, Folding Paper and Decorating Paper — with their focus on paper as an essential component of creativity.
A brief introduction is followed by actual marbled examples on various handmade, mouldmade and machinemade papers from the Americas, Europe and Asia. Papers include Ingres-type laid papers commonly relied on by marblers because of their reliability and ubiquity; Japanese washi, known for strength and flexibility; and handmade book papers, such as Dover and Bodleian, stalwarts with beautiful surfaces. Also included are wild-card papers: a loose-wove Guatemalan paper of unknown fibres, a 1920s French airmail flimsy, newsprint, coated text, and a Japanese paper that isn’t paper at all, rather a surface made of calcium carbonate.
The text is set in Fournier, printed with a handpress on dampened Arches at Heavenly Monkey. The book — with approximately 68 marbled examples and 29 unmarbled swatches, on 51 different papers — will be issued in one state, bound and boxed by Claudia Cohen.
All copies will be bound in leather with Barbara’s marbled papers over boards, with gilt tooling and leather fore edges.