Bookbinding is one of humanity’s oldest artistic and practical traditions, from palm-leaf manuscripts in South Asia to the first bound codices of the Mediterranean world. Over centuries, it has evolved into both a craft and an art form: the delicate stitching of pages, the careful folding of paper, the shaping of spines that hold our memories, stories, and knowledge.
In this studio session, we’ll revive these age-old practices of bookbinding and bring them into our everyday lives. Participants will explore simple yet time-honored techniques like stitch binding, staple binding, and tape binding.
Using either the reservoir of handmade sheets donated from last week’s papermaking workshop or recycled exhibition ephemera, magazines, and newspapers, you’ll learn how to stitch bind, staple bind, or tape bind your own book. By the end, you’ll leave with a self-made object, part tool, part artwork, that carries the weight of your own hands and imagination, while adding your story to a longer lineage of makers.
About the Instructor:
Ayesha Fernandes is a visual artist and designer with a B.Sc in Visual Communication from the American University of Sharjah. Her work is driven by a deep sensitivity to microscopic and intimate interactions with her environment - whether it's the movement of roots beneath the ground, the sounds of living and non-living elements underwater, or other often unnoticed rhythms of nature. She explores this through the material qualities of unconventional mediums, often merging digital and analogue processes to create work that translates these hidden dynamics. Ayesha is a Fellow at the Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Emerging Artists Fellowship (SEAF) Cohort 12 and an alumna of the sixth cohort of Art Jameel’s Youth Assembly.