Monique Lallier
La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation
Size of binding
362 x 210 x 13 mm (14.25 x 8.27 x .5 in)
Materials
Leather for the book, bookcloth for the box, Kumihimo braids and leather used in the design
From the collection of Kitty Maryatt
Description of binding
Since the action is in Siberia in December when all is white, I have chosen white leather. In the poem, Blaise Cendrars mentions the noise of the wheels on the frozen tracks; that was my inspiration for the rounds. I imagined being in a train and the sound of the wheels being dominant and overwhelming, as it is much noisier when the tracks are frozen.
The Kumihimo braids reflect the influence of Japanese stencil techniques on French pochoir. Leather surrounds some Kumihimo circles. Braids separate the design and are a reference to the tracks and the Eiffel tower. The main colors are blue, white and red, the colors of the three stripes of the French flag.
There are edge-to-edge doublures with blue goatskin leather and one flyleaf with suede on the front. The book is attached at the endpaper. A clamshell box contains the colophon in a drawer, in a “sleeve” of white and blue leather.
Artist bio
Monique Lallier was born in Montreal, Quebec, where she first started bookbinding with Simone B. Roy, Roger Arnoult in Paris for gold tooling, onlays and inlays, in Ascona with Edwin Heim, and in Solothurn with Hugo Peller. In 1987 she met Don Etherington in Finland and moved to the US. She was president of “L’Association des Relieurs du Québec” until she moved. In 1988 she became Chair of the Standards of Excellence of the Guild of Book Workers, serving until 2000. She received the Laura Young Award and was one of twenty-five silver prizes at the 2017 Designer Bookbinder’s award in the UK. Her bindings are in many institutions and private collections.
Not for sale