I began work at my parents' bookbindery in 1969 and in the following years my father, Albert Burkhardt, would sometimes give me a book for Christmas. He would either buy this from a binding competition winner or commission it afresh from a Swiss master binder.
I added two works of my own to this initial collection, created in 1967 during my educational and creative internship with master binder Thorvald Henningsen.
I relished responsibility for the craft workshop at Buchbinderei Burkhardt AG as I became the bindery’s managing director. My passion for ‘artistic binding’ awoke as I found craftspeople with a talent for design, to whom I could assign unique binding projects. My work on the board of Centro del bel libro in Ascona deepened this joy in the art of binding.
I unexpectedly became the publisher of Thorvald Henningsen’s ‘History of Bookbinding in Switzerland’ to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Association of Zurich and Eastern Swiss Bookbinders. This work, written many years previously, came to life through our Bookfactory digital printing service. I was particularly interested in its many illustrations of bindings produced by Swiss master craftsmen in the mid 20th century.
This experience inspired me to publish a catalogue raisonné of master bindings by Henningsen, whom I consider the most talented of Swiss binding artists. Collaborating with Erich Gülland breathed life into the project but it was the expertise of Mechthild Lobisch that brought the comprehensive catalogue international acclaim on its production in 2017.
I had originally invited Lobisch to write only a foreword, but two years of wider work together brought so much inspiration and learning that my fascination took flight. I began occasionally purchasing master bindings myself and even commissioning new works from active artists. I ‘suddenly’ became the owner of over 100 special and personalised ‘splendid bindings’. I now feel like Aristotle; the deeper I delve, the more I realise there is to uncover and understand about the subject. This growing collection brings me great joy, despite not knowing until now how it could connect with other enthusiasts and experts.
I protect all of my bindings from light in their own individually coloured and scaled boxes (with a different hue for each binding artist). This catalogue draws visually on this protective method, illustrates each binding in detail and offers accompanying comments on the binding artists, their technical process and the content of each work.
Hans Burkhardt completed an apprenticeship as a bookbinder at Delachaux & Niestlé in Neuchâtel from 1962-65 after graduating from Zurich cantonal school. He then completed an internship with Thorvald Henningsen in Zurich from November 1966 to March 1967.
This was followed by years of training and travelling in London, Stuttgart and Minden (Germany), Rome and Paris before he joined his parents' bookbindery Burkhardt in Zurich in 1969. On 1 April 1973, after the transformation into a public limited company, he took over the management and continued to develop the company, which resulted in the move to its own premises in Mönchaltorf in 1985. After the very inspiring phase at Henningsen, the practical craftsmanship of the book therefore became a hobby, i.e. it had to give way to the new activity as managing director of the predominantly industrial bookbindery.
