About the binding:
Full leather binding Dark blue Morocco goatskin; title constructed with single-line pallets on smooth spine; with a picture, designed especially for this binding by Hans Erni and applied to the entire cover, leather onlays in several colours, lines blind-tooled and filled with white opaque paint; gilt head edge, sewn endbands. Leather-edged slipcase covered with Japanese wood veneer.
An original drawing by Hans Erni is enclosed.
About the content:
Senghor • Erni Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001) was a Senegalese poet and politician. He had studied in France, obtained French citizenship and was elected to the French National Assembly. He was the first president of Senegal from 1960 to 1980. In 1969, he was awarded the international peace prize Friedenspreis des deutschen Buchhandels despite accusations that, as the founder of the francophone Négritude, he was too strongly in favour of Europe and colonialism. Hans Erni (1909–2015) was a Swiss painter, graphic artist and sculptor. He has designed numerous lithographs, around 300 posters and several murals, illustrated countless books and created many designs for stamps and medals.
About the artist: Edwin Heim chose bookbinding as his profession because he wanted to learn a creative craft. After his apprenticeship as a handcraft bookbinder in Aarau, he increased his knowledge and skills at the Scuola d’arte per legatori artistici (now Centro del bel libro) in Ascona and with Ole Olsen in Copenhagen. Later, he attended the gilding class at the École Estienne in Paris. After his return to Switzerland, he became head of Josef Stemmle’s Legatoria artistica in Ascona and, in 1984, of the department “binding and design” at the Centro del bel libro as the successor of Hugo Peller. There, he trained experts from all over the world for around 25 years.
At the same time, he was a guest lecturer and expert juror in Switzerland and abroad and took part in numerous exhibitions and competitions himself. He has received many awards and honours. Today he lives and works as a freelancer in Ascona.
