About the cover:

Full-grain binding with open hinge Quarter binding stitched with fine stitching on narrow folds. Dark blue ‘royal blue’ marocco leather with black calfskin inlays in the form of horizontal rectangles of varying sizes, slightly curved and slightly raised over the front cover, back cover and spine. Light grey embossed title on front cover. Leather capital. Light blue-green-grey bord-à-bord calf, light grey suede flyleaf. Folding case covered with light grey paper, inside light grey suede, outside dark blue leather label over spine, with embossed title.

About the content:

Rainer Maria Rilke: Les Quatrains valaisans Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is considered one of the most important poets in world literature. After the First World War, he lived mainly in French-speaking Switzerland. The Valais quatrains belong to Rilke's later French-language poetry. The cycle sings of the landscape of the Valais Rhône valley with its vineyards and gardens. The actual subject is not the real, but the poetic, mythical landscape; elements of reality are transformed under Rilke's hand into symbols and signs of his spiritual and poetic world.

About the artist:

Anne Goy served her apprenticeship as a handcraft bookbinder in Geneva. From 1984 on, she studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de La Cambre in Brussels under the renowned professors Micheline de Bellefroid and Liliane Gérard. This was followed by a diploma in classical techniques and research work with new materials such as plexiglass, rubber and wood. She finds inspiration in the materials themselves or in the world of design or architecture. Fascinated by the book’s mechanical system, she experiments and develops novel binding systems, such as “reliure structure crisscross” (Crisscross binding or Secret Belgian binding). She works in her studio in Brussels, which she opened in 1991, for bibliophiles as well as on artists’ books and small editions. She also teaches courses at the Atelier du Livre of Mariemont and at the Bibliotheca Wittockiana.

Between 2007 and 2023, she headed the “Reliure” (bookbinding) department at the École de la Cambre, which she renamed “Reliure/Design du livre et du papier”.