About the cover:
Flexible full leather binding Single-ply booklet stitched with dark blue thread into a flexible grey calfskin cover decorated with a stylised mounted fish in grey and blue-grey box calf with fine chessboard-like blind embossing, separated by a strip of box calf with title embossed in dark chalk blue, fins in mouse-grey box calf with fine blind embossed lines. Chemise with title embossed in silver and slipcase covered with black paper.
About the content:
Jean Follain: Palais souterrain, Carnet II
Ex. No. XI of 111 on Auvergne laid paper with an original gouache by P.A. Benoit
Édition Pierre André Benoit (pab), 1953 Seven short and romantic poems.
About the artist: Jean de Gonet set up a studio while still at boarding school and acquired his first skills in the field of bookbinding. After finishing secondary education and completing his military service, he found his first job as a bookbinder in the Service Historique de la marine in 1971. Two years later, he was able to set up his own studio thanks to orders from a famous collector. After an exhibit of some of his bindings at the Centre Pompidou in 1977, book dealers and curators became aware of his new style. Consequently, he was invited to present contemporary bindings of a young generation of binding artists together with Monique Mathieu and Georges Leroux in 1978. His first solo exhibition took place in 1982 at the Librairie Giraud-Badin.
At the request of the Centre Pompidou, he designed a library binding with PU covers in 1985. He had this patented and from then on worked with six employees for many large libraries. In 1987, he was awarded the Prix National des Métiers d’Arts.
