I likes me some tactility. . .

I once asked Scott Samuelson, my friend and mentor, what it was that he liked about making his own books by hand. We were sitting in his kitchen eating pizza and he was showing me the latest in his desert book series. It had a hand-sewn leather bag, clay tablets with words letterpressed into them, feathers, bones -- it was a tactile feast and I loved every bit of it. And so, in my state of being in love with this weird amalgamation of materials, I asked him, "Why this? What is it about bookarts that's so compelling to you (and me)?" He had two answers: #1 -- Bookarts is everything. It's the writing, the designing, the production, the art, the craft, the font, the paper, the images, the words. That kind of total control and from-the-ground-up creation is really satisfying. #2 -- It's tactile. There's something special about the texture of paper, the feeling of letters pressed into a surface, the sensation of signatures snugging up when you pull the thread tight.

I've thought about this a lot, particularly the tactility angle, and it's interesting to me that when it comes to commercial book design, I am drawn to things that have a concretion to them and the illusion of touchability. In short, I likes me some tactility in my book design.

Here are the covers of several books that have that element that I like so much. I don't think these scans will do the real thing justice but then, when do they ever?