Girdle books have made random appearances in the bookbinding literature since the middle ages. The term "Girdle book" refers to a book that was bound in such a way that it had a tail that could be tucked into the girdle or belt. This left the book hanging upside down. When the wearer wanted to read the book, he would simply have picked it up and opened it. There are very few examples of them left in libraries (maybe 25 examples in total in all of the world), and we mainly know about these books from paintings where they seem to have been really popular for a while. The structure as such in fascinating, as well as the descrepancy between the fact of very few known examples in libraries, and the fact that by looking at all these paintings with so many girdle books in them it seems they must have been really common in their time. Many bookbinders have presented more or less chunky replicae. They usually have wooden boards, thick as a thumb, with metal clasps and ornately decorated (deer-) leather turn-ins, and an artfully designed knot at the lower edge.
My interest was not in making a replica, but an artistic investigation of the structure. My line of thought went somewhat like: "I want something that mimics not only the looks, but the function of the girdle book. Where would you today want to keep a book close and ready for reference?" And I figured that the place where we usually keep written instructions close, while we are not at home in our libraries is when we carry our shopping lists. So the idea was born to create a shopping companion. This book has developed just a little away from this initial idea, and tries to incorporate and play artistically with the design elements that are present at IKEA, as well as a critical side blow at the commercial intend of getting customers into some kind of spending spree.
I like to clash old and new in my books, and while addressing a up-to-date subject inside, I tried it keep it structurally close to the originals: It is bound on raised cords, the boards are extra thick, laminated from binding board and wood board outside to look like wood to about 6mm thickness, and it has a hand stitched headband on the head. (with this substitute for real wood I want to reflect light build design of the furniture found at IKEA)
The inside pages are made from IKEA ads, descriptions, and instructions and were colored using wax crayons, a lot of elbow grease to burnish the wax on the paper to a very smooth and non-sticky layer, and watercolors. Of course it also has some blank pages, and some text by me.
IKEA blue tote and handles, IKEA assembling instructions, advertisements, and informational material, wax crayons, heat,
water colors, linen thread, binder's board, wood board, cotton cord.
The pages are bound on raised cords, the book was covered in boards in the blue plastic tote material. The cover attachment
is visible from the outside through the look-through blue material. This style of cover design is called girdle book. The covering
material is not turned in at the tail but extends to a knot at the end which can be tugged under a belt, for the book to be
carried around for ready reference.
There exist two different versions of this book. The content as well as the binding slightly vary, but the gernal idea and appearance
are similar. The first copy was given away in a swap. The second book, the photo of which you can see here on top, remains with me.
At the end of the slideshow you will see images of the first copy: Note the different cover attachment, and a different knot at
the tail of the book. The inside pages of the first book were colored with the same techniques, but the handwritten text is in
German, and also the colored in instructions are not identical.