Meeting in Lund 12-14 April 2024
NBS invited Nordic bookbinders, book artists, and book enthusiasts for a spring gathering in Lund, Sweden. There were some interesting visits and wonderful gatherings, meeting old and new friends. Lund welcomed us with cherry and magnolia trees in bloom.
Friday
The board gathered before other participants and started the day with a visit to the bindery at the library of Lund University. Bookbinder Carina Nilsson and paper conservator Alexanda Tengelin Nyström talked about their work and showed some books from the library and incoming book collections. Later the board had a long-awaited face to face meeting at the Archive Center South. https://arkivcentrumsyd.se/ There were discussions about the planned future activities in education, communication, and the next Nordic exhibition 2025. Building/gathering the content for Instagram and blog were among the topics discussed. https://www.instagram.com/nordicbookbindingsociety/ In the afternoon, there was a vernissage of the Nobelbokband exhibition, organized by the Swedish bookbinding association Bokbindare-Gesällskapet, in the Einar Hansen’s Library. This was a wonderful gathering of the bookbinders from the Nordic Bookbinding Society, Bokbindare-Gesällskapet and Bokbindarmästareföreningen (Swedish bookbinding masters association) as well as other book lovers. It was a very special feeling to have so many lovely reunions. Discussions and laughter filled the halls. It was a very pleasant evening with a joint dinner at the end.
Saturday
The participants of the meeting together with the board members gathered at the museum Kulturen, which is both an indoor and an open-air museum that features an extensive collection of historic buildings and beautiful gardens spanning two adjoining sites. https://www.kulturen.com/ The main attraction was of course the book printer’s house Bokkulturen holding the exhibits and history of book printing, movable type, and printing presses from the time of Gutenberg. Spring was blossoming and the day was sunny. Program continued at the conference location Folketshus after lunch, with a show and tell of projects and books. Everyone showed their books and told a little about themselves. Claudia Wegmann, one of our Finnish board members, held a short workshop for a simple binding technique.
Sunday
The last activity was a visit to Kristina Enhörning’s workshop S:t Annegatans bokbinderi och konservering https://www.sanktannegatan.se/ Kristina talked about her day-to-day work and showed many of the books from the past Nobelbokband exhibitions. It was fascinating to hear about the collaboration between her and the artist/paper conservator Anna Celander, about how they worked together with the Nobelbokband exhibition books. https://www.instagram.com/enhorning_celander_books/
The board from NBS is very grateful for the participants of the meeting in Lund! We had an inspiring and heartwarming gathering. Many thanks to all our hosts and board members Johanna, Kristine, and Anna-Karin for organising the meeting!
