BIO
Jenn Bellfield (formerly Jenni Grey) studied as a mature student at Brighton University, gaining a BA in Graphic Design and MA in Sequential Design. Her bookbinding training included part-time classes and workshops with Faith Shannon, Jean de Gonet and David Sellars. She became Fellow of Designer Bookbinders in 1989. Initially worked in publishing, then part-time senior lecturer at Brighton University in the Department of Art and Design.
She has won many awards in National and International Competitions, and has work in important collections such as The British Library, The Bodleian Library, The National Poetry Library and The John Rylands Library in the UK, The Library of Congress and the Grolier Club in the USA, The Royal Library in The Hague, The Bibliotheca Wittockiana in Brussels, Winchester Cathedral and the Getty Collection.
“Since retiring I no longer take commissions or run workshops so I can focus on my own work. I am interested in combining different materials with the various skills I have developed over the years, utilising stitch, beadwork and jewellery making techniques. Alongside fine binding I am creating my own books and am in the process of making a collection of reinvented Victorian photograph albums. My most recent project has been to produce a book transcribed from over four hundred love letters found in a boot market.”
Ofili
Rizzoli International Publications, USA, 2009
325 x 265 x 40mm
Bound in 2017
Collection of The Clothworker’s Company
Covered in Italian linen, with glass seed beads, acrylic taxidermy eyes and lizard skin spine.
Box made by Anthony Belfield, constructed in tulip wood and ash veneer; with stainless steel fittings.
Reading the interview with Ofili reminded me that as people we often focus on difference rather than similarities and the design elements in the binding focus on these thoughts. Hence the design on the front board is not exactly the same as the back board, but they are similar.
I used beads to reflect the way Ofili uses mapping pins in many of his pieces. The black and green colours indicate interlaced fingers of pale and dark skinned hands. Using the same sort of colour range as Ofili used in his black and gold pictures, I included some red beads. It occurred to me that they looked like drops of blood, which also seemed appropriate; we all bleed the same.
Ofili’s work often has an unsettling quality which I wanted to portray, but the elephant dung and pornography used by the artist would have no meaning for me, so I chose taxidermy eyes, selecting the green ones because they could either be used for cats or alligators, furthering this idea of difference and similarity.
The weight and type of paper used in this book mean displaying the binding in a standing position for any length of time isn’t ideal, so the box is designed to be both a storage container and an exhibition stand.
Sea, Sky and Down by Richard Jefferies
Nicholas Parry, Tern Press, 1989 UK
Edition number 94 of 125
Bound in 2015
Bound in blue suede with soutache embroidery and multi coloured glass beads. Paste-wash doublures. Sycamore box with blue ash veneer and handmade brass fixtures.
As I live by the sea I was naturally drawn to this book. The binding takes its inspiration from the constantly changing colours of the sea and sky that I see daily from my workroom window, which, as the subject matter suggests, also reflects the colours and forms of the images within the book.
Ancestors by Jenni Grey
Repaired and re-invented Victorian Album
Laser cut images of Victorian photographs on clear acrylic
Made in 2019
The leather binding has been restored, and a new spine and cover panels have been added in dupion silk with loom woven beads.
It seemed particularly relevant to use a contemporary technique with one of the vintage albums I’ve collected because the Victorians were happy to use the new materials of the time, such as celluloid. Also, I liked the quality of the etched line created by laser cutting, which when used on clear acrylic creates a ghostlike effect which captures in visual form notions of mortality, memory and loss.
A History of Erotic Literature by Patrick J Kearney
MacMillan (undated)
Approx 300 x 220 x 20 mm
Bound in 2020
Private Collection
The binding is covered in dupion silk, with machine embroidery, hand stitched Russian braid, and silver lined beads. The Korean paper endpapers include hand drawn and airbrushed images. The wooden box has a hand-made brass hasp with a small padlock. The key is hidden in a recess under the box and held in place with a magnet.
There are many approaches I would have preferred to take with this book, shredding it being my favourite. I had agreed to undertake the commission after the owner had sent me an image of the frontispiece which was in the style of an arts and crafts border, including the torsos of two satyrs which wouldn’t have offended your granny. So, I was expecting to see the mastery of line of Beardsley, or the hedonism of a Fragonard, but instead the drawings inside were puerile. I was relieved when I had finished sewing up the book and I didn’t have to look inside it again. I decided to simply work on the theme of blue and green should never be seen. The materials were chosen to create the sumptuous binding the customer had requested, and the soft pink endpapers were his preferred colour. The outlines of hands, and shadowy silhouette, were intended to represent the unknown people producing books of this ilk, but in retrospect the drawings could look like hands mauling vulnerable flesh – perhaps a subconscious statement about the text after all!
Where Land Meets Sea by Clare Leighton
Rinehart & Co., 1954
255 x 195 x 25mm
Bound in 2019
Private Collection
Hand dyed silk spine with loom woven glass seed beads and laser etched acrylic boards. Sycamore box with silk and beads.
The question I am asked most frequently is ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ Often it can be just one element that provides the key to the whole binding. In this case it was finding the frosted beads which reminded me of the small pieces of sea glass that can still occasionally be found washed up on the beaches near my home. Because of their delicacy everything else had to coordinate : the materials, the quality of the etched line, the colours of the ice dyed silk and endpapers, were all worked and selected to harmonise with those beads.
GET IN TOUCH
Email: jennigrey@btinternet.com
Accepts Commissions: No
