PHILIP SMITH  MBE Philip Smith was born in June 1928. He has worked in several different media: painting, sculpture, assemblages and book art making, in which he combines them with selected literature. He has also written several books and many articles on the subject. His work is represented in many public and private collections worldwide. Philip has lectured extensively around the world on 'bookbinding' as an art and at a recent international Conference, Bookbinding 2000 at the RIT in USA, attended by 400 dedicated book people, the Director and organizer of the Conference, David Pankow introduced his lecture with the opinion that, "I don't think that there is a more recognizable name in the world of designer bookbinding than that of Philip Smith. His refusal to be bound by the traditional strictures of the bookbinder's role in book making almost single-handedly revolutionized the craft. I don't think there is a single designer bookbinder today, or book artist, who hasn't been influenced by Philip's brilliant, beautiful and often provocative work..." Philip's work has been recognized by the award of gold and silver medals, and he was invested as an M.B.E. in the Queen's New Year's Honours List 2000, for services to Art. email: philipsmithbookart@tiscali.co.uk
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	Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. 244 x 180 x 73mm First Edition, 1939. Designed and made by Philip Smith, 2001. Various low relief effects and maril.
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot 290 x 205 x 20mm Chrysalis Collection, UK Officina Bodoni edition 1961, signed by T.S. Eliot. Book with detachable 'mask'. Designed and made by Philip Smith 1979. Oasis goatskin over modelled and pierced boards. Flyleaf with circular leather image seen through cavity on front cover and 'mask'.
	The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 233 x 155 x 35mm Private collection, Trenton, USA Allen & Unwin first deluxe edition, 1969. Three volumes in one on India paper. This is the 51st binding of the book by Philip Smith. Bound in scarf-joined black, blue and beige goatskins. Multicoloured onlays and maril. Hand-painted inset in acrylics (waxed). Washy acrylic hand-painted endpapers over maroon Ingres flyleaves.
Dante's INFERNO Tower Translation and illustrations by Tom Phillips. Printed and published by the Talfourd Press. Text printed by Ian Mortimer. Height of Perspex tower: 1324mm Three volumes in vertically linking form as a tower. Back and front aspects in Perspex casing. On the left are shown the front covers of the three volumes of the set as a tower. On the right are the back cover aspects. The books are bound in various butt and scarf-joined goatskins and the images are built from geometrical and other shapes of feathered onlays and maril, some inlaid. Other features, figures, statues and monoliths are built in relief with impasto modelling of emulsified maril (fibrous parings from the flesh side of the goatskins mixed with starch paste and PVA adhesives). Printed and painted paper inscriptions are glued and varnished. The whole is displayed in Perspex 'slip-cases' fixed together by small bolts to a black Perspex base, and bolted to the top of a mahogany plinth which does double duty as a 700 mm tall storage cabinet for the three volumes.