Bruce Peel Special Collections Library. Pierre Ouvrard : Master Bookbinder/Maître relieur. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2000. xxxi, 95pp.; $29.95 (paper). ISBN 0-88864-360-8. $40.00 (hardcover). ISBN 0-88864-361-6.

------- Pierre Ouvrard Master Binder a retrospective/Maître Relieur une rétrospective May 15 - August 15, 2000. [Edmonton]: Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, 2000. ***[20p.]***; Free. (paper).

The publication, in Edmonton, of a 126-page octavo publication on a Quebec bookbinder is as unexpected as it is delightful. The Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at the University of Alberta acquired the archive of Pierre Ouvrard in 1998. It includes more than 200 examples of Ouvrard's bindings (or portfolios) for limited edition publication, along with design files, correspondence, maquettes, stamping dies, paper and leather samples, photographs, financial records, and 100 monographs on bookbinding and artists. No doubt the Library will eventually want to acquire Ouvrard's tools as well. The far-sighted acquisition of such a complete archive speaks well of the extensive contacts and capabilities of the librarians at the University of Alberta Library. Canada's literature on bookbinding is not extensive but the publication of this book, following the recently published In Retrospect: Designer Bookbindings by Michael Wilcox (reviewed in Papers/Cahiers, Fall 1999), suggests that the fine work of Canadian binders is beginning to gain the recognition it deserves.

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