Pierre Ouvrard Collection and Archive On-line

	The man himself
	The bindings
	Governor General Awards
	Virtual Exhibit
	Interview
	Bibliography
	Acknowledgements
	About Us

Interview Transcript (page 2)

I : What generates the idea of how to bind a book?

O : When you have a unique binding commission sometimes you find something personal to relate to. I know that for a book of 150 pages I may read 25 - 30 pages and then get a flash - suddenly there's an image - you know a picture, a scene, anything. When I work for a theatre show doing theatre art, one of the first things I always do is decorate the set. How the set is going to look.

(clipi3.mov [109 KB])

O : (Holds up book to illustrate point) In this book (Marie Laberge: C'était avant la guerre de l'Anse et Gilles, p. 62) maybe 10 times in the book she looks out the window and sees that the wind is drying her clothes on the north shore of the lake.

This one here (Guy Candergache, Man Descending, p. 63). It's a book about the purpose in life and so on. Hm. I didn't know what to do at the time. I had a table about the size of this one. I put paper on it like so. White paper. I added glue (paint) clay with black water colour and I had my grandson, who was about 2 or 3 at that time, and said: "Julien, I'll put on the table, put your feet in the colour and walk on the table." He enjoyed it. So you see his footprints on the corridor that is symbolic of life, and the footprints are the way to pass through it.

This one here (George Calef, Caribou and the Barren Land, p. 62) is about the caribou migrations. Every year they migrate along the same path, according to the season. That's why I show the 4 seasons. In the book it's quite well depicted what these herds do in different seasons.

(Roger Fournier, Le cercle des anènes, P. 63) That's a story about bullfighting. So you can see the ring.

(Lean Rothe, Shakespeare's Dog, p. 64) Shakespeare's buys a dog. I'll confide in you that I didn't know what to do. So I show this lampidère and this sidewalk, what he's doing, and you have 3 paws at the foot of the lamppost so I leave to you to imagine what he's doing. That was a period of abstraction.

The Margaret Atwood book has a seal-tooth scrimshaw on the cover. (Al Purdy, The Handmaid's Tale, p. 67) that's a sculpture with seal teeth.

Now this is a children's book (Galahad Nyberg, Schwartz and the Cockroach Army. P. 68). He builds a balloon and then he lets it drift over the different continents. Marvelous book and story.

Previous Page Page 3 of 6

University of Alberta Libraries Digital Collection

home