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Luis & Gonzalo: Bookbinding
Bookbinder Luis Mínguez Serrano based in Spain & Spanish fellow Gonzalo Mínguez Mínguez
Luis is an award-winning bookbinder from Santorcaz, who specialises in restoring the covers of ancient books, as well as making covers for contemporary novels, poems and art books. He took over the bookbinding atelier from his father over 30 years ago, and today he carries on with passion and dedication, while passing his skills onto his own son.
Gonzalo grew up spending long periods of time in the bookbinding workshop of his father. His interest in the material development of artistic thought led him to study architecture and history of art at Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. Today, he brings his architect’s vision to his family’s bookbinding legacy.
Intérieurs en couleurs: a century of Arts Décoratifs
Father and son bookbinders Luis and Gonzalo took a personal approach to this project, since 2025 marks a century since the Arts Décoratifs exhibition in Paris (from which the term Art Deco originated) and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Luis’s father, who started the family’s bookbinding tradition. The pair used 50 original chromolithographic plates from the 1925 exhibition catalogue, printed on 180g satin paper, to create the book. Its binding was made from vegetable-tanned leather marquetry on a cardboard support, with details in gold leaf.
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