Bruce Peel Special Collections Library. *Pierre Ouvrard: Master Bookbinder/Maître relieur*. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2000. xxxi, 95 pp.; $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. [20 p.]; 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 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 the *Papers/Cahiers*, Fall 1999), suggests that the fine work of Canadian binders is beginning to gain the recognition it deserves.

Born in Quebec City in 1929, Pierre Ouvrard practices his craft in his studio at Île-aux-Noix on Quebec's south shore. Regarded as the senior figure in his craft, both in his province and in his country, Ouvrard is the first bookbinder in Canada to be elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1979), and received the Order of Canada (1983). His designation as 'Master Bookbinder/Maître relieur' in the sub-title of this book is appropriate, for the extensive colour illustrations show a rich and varied body of work which demands repeated viewing for full appreciation.

Compilers Jeannine Greene and Merrill Distad of the University of Alberta Library divide the book into three parts. The front matter of 31 pages includes, in both English and French: a preface by Chief Librarian Ernie Ingles, reflections by the artist on his life as a bookbinder, some notes by Montreal bookseller Alfred Van Peteghem on the artist as friend and collaborator, and comments by art critic Normand Biron on Ouvrard's place in bookbinding history. All are important in providing a context for the artist's work and the collection's acquisition. The second part presents selections from the Pierre Ouvrard Collection, and the third part illustrates the Governor General's Literary Award winning books from 1973 to 1999. In total, more than 300 of Ouvrard's production of approximately 500 special bindings are illustrated. Concluding with an index, this well-designed book has high production values, with full-colour illustrations, fine quality
acid-free paper, red-and-black typography, and a vivid red cover and endpapers.

One of Ouvrard's specialities has been the provision of portfolios for limited edition *livres d'artiste*. Following two decades of experience as a production binder he was fortunate to start his own *atelier* at a time when the publisher Erta was beginning to produce the first modern artists' books in Quebec. The problem for the binder in such work is to produce a protective shell that announces the treasure inside without overwhelming it. Ouvrard accomplishes this sometimes with the utmost simplicity such as on Jean-Marie Faber's *Pour Être*, issued in a blue cloth portfolio with a small inlaid paper illustration positioned above the silver-stamped title. Or, Ouvrard can produce a book object, such as for Richard Raymond's *Hotel*, which features a three-dimensional imitation stone case reproducing the entry to the hotel with opening wooden doors.

Ouvrard shows a special ability to integrate his own skilful work with that of other artists to produce a subtle and harmonious product. For example, on Roch Carrier's *La guerre, yes sir!* he integrates an elegant bronze medallion by Charles Daudelin into his own binding of full brown suede. Like other artists of great accomplishment he is comfortable working with an astonishing variety of materials: the usual paper and standard leathers, of course, but also fibers, birch-bark, corrugated plastic, plexiglass, enamel, aluminum, bronze, copper, silver, woven cloth, batik, silk, velvet, embroidered fabric, wood, walrus ivory, laminated leather, seal-skin, salmon-skin, frog-skin, mouse pelt, pressed leaves, and paint. You have to see it to believe it. It is his use of paint that sets Ouvrard apart from other binders whose normal means of highlighting their work is gold tooling. Although he uses gold tooling and gilding as well as the less-used silver tooling, Ouvrard prefers paint as his first choice of expression, and says he could have been a painter. In fact he is a painter.

Since 1973 Ouvrard has had the privilege to be the binder for one-off work on the Governor General's Literary Award winning books. Since these books are part of the prize given to winning authors, only their documentation is part of the archive. The GG Awards commission demands that, on a limited budget, Ouvrard bind up to 14 books in a two-month period. And here we see some real inventiveness, as with the 1998 non-fiction winner, David Adams Richards' *Lines on the Water—A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi*. The blue English morocco is the river and the sinuous S-shaped fishing line is a minimalist blind stamping which ends with a hand-tied fishing fly perched on a gilt salmon skin inlay!

As an epigraph to his essay, Norman Biron quotes from Jacques de Bourbon-Busset's *Journal VIII: Les choses simples* that 'le grand art, c'est toujours de l'érotisme camouflé.' With his sensuous use of rich materials, his careful use of colours—vivid or subtle, his delightful playfulness as on, for example, Huges de Jouvancourt's *Eros Eskimo*, Ouvrard demonstrates again, and again, his superb skill as a master bookbinder, and the subtle
and happy eroticism of his oeuvre. This book properly celebrates a life's work.

In such an excellent showcase of Ouvrard's work, the failure to include a bibliography of works about Ouvrard is a significant omission. The translation leaves something to be desired since it sometimes misses key meanings. Binding fanatics will probably wish that the descriptions of binding materials and techniques were more extensive but this is asking too much since the publishers have been extremely generous in illustrating every work described. Despite these drawbacks, the book sets a new standard for this kind of publishing in Canada, and one expects it will be a long time before this production is bettered.

A simultaneously-printed 20-page pamphlet, *Pierre Ouvrard Master Binder a Retrospective/Maître Relieur une rétrospective*, lists the 43 items exhibited from 15 May to 15 August by the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library of the University of Alberta. The Library was not only able to draw on its splendid collection of Ouvrard's work but was able to borrow four bindings for Governor General's Literary Award books. The descriptions are the same as those used in the work reviewed above, but there are no illustrations since this publication was designed for use by those attending the exhibition. As such it succeeds.

With its fine display cases, offering plenty of scope to the exhibition designers, the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library was an elegant venue for such an exhibition. By and large the exhibition did justice to the material displayed, but the subdued lighting muted the impact of the bindings. The conflict between conservation needs and the public's right to see such treasures in their full glory is often difficult to reconcile. Perhaps an investment in more specialized lighting would pay off handsomely in terms of the increased impact of future binding exhibitions.

RALPH STANTON

*Simon Fraser University Library*

Michel Brisebois. *Impressions: 250 Years of Printing in the Lives of Canadians*. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1999. 64 pp.; $20.00 (paper). ISBN 1-55041-408-9.

I would like to call this book by the National Library of Canada's Rare Book curator a bibliographic descriptive catalogue of the exhibition he conceived of and developed, *250 Years of Printing in the Lives of Canadians*, displayed at the National Library from April 1999 to January 2000. The catalogue achieves the exhibition's stated intention of being a reflection of two hundred and fifty years of printing in the everyday lives of Canadians.