21/01/2026
Hugo | Limp binding
A binding I made last year for the Hugo Grotius challenge and is now part of the exposition Laws of War | Limits to violence at the Rijksmuseum Slot Loevestein.
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The binding is inspired by a 17th-century leather limp binding. These limp bindings were mostly used for functional books like records, accounts and notes for use on a daily basis.
I felt it an appropriate binding technique for a book on the law of war and peace and specifically about protecting innocent people during times of war.
The leather of the cover has been dyed with a craquelle technique to reflect the diverse questions and perspectives within the book.
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Printed as a special edition by the Dutch Association for Bookbinding to commemorate the book of Hugo Grotius 'De iure belli ac pacis' (On the Law of War and Peace).
The starting point was a 1991 edition, "Hugo de Groot: Thinking about War and Peace," with a selection of excerpts from the original, by legal historian Arthur Eyffinger and legal scholar Ben Vermeulen.
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Techniques used:
Limp binding with indirect tacketing. The text block has been sewn on tapes with wooden strips and fastened to the cover with separate tackets.
Craquelle leather dyeing (thank you Gilian .books for explaining!!)
Size: 170 x 255 mm | 288 pagina’s in 18 sections.
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My binding, along with 20 others, is on display till 26th of March at Rijksmuseum Slot Loevestein, NL
leather SlotLoevestein Oorlogsrecht Tentoonstelling KunstEnCultuur BookArt MuseumNederland