5 Reviews
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 b-bear rated 17 months ago-
The Book Arts Web points an avid bibliophile to exhibitions of lovely books - bindings and covers. These books are truly beautiful, and (besides those with the ugly marble-coloured covers) works of art.
But I am extremely ambivalent about this site. Why is SU so Caesarean with its thumb reviews?
On the one thumb, these books are obviously spectacular. I should be so lucky to own such works of art. Well-designed. Beautiful.
On the other thumb, the bindings and covers of such books are more often than not made out of one or all of the following: sharkskin, eel skin, calf skin, sheep skin, pig skin and (why not?) moleskin. This makes me very sad. How can some book artists live with themselves? My militant animal liberation side does make me feel like launching a campaign against the 'artists' on the Book Arts Web.
And, besides, today I learnt from MumZau that the company Masterfoods in the UK (and soon I assume the world) will be adding animal rennet to all their chocolate products, which includes Mars bars, M&Ms and even - oh no! - Malteasers. I will never eat these mass produced sweets again, because I do not appreciate the guts of innocent animals in my snacks. So I am feeling less sweet about such things today.
I am currently in a horrible bind - my booklover side is making my animal lover side hurt, and vice versa.
Oh, here's an utterly disturbing fact. When you hear about books that are 'vellum', this is a reference to the practice of making books using veal, the skin of calves, or sheepskin. Prior to the eighteenth century (the century of vegetarianism, abolitionism and anti-vivisection) there were entire books, including pages, made out of calves or sheep - vellum manuscripts. Today we have switched over to non-animal, cotton vellum, but the practice of making animal vellum still remains in isolated cases where the 'quality' of a book is emphasised.
The practice of using animal skins to write on was thankfully not sustainable when the age of the printing press arrived. It took an entire flock of sheep to make one normal-sized book. Talk about a sacrifice for knowledge! I think it is intensely sad that we don't recognise how much abhorrent violence it takes for us to enjoy certain kinds of human culture.
My stomach now turns when I think of culture. Sorry to distress you, animal, book or chocolate lovers. Please read my more pleasant posts below (and, hopefully, above - unless I get arrested for a bout of militancy).
But don't get me wrong: I love books.
 fu7even rated 35 months ago- Art books. Who wouldn't love them?
- Herald rated 54 months ago
- 'Repurposing'. Bloody hell.
- caligula04 rated 39 months ago
- Interesting site. I like books. :)
- Thrace rated 44 months ago
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