Professional ProfilesBookbinder

A bookbinder helps protect books and thereby extends their durability. They bind the pages of a book and embellish these by gilding them with fine gold. Additionally, they repair damaged works and restore old books.

Bookbinders work with high precision and complete the process of removing book pages and putting them together accurately and without losing time. They individually remove the book pages from the binding, clean them, and then reassemble them by gluing or tacking. Today, these artisans mainly deal with newer works, for example damaged books stored in libraries. They gild them to restore their original appearance. This task, which utilises traditional working methods and competences, particularly involves manual work.

Bookbinders can choose a specialisation, binding complete books, for example. In this case, they use especially solid and durable materials for the covers (such as linen or low-cost leather). This requires great creativity. Their main employers are libraries, ministerial archives, the city administrations, collections, etc. Bookbinders, who use state-of-the-art techniques for printing, engraving, and gilding, must have excellent fine-motor skills and the ability to work with full concentration. Vocational training takes place at art colleges or other technical schools.