The Donohue Rare Book Room is currently hosting Fine Designs & Artists’ Books, the 37^th Annual Members’ Exhibition of the Hand Bookbinders of California. The exhibition features over thirty-five books submitted by contemporary bookbinders from throughout the country. The books on display range from traditional design leather bindings to unusual book structures and artists’ books. Included among the many notable bindings is a signed copy of Virginia Wolff’s Street Haunting (San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1930) bound by Eleanore Ramsey. The book is bound in a full leather binding of grey Chagrin (goat skin) with tooled mosaics in six colors of grey leather forming a bouquet of flowers including pencils of yellow Morocco leather and brick colored leather erasers.

The exhibition serves as a fresh contemporary demonstration of the crucial role hand bookbinding plays in the successful overall impact of fine book design. The Donohue Rare Book Room welcomes the opportunity to showcase these extraordinary artifacts for the enrichment of the campus community and for the benefit of all Bay Area book lovers. The exhibition will be on view through October 30. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, September 10, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. to which all are invited. For further information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Donohue Rare Book Room