BY BOB KRASNER | Visitors to Judith Ivry Bookbinding on E. Fourth St. often ask: “Where’s the sewing machine?”
Ivry, who has been restoring valuable antique tomes and creating limited edition art books for more than three decades, simply replies: “The sewing machine is my hands.”
Using a technique that “hasn’t changed since the 17th century,” Ivry sometimes spends up to three hours sewing the binding on a single book.
There are some machines involved in the process, such as the board cutter, book press, job backer and various hand tools, but they are manually operated. One of her most frequent clients, Steve Clay of Granary Books, notes that, “Judy Ivry’s bindery feels like something from another era, which it is.”
Sure, the digital age presents numerous tools to make a specialized book. There are online platforms like Shutterflyb and blurb. You could even cobble something together on your Macbook. But to get something truly distinctive — you need to draw on crafts from an age before books were mass-produced.
“Judith is a perfectionist who breathes life into our books,” said award-winning graphic designer Yolanda Cuomo, who collaborates with Ivry on projects. “The books are alive because so much care and love has gone into them.”
Ivry began studying her craft as an apprentice for a binder on the Upper East Side, where for two years she learned to “crank it out.” With the help of a Kress Foundation grant, she studied at the London College of Printing.
By 1985, she was on her own in New York City, where she worked out of her apartment on 30th St. She managed to find her present loft through the Village Voice and after renting her portion of the space the owner sold it to Ivry ten years ago.
About half her business is restoring antiques, such as old photo albums. She is currently working to restore a first edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
The other half of her work is the design and production of limited edition art books and enclosures. Collaborating with different artists and publishers is a complicated process, involving the talents (and input) of any number of creative people who have come together to create a project. One combined the poems of John Ashberry, the etchings of Tom Levine and a foreword by Patti Smith.
“Rarely are two projects the same,” Ivry said, “I love the challenge of figuring out how to convey the artist’s vision.”
Sometimes the project is personal. It might be as a memorial for a deceased child, or, more happily, a wedding album. She recently completed an epic ode to marriage — a couple’s 900 picture, five volume tome.
Her partner at “Uncommon Binding,” photographer Jason Walz, has collaborated with her on many wedding albums.
“Working with Judy is revelatory,” he said “She brings insight, curiosity and creativity to her projects as well as a deep knowledge of traditional and contemporary book binding skills, so her books are alive with memory and life.”
She also busies herself making boxes, which look exactly like an antique leather bound book, to hold items bound for auction houses. She has also been commissioned to make special, single edition books that were gifted to high-profile figures like the Pope and David Koch
Working in a medium that belongs to another time is not easy. It also means she can’t hold on to her works.
“I don’t have copies of most of them,” said Ivry. “I can’t afford them.”
Luckily the projects have been photographed and can be seen on her blog (ivrybindery.tumblr.com).
Those interested in learning more about Ivry’s uncommon craft can visit her website (ivrybookbinding.com) or call 212-677-1015 to make an appointment to visit her studio.
