A celebration of bookbinding featuring entries from the international Designer Bookbinders competition.

Plants and gardens play a central role in life on Earth. They have provided food, clothing, shelter, medicines, employment, leisure, and enjoyment throughout history. They also have many symbolic uses in art, mythology, and literature, making plants and gardens the perfect theme for the Designer Bookbinders’ fourth international competition held at the Bodleian Library in 2022. The chosen theme also celebrates four hundred years since the founding of the Oxford Botanic Garden.

This beautiful catalog features richly illustrated texts and finely printed volumes that are bound with skill and creativity using varied materials by binders from all over the world. The fourth volume in the series, which features catalogs from the 2009, 2013, and 2017 competitions, A Gathering of Leaves is a celebration of the stunningly inventive competition entries and winning bindings.