Priscilla Spitler

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Priscilla Spitler studied bookbinding with Alfred Brazer and John Mitchell at the London College of Printing, and design binding with James Brockman at the University of Texas at Austin. She was edition binder at Booklab for eight years before establishing in 1995 Hands On Bookbinding, now located in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Winner: The Helen Warren DeGolyer Award for American Bookbinding

Example Binding: 
Priscilla Spitler. 
Out of Body: A Personal Narrative Inspired by a Road Trip to the Midwest. 
Unique copy written, printed, illustrated, and bound by Priscilla Spitler.
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico: Hands On Books, 2007.

Pastepaper décor on Arches text paper with text printed on a HP 1500 inkjet printer. Full leather binding in green Harmatan goatskin. Decorated with leather onlay work, gold tooling, back-pared onlays applied prior to covering, cut foil stamping technique, and painted and stenciled acrylic. Endpapers decorated by binder, sewn headbands.

Design Description: 
Various decorative techniques on tan Hewit’s goatskin leather including traditional onlay leather with gold and blind tooling, painted and stenciled acrylic, and colored cut-foil technique. Geological strata of back-pared leather symbolizes layers of history in the region. Stark angular lines contrast the organic animal and bird forms, symbols of nature, disrupted by man’s so-called progress. Title gold tooled, text edge colored at head, sewn headbands and blue paste paper endsheets decorated by binder.