• Home
  • BIND25
    • Conference Programme
    • Conference Registration
    • Delegate Information
    • Sponsors
    • Trade Fair
  • Contacts
    • Tutors
    • Bookbinders
  • What's on
    • Heritage Storage Seminar
    • John Sansom Memorial Competition 2025
    • BIND25 Student/Apprentice Grant
    • Paul Johnson online workshop
    • What's on in Auckland
    • Auckland
    • Nelson
    • Christchurch
  • Join-Renew
    • New and Renewal
    • About
  • Members only
    • ABC newsletters
    • Other newsletters of interest
    • Download instructions
    • Executive Committee compliance
  • Video/tutorials

AboutABC has 150 plus members throughout New Zealand and Australia.Regional contacts are located in Northland, Dargaville, Auckland, Hamilton, Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Wellington, Nelson/ Tasman, Christchurch, Southland and Central Otago.
From humble beginnings......the recollections of John Sansom In 1989 a small group of people met as a ‘bookbinding interest group’, namely Pamela Robson, Jocelyn Windsor, Marthin Mare, Jack O’Brien, Peter Goodwin and John Sansom. Prior to this there was correspondence back and forth with Edgar Mansfield in the UK to establish If he knew of a bookbinders' guild in New Zealand as Edgar, before moving back to the UK, had been an artist, sculptor and teacher at Fielding High School. Edgar later began a movement in Britain which heralded the renaissance in bookbinding. Edgar’s advice to me was “do your own thing and get on with forming your own guild”. This we did and from the ‘interest group' the Association of Book Crafts (NZ) Inc. was finally formed. Marthin Mare was the first newsletter Editor producing the first one in 1989. At the time we became an Incorporated Society we had 22 foundation members.
Our letterhead and logo were designed for us by David Buck.
Arthur W. Johnson, the author of several books, binder, calligrapher and teacher was our first Patron and made a number of visits to New Zealand with his wife Pamela, an international tutor in lace making. They both fell in love with our country, especially the Catlins area.

Dominic Riley

In June 2021 Dominic Riley accepted the role of ABC Patron. He made his first visit to New Zealand in 2014 to present and speak at the Australasian Conference in Auckland. Dominic has since delivered a number of workshops for ABC members when travelling to Australasia for conferences. Dominic Riley is an internationally renowned bookbinder and teacher. He specialises in the restoration of antiquarian books and the creation of contemporary fine bindings. He teaches bookbinding both in the UK and USA, and his prize-winning bindings are in collections worldwide, including the British Library. He is a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders and President of the Society of Bookbinders.
Dominic first learned bookbinding at 16 from Benedictine monks at Douai Abbey in Berkshire and later at the London College of Printing. He has worked at the V&A, and for various binderies in London, New York and San Francisco. His binding work is mostly the restoration of antiquarian books and design bindings. He won first prize and the Mansfield Medal in the Designer Bookbinders 2007 competition and was elected Fellow of Designer Bookbinders in 2008. In 2010 he bound a special copy of the winner of the Booker Prize which was presented to the author. In 2013 he won the prestigious Sir Paul Getty award in the International Bookbinding Competition and his winning binding was acquired by the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Contact Us

Thank you!

We have received your submission and shall be in touch.

Error

Bad respond
Association of Book Crafts privacy policy

Contact Us

Email or via Facebook and Instagram
secretary@abc-nz.org.nz

We use cookies to enable essential functionality on our website, and analyze website traffic. By clicking Accept you consent to our use of cookies. Read about how we use cookies.

Your Cookie Settings

We use cookies to enable essential functionality on our website, and analyze website traffic. Read about how we use cookies.

Cookie Categories
Essential

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our websites. You cannot refuse these cookies without impacting how our websites function. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings, as described under the heading "Managing cookies" in the Privacy and Cookies Policy.

Analytics

These cookies collect information that is used in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are.