Benjamin Elbel
Versie
Benjamin Elbel fell in love with bookbinding while studying art in Strasbourg, France.
From the beginning his interest has been towards the experimental side of the craft; he embarked on a journey that took him to Switzerland (Ascona- Centro del bel libro- the inspiration for his company name), Germany (Göttingen- die Buchmanufaktur) and England (London- Shepherds Bookbinders, Book Works).
After these years of working in the trade he started his own bindery in 2012 in Londen and was situated in Amsterdam since 2015.
Per 1 july 2018 he moved his bindery to Haarlem, very close to Amsterdam.
Benjamin is passionate about the traditional craft of bookbinding but is also an innovator by nature. He is always looking for alternative ways to construct books and original ways to design them.
He invents bookbinding techniques which he shares via the self-published collection of tutorials ‘bookbinding out of the box’.
In 2013 he was the first to successfully conduct a remote bookbinding workshop, with students all around the world following his instructions via video conference.
Benjamin’s work has been awarded on several occasions. In 2009 he was a distinguished winner of the Designer Bookbinders International Competition and more recently third prize in the international competition ‘Open Set’.
He has taught workshops in Europe and the USA and is regularly invited to give lectures.
Benjamin Elbel was our first guest teacher with the Dos rapporté masterclass in September 2011 and is a regular guest teacher in our bindery since.
His next masterclass is in April 2023 with his latest new structure, the Pixel binding.
More information: Elbel-libro.com
