"Bibliophile's Wonderland"

Bill Eichenberger, of the Columbus Dispatch, wrote an interesting article which appeared last Sunday. Collector's handmade volumes combine art, literature. The article featured Columbus area resident Marcia Preston and showed several b/w photos of the beautiful handmade books from her collection. I've not seen many handmade books, but the subject is becoming more appealing to me . . . in fact, it's becoming so directly proportional to the speed at which I'm producing books (print on demand and all that) for clients, though most folks do prefer excellence over fast.
 
Ms. Preston's home is described as a "Bibliophile's Wonderland"! Oh, that sounds heavenly. Eichenberger goes on to quote the head of rare books and manuscripts for Ohio State University libraries' Geoffrey Smith (there's a neat job) as attributing Ms. Preston's good collection to her "good taste."
 
Well, you can read the article for yourself, but I was so excited when I did a search online for the work of an artist recently shown at the Columbus Museum of Art, Nancy Rexworth. (The link is to another gallery, but shows examples of her work.) Well, when I did the search I found out that there is a book of her Diana-camera photos. Now, I know it's not the same thing; it's a rare book, a LE, but not an art book in the sense that Ms. Preston collects... but it was just one more beautiful button in the sweater that creates the sort of bookshelf Mr. Eichenberger quotes Cyril Connolly as preferring -- "a mass of guady variety." (How's that for using poor analogy for tying a whole line of thought together.)
 
To sum up: On a rainy Saturday; with good coffee, a bowl of fresh raspberries, and a sweet-smelling parrot on my shoulder . . . searching around for beautiful books is a nice respite from listening to the news.