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The top 20 BC book designs of all time

Attention bookworms, design nerds, type fiends, and library denizens enamored of fine leather-bound tomes - the Alcuin Society, Canada's foremost bibliophilic association, turns fifty this year! Since 1965, the Alcuin has been producing Amphora, a qu
Attention bookworms, design nerds, type fiends, and library denizens enamored of fine leather-bound tomes - the Alcuin Society, Canada's foremost bibliophilic association, turns fifty this year! Since 1965, the Alcuin has been producing Amphora, a quarterly journal of books and book arts, and issuing awards for book design achievement. Learn more about their history, and their namesake, Alcuin of York, here. Concerned that you might suffer from bibliophilia? Breathe deeply (inhaling that sweet book smell) and confirm your suspicions by joining hundreds of fellow book-lovers at the Alcuin's annual Wayzgoose, a free celebration of printing arts. Paper marblers, letterpress printers, bookbinders, calligraphers, illustrators and private presses, abandoning their usual reticence, will be demonstrating techniques and displaying examples of their craft to the public. This year's event includes local superstar exhibitors like Greenboathouse Press, illustrator Charles Van Sandwyk, and Barbarian Press, among many more. The 2015 Wayzgoose happens at the Central Branch (Alice McKay Room) of the Vancouver Public Library from 10-4 on Saturday, October 31st. And while it won't relieve your bibliophilic symptoms (in fact, they may be aggravated by the sheer preponderance of printed matter), you will certainly find your community of paper-oriented Vancouverites. More details here. To stimulate that bibliophilic optic nerve, Vancouver is Awesome requested The Paper Hound to pick their top twenty B.C. book designs. Here they are:

The top 20 BC Book Designs of All Time

By Vancouver Is Awesome

As selected by The Paper Hound Bookshop

  • The Place of Scraps by Jordan Abel

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Talonbooks, 2013)

  • Totem Poles by Marius Barbeau

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (National Museum of Canada, 1950)

  • British Columbia Library Quarterly

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (October, 1958)

  • The Log's Log by Carole Itter

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Intermedia, 1972)

  • Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer / Owls See Clearly at Night

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    by Julie Flett (Simply Read, 2010)

  • The Innocence of Trees: Emily Carr and Agnes Martin by David Bellman

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Morris & Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2010)

  • Medicine My Mouths on Fire by Bill Bissett

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Oberon Press, 1974)

  • Ocean, Paper, Stone by Robert Bringhurst

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

     (Hoffer, 1984)

  • The Double Hook by Sheila Watson

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (McClelland & Stewart, 1959)

  • The Weather by Lisa Robertson

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (New Star Books, 2001)

  • Sunny by Robin Mitchell Cranfield and Judith Steedman

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Simply Read, 2003)

  • Notes from the Century Before: A Journal from BC by Edward Hoagland

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Random House, 1969)

  • Eight Short Stories by Henry Kreisel et al.

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Klanak Press, 1959)

  • Vancouver Anthology by Stan Douglas

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Talonbooks/Or Gallery, 2011)

  • Vancouver Soundscape by R. Murray Schaefer and World Soundscape Project

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Sonic Research Studio, SFU, 1973)

  • Orchids of British Columbia by A.F. Szczawinski

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (BC Provincial Museum, 1959

  • Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Macmillan, 1964)

  • Jabbering with Bing Bong by Kevin Spenst

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (Anvil Press, 2015)

  • British Columbia: A Centennial Anthology by R.E. Watters

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (McClelland and Stewart, 1958)

  • Japanese Culinary Pop by Teiji Itoh and Philip Thiel

    By Vancouver Is Awesome

    (UBC Fine Arts Gallery exhibition catalogue, 1970)