Bookbinding: A Suite of Single-Section Books
Bookbinding:
A Suite of Single-Section Books (Plus a Slipcase)
Instructor: Derek Bacchus
Saturday & Sunday December 5 & 6, 2026
Time: 11:00am – 2:30pm
Fee: $180 ($160 for Workshop and $20 Materials fee)
Maximum capacity is 8
The single-section book is the most fundamental of book structures, and an introduction to many of the processes of bookbinding — folding, cutting, deckling, sewing. There are many creative ways to make these simple books a personal expression of your artistic or journalistic desires.
We will make five books beginning with the foundational pamphlet stitch, followed by the multi-hole raindrop stitch, the shoreline stitch, a French twist backstitch, and the string-of-pearls stitch with contrasting color threads. We will finish by constructing a non-adhesive slipcase to hold all your books.
After the workshop you will be able to scale up in many different ways on your own — size, complexity, inventiveness of materials selection and finishing techniques for the cover.
Bonus: you will learn about the essentials of paper grain, plus materials purchasing options for your future books.
Interested in a shorter, Mini Workshop? Check out our Book That! series, teaching a new bookbinding method in a matter of a couple of hours.
Derek Bacchus has been a publishing consultant, creative director, designer, photographer, educator, letterpress printer, and bookbinder. He was a magazine art director for a number of titles, a book publishing design director, and a publisher and chief product officer at a children’s edtech startup.
He has taught for over twenty years, including design history at Parsons School of Design and The Cooper Union (New York); 2-D Design, and Information Design at Cooper Union; and bookbinding at the Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art in Brittany, France. He has design degrees from Parsons School of Design, and Yale University, where he also studied Greek, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance history.