Countdown to Perfection (1)

Judith Margolis is an Israel-based American essayist and artist who makes paintings, drawings, artist's books, and multi-media collages. Much of her work explores tensions between consciousness, feminism, and religious ritual tradition. Since 2000, Margolis has been the Art Editor of Nashim: The Journal of Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Issues, published by Indiana University Press. She is the Creative Director of Bright Idea Books, which produces limited edition and unique artist's books. She lives and works in Jerusalem.

Yehuda Miklaf was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1942, and educated there and in New York. In 1968, he moved to Toronto and began working at the University of Toronto Library, where he stayed for almost ten years. During this time, he began to learn bookbinding with Emrys Evans at the Rare Book Library. Yehuda befriended two other notable binders in the Toronto area. One was Anton (Tony) Lucas, the binder at the Metropolitan Toronto Library, and Michael Wilcox, who was an independent binder. Miklaf has been working as a professional binder since 1977 with major book collectors, artists, private presses, galleries, and museums in Israel and around the world. He immigrated to Jerusalem in the fall of 1986 with his wife, Maurene Fritz. He is also a professional printer and has made a number of his own artist’s books in limited editions. His own press, based in Jerusalem, is titled Yehuda Shalom Press.