Tour Du Monde
2004
Text by Jules Verne, Illustrations par De Neuville et L. Benett
"There are four book covers that I submitted to a book cover competition in France – the Biennale for Book Arts. Every two years, an exhibition is held for which a book is produced, usually a facsimile edition of a famous French text. They send the edition to 800 bookbinders around the world – each of whom creates their own design with the aim of being included in the catalog, and perhaps winning a prize.
The first cover I submitted was Around the World in 80 Days. I read the book and used images of various ways to travel the world: by boat, elephant, train, etc. I was going to put an air balloon, but it turns out that it was only in the Disney film, so I didn't put it on the cover. The other thing that was crazy - I made the book round: to each cover I attached a piece of the insulation styrofoam – I carved it so that it was rounded, so that the book comes out in a round shape. It functions very well as a book – it also rocks really well, like a boat. The images were added to the base leather with the onlay technique."
The description of this book is transcribed from conversations between Yehuda Miklaf and Shiraz Grinbaum held in January 2026. The collection of the legendary Jerusalem bookbinder was photographed especially for the website by Yair Meyuhas. Miklaf's collection includes Design Bindings created over more than 40 years.
- Copies: 761
- Pages: 181
- Type of binding: Design Binding
- Languages: French
- Dimensions (cm): 29x21
- Printing: Biennales Mondiales de la Reliure d'Art
- Binding: Yehuda Miklaf
- Type of printing: Facsimile Edition
- Publication: Biennales Mondiales de la Reliure d'Art
- Place of publication: France
- Book photography: Leafing Magazine
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.
