Water
2008
A Series of Interpertations of The Theme of Water
"Designer Bookbinders is an elite organization of bookbinders in England, hosting a competition. They produce a book, send it around the world, and then there is an exhibition and a catalog. Incline Press produced this book about water with texts and images. I was sent a copy and entered it into the competition. The book holds original prints and poems by Clare Curtis, Bert Eastman, Rigby Graham, Victoria Hall, Eric Hasse, Paul Kershaw, and Anne Muir.
I used four colors of leather joined together with a special technique to produce a smooth surface, and then I tooled a pattern on top of it resembling raindrops. I used very dark blue leather for the sky, a late blue leather for the clouds, a dark blue resembling the mountains, and lighter blue for the sea. And hundreds of silver drops."
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: 550
- Pages: 10
- Type of binding: Design Binding
- Languages: English
- Dimensions (cm): 28x20
- Printing: Bruns Night, Incline Press
- Binding: Yehuda Miklaf
- Type of printing: Letterpress
- Publication: Incline Press for Designer Bookbinders
- Place of publication: Oxford, UK
- 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.
