Oak Knoll

An exhibition of 45 works by innovative French bookbinder de Gonet was held in New York from May 16 to June 16, 1987. According to Jan van der Marck in the introduction, innovation is a radical attack on the continuity of thought and action that distinguishes culture and informs tradition. There are two ways in which to detect it: by deduction and induction. The former requires that we search for a break in an evolving stylistic configuration much as we would for a stoppage of leak in a pipeline. The latter proceeds by the intuitive recognition of a sea change, and the ability to pinpoint evidence from clues. At first blush, de Gonet's ingeniously crafted or industrially produced covers resemble the lid of a roll top box or the dash of a racing car. These unsubtle clues that somebody is playing hard and fast with the bookbinders tradition are the unchallengeable evidence of innovation. Black and white illustrations.