2014 Rare Books fair

Founded on 23 June 1914 on the initiative of 29 member booksellers, the Syndicat national de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne is celebrating its centenary this year. To commemorate this event and recall the cultural role of booksellers throughout history, an exhibition will be organised during the fair to pay homage to a profession which has long recognised the importance of working together to make action more visible.

To highlight the activity of booksellers past and present, different documents will present the major figures of book selling, the history of the SLAM, its code of conduct, the reality of the profession down the centuries, past presidents and more. 

Defending the profession, making it known, circulating books, passing on heritage and implementing a policy of communication vis-à-vis the public - these are the goals that this professional organisation has set itself. The International Antiquarian Book Fair is a major event and it was entirely natural to pay homage to booksellers and their history with dedicated area at the heart of the event.
Stand C7 - west aisle

Innovative technology in the service of antiquarian works
The Laboratory of Digital Humanities at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has developed holographic windows which it presented at the Martin Bodmer Foundation in Geneva in 2013 during the exhibition. The reader at work. These windows will be presented for the first time in France at the International Antiquarian Book Fair at the Grand Palais in Paris.

The works presented in each window - 13th and 14th century manuscripts (facsimiles for the presentation at the Grand Palais) - will be highlighted with the projection of texts and images thanks to a wealth of computerised and interactive documentation.
The mechanism allows images to be juxtaposed around a real document and to isolate or enlarge certain sections. The images seem to float in the air like a hologram. When the visitor approaches, a grid appears as if projected onto the manuscript to guide the eyes, emphasising minuscule details such as annotations, comments or calligraphic signs, while new pieces of information appear to rise from the page, standing out from the text to give it an extra dimension. While contemplating the work, the visitor can also admire the rich content. These "intelligent" windows are a major innovation in the field of museography.

Thanks to the visual scenography modelled on the text, the visitor enjoys a unique encounter with a real object with his or her attention no longer being divided between the document and the accompanying explanation. "We are attempting to invent a new museographical language combining the direct experience of the work and its explanation in a single area," explains Frédéric Kaplan, Director of the Laboratory of Digital Humanities. Physical and intellectual encounters are thus combined in a single experience thanks to a new kind of narrative mechanism.

Exhibition of decorative bindingsThe Société de la Reliure Originale was founded in 1945 on the initiative of Julien Cain, the then administrator of the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, and the binder Paul Bonet. Only five other binders were deemed worthy of membership: Rose Adler, Robert Bonfïls, Georges Cretté, Henri Creuzevault and Jacques Anthoine-Legrain. Sixteen bibliophiles answered the call of the founders together with three booksellers: Pierre Berès, Georges Blaizot and Georges Heilbrun. That brought the total number of members to 26. The first steering committee comprised André Rodocanachi, Chairman, Paul Bonet, Vice-Chairman, Jacques Guignard, Secretary General, and Henri Creuzevault,Treasurer.

The aim of the association was to support binders creating original works. It did so by employing any means likely to promote knowledge and taste, in particular through quality exhibitions.

For 25 years - until 1970 - it organised exhibitions every six years at the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris in the Mazarine Gallery and participated in events in New York, Copenhagen, Stockholm, London and Zurich. In 1975, it exhibited in Brussels.
In 1979, the society revised its articles of association and changed its name to Les Amis de la Reliure Originale. In this form, the ARO limited membership solely to bibliophiles. This is its current form.

Since then, the ARO has organised a number of major events, including in Monaco (1983), at the Grolier Club in New York (1987), at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal on contemporary American bindings (1990), at the Maison de la Poésie with a collection of bindings from books illustrated by Picasso (1991) and at the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris. The exhibition "Max Jacob dans ses livres" (1994) and the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the association (1995).
Committed to promoting quality craftsmanship and original decoration, the ARO organises regular competitions with the winners receiving an order for a binding paid for by the association and intended for a book belonging to a major public library. The winners have included, among others, Pierre-Lucien Martin (1948), Germaine de Coster (1951), Alain Lobstein and Monique Mathieu (1961), Nadine Auffret (1980) and Sandra Aftalion (2009). The ARO has also participated, in varying capacities, in bindings exhibitions organised in Rheims, Nantes and Metz. In partnership with the Conseil Régional de Bourgogne, the association invited 19 binders to create bindings for rare or precious works on behalf of the municipal libraries of Burgundy. Every year since 1994, the ARO has organised the "Exposition Ephémère".

The exhibition which we have the honour of organising at the International Antiquarian Book Fair will bring together approximately 120 works from 29 of the leading contemporary French artists: Sandra Aftalion, Brigitte Benoist, Nathalie Berjon, Louise Bescond, Bernard Bichon, Annie Boige, François Brindeau, Anick Butre, Claude Debras, Alain Devauchelle, Sün Evrard, Christine Fabre-Bourgeois, Philippe Fie, Sylvie Frege, Christine Giard, Anne Giordan, Martine Grive, Nobuko Kiyomiya, Daniel Knoderer, Alain Koren, Anne Lemeteil, Monique Mathieu, Daniel-Henri Mercher, Florent Rousseau, Ana Ruiz-Larrea, Hélène Segal, Alain Taral, Renaud Vernier and Jacky Vignon.

The presentation will also include decorative bindings created by 7 foreign binders including 5 Belgian artists (Brother Edgard Claes, Anne Goy, Jacqueline Liekens, Hugo Liesen and Véronique Van Mol) and 2 Swiss artists (Jean Luc Honegger and Edwin Heim).

The bindings on show have been selected from the most notable works of each creator for the originality of their decoration and their relevance to the book within, the quality of the craftsmanship and, in the case of very recent bindings, the use of new materials.

For all information, contact:
Claude Blaizot | 164 Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris | 01 43 59 36 58 | claude.blaizot@wanadoo.fr