During my bookbinding placement I had to repair many books where the spines had deteriated through use or age and where they were no longer doing the job of holding to book block and boards together. Most detremental wear to books comes from where they are pulled off of the shelf. Understandably people will pull the books off using one of their index fingers at the top of the spine. This is usually because a shelf full of books means there is nowhere else to get any leverage. This action puts pressure on the material of the joint of the spine, and over a long period of time can weaken or tear the spine off in some cases.

I forgot to mention I am only refering to decent hardback books that have this problem, as perfect bound books (paper held together with glue) do not have a tubed spine. Perfect bound books are another nightmare problem that is not worth mentioning at this moment! Maybe thats for another post.

Anyway, this post is for the nice typographic suprises that I found hidden under some spines that I needed to repair. The reason is utterly practical. The bookbinder who made the book, or the last person to repair it needed paper of a certain weight, usually about the same consistancy as brown wrapping paper to make the spine with. It needs to be strong enough to hold together as a spine but also be flexible enough to bend as the book is opened. As this part of the book is never meant to be seen by the reader it makes no difference if there is anything printed on this paper, so binders have used whatever seemed to be to hand.

I had hoped on in reading the ‘accidental content’, for some secret messages left by the previous binder about current social issues of the time or some form of ‘between the lines’ comment on the book, but I was left dreaming. What did occur to me however was the potencial for me to be able add these messages into books that I might repair or build in the future. So if I ever publish a decent made hardback book maybe you should rip the spine off to see if there is any off the wall comments or interesting newspaper cuttings from the news the day it was made.

For more images click here.