Artist Bookbinder Song Haein's Work... "15 Years of Activity, An Honor"
A miniature book made by a Korean was selected for the 100th anniversary project of Queen Mary's Dolls' House at Windsor Castle in the UK.
On the 4th, Yonhap News reported that Korean artist bookbinder Song Hae-in, who is active in London, was responsible for one of the 21 contemporary works filling the study of the Dolls' House. Artistic bookbinding, which refers to European traditional bookbinding, involves a delicate and complex process of hand-binding.
The British Royal Family website and others announced on the 4th that a miniature book made by Korean artist bookbinder Song Hae-in was selected for the 100th anniversary project of Queen Mary's Dolls' House at Windsor Castle in the UK. The photo shows the library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House at Windsor Castle, UK. Photo by Yonhap News.
Song created a work by Elif Shafak, a British female novelist of Turkish origin, in a size suitable for the Dolls' House, about the size of a postage stamp (4.5 cm in height).
Books such as the message from Queen Camilla, who promoted this project, "Recipes for the Queen" by Camilla's son Tom Parker Bowles, "The Coronation of Charles III and Queen Camilla," and "Africa's Origins in Britain" were also transformed into miniatures by British artistic bookbinders.
The books produced this time are scheduled to be exhibited at Windsor Castle and then stored in the Royal Library. There are about 600 books in the Dolls' House study, many of which were handwritten by authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Dolls' House is a mansion built at a scale of 1:12, with a study, dining room, bedroom, and other rooms made very intricately. When you take out and open the books, the text is printed and readable. It was planned in 1921 by Princess Marie Louise, cousin of King George V of the UK, for Queen Mary, and was completed in 1924 under the overall design supervision of Britain's top architect Edwin Lutyens. Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away in 2022, was Queen Mary's granddaughter.
The Dolls' House includes a wine cellar, a crown embedded with real jewels, a grand piano, a vacuum cleaner, a sewing machine, as well as electricity, an elevator, and plumbing, all precisely implemented, earning it the nickname of a 1920s time capsule. Perhaps because of this, since it was opened to the public in 1925 to raise charity funds, it is known that over 1.6 million people have visited.
In a phone interview with Yonhap News on the 1st, Song said, "There are almost no Koreans among artistic bookbinders active in the UK, so it is an honor to be the only one selected this time," adding, "I met Queen Camilla at a reception at Windsor Castle on the 30th of last month wearing a hanbok, and she showed interest in when and how I started artistic bookbinding."
He is known to have studied visual design in the Department of Industrial Design at Seoul National University, then came to the UK in 2005 and earned a master's degree at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. He also works on producing artist books including artistic bookbinding, and several years ago was selected as a fellow of the British Guild of Bookbinders, one of only about 30 people.
The British Library, Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), and Stanford University in the US also hold Song's works. He received the Silver Award for artistic bookbinding, awarded once every four years by the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
