A giant dose of tiny books…
Part of the display that greeted participants at the Teeny Wonders workshop at the Bruce Peel Special Collections (brick for scale added in by our Head Alien).
Today I had a chance to leave the confines of Butterflies & Aliens North and visit another beloved library, the Bruce Peel Special Collections at the University of Alberta, to attend a workshop on miniature books titled Teeny Wonders, presented by Robert Desmarais, Head of Special Collections.
What huge delights in such little packages!
Miniature books are generally considered to be books that are no more than 3” in size in any dimension. This “genre” can be further subdivided into microminiature books measuring less than 1” and ultramicrominiature books measuring less than 1/4 of an inch in any direction, and also slightly expanded to include macrominiature books measuring between 3” and 4”.
The smallest miniature book in the Peel collection falls into the microminiature category, a volume delightfully and ironically titled Giants (with apologies for the focus on some of these pictures… I was having trouble getting the camera on my phone to focus on things this small!).
From there it was a morning of exploring and playing with a wide selection from the Peel’s full collection of several hundred miniatures books, out of which I’m going to highlight just a few.
From the smallest miniature book to one of the oldest, this Sumerian cuneiform tablet, circa 2500 BCE, was a great reminder of just how long humans have been recording information outside of our memories in book form. So yeah, just hanging out this morning with a 4500 year old clay tablet of human writing…
A bit of a jump into the future from there, this miniature edition of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress comes with its own miniature leather carrying case, for portability and ease of access to this popular work of its time. Ironically, this popularity has resulted in early editions of Bunyan works becoming exceedingly rare because they were the “mass market” books of their day, often cheaply made, treated as disposable, and shared and read until worn out. The Peel’s John Bunyan collection, the bulk of which was acquired as one collection in 1964, remains one of the best in the world.
Next, this little edition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, another microminiature, published in 1992 by Pennyweight Press and featuring the artwork of Barbara J. Raheb, even contains little pop-up elements, coloured images that fold up to reveal even more of the story. This particular copy is number 60 of a limited run of 100.
This beautiful little volume was one of three in our selection of samples published by Droplit Books of Toronto, which regrettably does not appear to still be in operation. Cold is “an old story retold by Erella Vent”, using this small format in combination with beautiful ink print illustrations and hand lettering to create a wonderful, and wonderfully tiny, work of art.
This next piece is an incredible work of miniature bookbinding, with gold embossing and leather inlays measuring mere millimetres across. And to top it off, the work, entitled Type and the alphabet, is basically an alphabet book of sample letterforms, which appeals on so many layers as to be ridiculous. Published by Red Squirrel Press in 1973 and featuring a custom binding by Michael Wilcox, combined with a downright sumptuous custom case, this was my second favourite item of the day.
But for me the pièce de résistance from today’s visit was The Pop-Up Unabridged History of the World by Paul Johnson. Published in 2008 by the Book Art Project, Cheadle Hulme, this copy is number 33 of a limited edition of 50.
Do you see it? This miniature book isn’t itself the pop-up unabridged history of the world, it’s the pop-up story of the making of the pop-up unabridged history of the world, which it then includes as part of the pop-up mechanics as a microminiature version of the actual pop-up unabridged history of the world.
Yes, I know, peak book nerd level achieved. I regret nothing.
As always, the team at the Peel put on an amazing workshop, a miniature glimpse into the remarkable work they do largely behind the scenes. While pandemic restrictions continue to put limits on access for now, we all look forward to a time when the Peel exhibit space will be filled with a new display and I can just randomly drop in and sit down with some random or not-so-random treasure from the stacks.
In the meantime, you are invited to pop over to the Bruce Peel Special Collections website, where you can peruse their digital exhibits, see retrospectives of their past in-person exhibits, and explore the listings for some of their research collections.
Happy exploring, and don’t forget your magnifying glass!
– Winston
