Exhibition Evoking the Golden Age of Bookbinding Opens in Budapest

A temporary exhibition evoking the golden age of bookbinding entitled The Gottermayer Galaxy – Writers, Artists and Bindings, has opened in the MNMKK Museum of Applied Arts’ Ráth György Villa, on Városligeti Avenue (Városligeti fasor), Budapest.

The collection, on display until January 11, includes books by Hungarian novelist Mór Jókai, workshop reconstructions, tools, and the eventful life’s work of Nándor Gottermayer, the institution’s announcement highlighted. They added that the exhibition was opened in connection with the bicentenary of Jókai and was curated by Edit Darabos, chief restorer at the Museum of Applied Arts.

The exhibition reveals the life story of a craftsman, Nándor Gottermayer (1852-1924), a master bookbinder, whose work was characterized by three seemingly contradictory concepts—craftsmanship, art, and mechanization—that complemented each other and were of equal importance, they pointed out.

The Gottermayer Galaxy not only reflects on the virtual universe constructed from books, the Gutenberg galaxy that emphasizes content, but also deals with the physical creation of books; it presents a ‘galaxy’ of books created through the joint work of artists, illustrators, book designers, and the bookbinders who give them their final form,”

reads the museum’s statement.

They explained that Nándor Gottermayer’s role in his industry made him similar to his renowned contemporaries, Miksa Róth and Endre Thék. He was a master craftsman with virtuoso technical skills who never strayed far from his bookbinding table and was highly regarded by book collectors.

Serving the needs of large-circulation series, he acquired the latest bookbinding machines ahead of his contemporaries and, by continuously developing his company, became the owner of the most significant domestic bookbinding business by the mid-1890s. His workshop produced Jókai volumes, the popular Magyar Remekírók (Hungarian Master Writers) series by Révai Publishing, the Pallas Lexicon, and the complete works of Vörösmarty and Mikszáth.

They also mentioned that the exhibition is linked to the bicentenary of Mór Jókai’s birth. Its aim is to introduce Nándor Gottermayer, who played an important role behind the scenes in Jókai’s publications, to the general public. As they wrote, the collection does not focus on the writer’s oeuvre or the period of his best-known works, but on the development of the bookbinding industry, that is closely linked to book publishing.

The second part of the collection evokes this slowly dying profession with a partial reconstruction of the bookbinding workshop led by Álmos Jaschik at the School of Industrial Design. The traditional tools of the craft and the process of turning a design into a book are also presented, according to the press release, which also mentions that the duality of Gottermayer bookbinding is reflected in one of the exhibition’s highlights, the “twin-bound” edition of Mór Jókai’s A lélekidomár (The Soul Tamer), a rare combination of publisher’s and custom bindings.

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