Following tradition, visiting Master Bookbinders, Michael Burke and Dominic Riley, will lecture about book structures both old and new. Their lectures never cease to be informative and fun filled.

Following his recent success in the International Bookbinding Competition, Dominic Riley will talk about his winning binding, Pyramus and Thisbe, now in the permanent collection of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. He will also show some his other recent commissioned design binding he has made in the past year.

Since his last visit Michael Burke has gained his Masters degree in the History of the Book from London University. Michael studied manuscripts made by the monks of Fountains Abbey in England in the middle ages. He will talk about the results of his historical research and will share his discoveries of the techniques they used.

About Dominic Riley

Dominic Riley learned bookbinding at age 16 from Benedictine monks and at the London College of Printing. He spent the last ten years in San Francisco teaching, lecturing and restoring rare books. He now has a bindery with Michael Burke in England's Lake District and serves as vice chairman of the Society of Bookbinders. In June 2013, he was awarded the Sir Paul Getty Bodleian Bookbinding Prize for his binding depicting the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Read more about the prize and see the work here.

About Michael Burke

Michael Burke studied bookbinding with Dominic Riley and paper conservation with Karen Zukor. He is a past chair of the North West and North Wales region of SoB, and has also taught extensively across the US and other countries. He is currently studying for a Masters degree in the History of the Book at the University of London, and lives in the Lake District of England, where he also teaches bookbinding.