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Tomorrow's Past

Tomorrow's Past is an international group of like-minded bookbinders who make modern conservation bi

Tomorrow's Past is a small, international group of bookbinders who make modern conservation bindings for antiquarian books. From 2003 to 2008 they exhibited their work at the annual, international Antiquarian Booksellers Association Fair at Olympia in London. Exhibitions have been presented at the Salon du Livre Ancien, Grand Palais, Paris (2007–2011) and at The Society of Bookbinders biennial con

ferences at Warwick University (UK) in 2009 and 2011. The group recently had an exhibition: Beautiful Readable Objects at The Aram Gallery, London. The number of bookbinders involved with Tomorrow's Past has remained fairly constant – between ten and twelve binders from UK, Italy, France, The Netherlands and others as invited. All of them work professionally as bookbinders, some as teachers, and most handle work of many different types and periods in their everyday work. This fusion of experience and historical awareness with modern conservation materials, techniques and skill has produced work which is radical in its simplicity, ingenuity and truth to materials. The most regular core of bookbinders has been: Kathy Abbott (UK); Carmencho Arregui (Italy); Cristina Balbiano d'Aramengo (Italy); Sün Evrard (France); Charles Gledhill (UK); Peter Jones (UK); Katinka Keus (Netherlands); Jen Lindsay (UK); Tracey Rowledge (UK). A selection of Tomorrow’s Past work can be seen at: http://www.outofbinding.com/tp_binders.htm

08/02/2026

Day 1 of CODEX! What an intense and busy day! Great to talk to so many interesting and interested people. What a great community we have!

04/02/2026

Tomorrow’s Past will be exhibiting new work at CODEX 2026 from 7-10 February 2026 at Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway, Oakland, California.
If you’re coming to the fair, come and see us at table 44!
Last up: TRACEY ROWLEDGE Extract from Anecdotes of Painting from The London Monthly Magazine, March 1810.
Bound in 2026
Size: 185 x 119 x 4mm
Materials: Handmade paper, lens tissue, melinex/Mylar, acrylic paint, wheat starch paste, methyl cellulose.

Many thanks to Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd., for taking these photographs and for kindly sponsoring Tomorrow’s Past for the fair.

03/02/2026

Tomorrow’s Past will be exhibiting new work at CODEX 2026 from 7-10 February 2026 at Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway,
Oakland, California. If you’re coming to the fair, come and see us at table 44!
Next up: SOL REBORA
De L’emploi de Densimetre en Brasserie by Eug. van Berchem, 1885.
Bound in 2026
Size: 220 x 147 x 14 mm
Materials: Japanese and Handschöpfte handmade paper endpapers. Cover: Cotton cloth covered with Japanese “Gampi” paper coloured with gold acrylic and a digital printed pattern.
Photography by Sol Rebora.

02/02/2026

Tomorrow’s Past will be exhibiting new work at CODEX 2026 from 7-10 February 2026 at Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway,
Oakland, California. If you’re coming to the fair, come and see us at table 44!
Next up: Jen Lindsay’s - Hoppus’s Measurer, 1840. More Simplified Binding: Jane and John Jeffery’s printed paper, handmade paper, pasteboards, h**p cord.

Many thanks to Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd., for taking these photographs and for kindly sponsoring Tomorrow’s Past for the fair.

01/02/2026

Tomorrow’s Past will be exhibiting new work at CODEX 2026 from 7-10 February 2026 at Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway,
Oakland, California. If you’re coming to the fair, come and see us at table 44!
Next up: PETER JONES
Diptych - 13th century liturgical music manuscript.
Bound in 2006.
Size: 263 x 163 x 21mm
Materials: Diptych in various hardwoods with hide hinges housing manuscript which
is framed so that it may be removed and reinserted to view the reverse side.

Many thanks to Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd., for taking these photographs and for kindly sponsoring Tomorrow’s Past for the fair.

01/02/2026

Tomorrow’s Past will be exhibiting new work at CODEX 2026 from 7-10 February 2026 at Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway,
Oakland, California. If you’re coming to the fair, come and see us at table 44!
Next up: ANNE GOY
La Lumière et Les Couleurs by Amédée Guillemin, 1874.
Bound in 2026
Size: 190 x 125 x 28mm
Materials: Buffered Crescent Museum Board, archival rag endpapers, Tyvek®, Japanese paper, EvaconR, Tylose acrylic inks.

Many thanks to Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd., for taking these photographs and for kindly sponsoring Tomorrow’s Past for the fair.

30/01/2026

Tomorrow’s Past will be exhibiting new work at CODEX 2026 from 7-10 February 2026 at Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway,
Oakland, California. If you’re coming to the fair, come and see us at table 44!
Next up: CHARLES GLEDHILL 2 (books)
War in the West Indies by Dundas from 1796. Bound in 2025
Size: 235 x 193mm
Materials: Archival polyester, Japanese tissue, handmade paper, linen thread, Caplain gold leaf.
And
Pyrrhus and Demetrius by Adriano Morselli, 1709.
Bound in 2025.
Size: 225 x 173mm
Materials: Archival polyester, Japanese tissue, handmade paper, linen thread, gold leaf.

Many thanks to Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd., for taking these photographs and for kindly sponsoring Tomorrow’s Past for the fair.

29/01/2026

Tomorrow’s Past will be exhibiting new work at CODEX 2026 from 7-10 February 2026 at Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway,
Oakland, California. If you’re coming to the fair, come and see us at table 44!
Next up:
CRISTINA BALBIANO D'ARAMENGO
Canal Interocéanique de Panama – Action de Cinq Cents Francs au
Porteur from 1886.
Bound in 2026
Size: 245 x 105mm
Materials: ‘Untouchable’ binding in handmade Khadi light beige paper, blue and
white glass beads, mylar; case in Fabriano Murillo paper 190 gsm and mylar

Many thanks to Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd., for taking these photographs and for kindly sponsoring Tomorrow’s Past for the fair.

28/01/2026

Tomorrow’s Past will be exhibiting new work at CODEX 2026 from 7-10 February 2026 at Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway.
Oakland, California. If you’re coming to the fair, come and see us at table 44!
First up (in alphabetical order):
KATHY ABBOTT
Hudibras by Samuel Butler, with Engravings by William Hogarth, London, 1732.
Bound in 2026
Size: 155 x 92 x 25mm
Materials: Japanese paper hand gilded with 23.5 carat gold leaf, handmade paper, mould made paper, Ramie band, Usumino Japanese tissue.
Structure: Covered laced-on boards binding over mould made paper boards

Many thanks to Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd., for taking these photographs and for kindly sponsoring Tomorrow’s Past for the fair.

13/08/2025

GREAT NEWS! The Private Library issue dedicated to the work of Tomorrow’s Past* is back in print!! If you’d like to order a copy, please DM Tracey Rowledge or Kathy Abbott - bookbinder to order a copy. The cost is £8 plus postage. *Tomorrow’s Past is an international bookbinding collective formed in 2003. Our guiding principle is that if an antiquarian book is beyond repair, then it is an opportunity to rebind the book with modern sensibilities, using all our knowledge as bookbinders to devise the best structure to suit the needs of any given book. The structures are mainly non-adhesive and are bound in conservation grade materials. The book structures are intelligent and are of our time, our collective aim is to re-bind antiquarian books with the respect these artefacts deserve.

05/05/2025

As part of London Craft Week at the V&A, Tracey Rowledge is pleased to have the opportunity to share and talk about ‘Tomorrow’s Past’ - a small international group of bookbinders who make modern conservation bindings for antiquarian books. Tracey will show how and why a ‘Tomorrow’s Past’ book is made, there will be examples of ‘Tomorrow’s Past’ book structures for you to see, alongside demonstrations on different aspects of making a particular book structure which Tracey has devised.

By sharing the ideas and thinking that lie behind ‘Tomorrow’s Past’ books, we hope to broaden the discussion and attitudes toward how best to preserve the integrity of books as artefacts. For ‘Tomorrow’s Past’ it’s about maintaining and championing an informed sensibility, so that the needs of the book remain paramount and the object’s past life sits seamlessly within our work. The result is a book that opens beautifully and looks in balance with the time in which we live, as much as with the time and place in which it was made.

The session, which is free to attend, will be held in the Room 98, The Kusuma Gallery, Photography Centre, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Tuesday 13th May, 10.30-4.30

Take a look at the programme, as there’s a wonderful range of events happening at the V&A that day
https://www.vam.ac.uk/festival/2025/london-craft-week

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http://www.outofbinding.com/tp_introduction.htm

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