In This Parisian Atelier, Bookbinding Is a Family Art

New York Times

27-06-2025

By James Hill for The New York Times First comes a love of books. Great patience and skill is required to restore old books, but equally important is the belief that each one is a work of art. The women who run the Atelier Devauchelle in Paris sew and create new bindings. They restore old bindings and torn pages. They create slipcovers and special boxes to protect fragile books.Their workshop is located near Drouot, the auction house, which sells antiquarian books. Naïk Duca has worked at the atelier for 19 years. She presses a thin heated roller onto foil to repair gold lines on leather book covers, a process known as gauffering.She also uses an array of brass stamps to emboss elaborate patterns onto the leather.'What I like is that it changes all the time, even if it seems I'm always doing the same thing,' she explained. 'I need to adapt to each book according to its structure and materials.'
Miki Tsuzaki, who has worked at the atelier for 22 years, specializes in binding and gold embossing. Her movements must be extremely precise when she sews the pages together with waxed linen thread. The craftswomen handle an extraordinary stock of materials, including silk, mother of pearl, wood and leathers that come in a vast range of colors and textures.
'Because we are working with objects that are a part of our heritage, we feel responsible,' said Catherine Colin, who directs the workshop. She has been there for 35 years. Isabelle Devauchelle, the owner, said that the workshop often doesn't know the value of the books it is repairing: 'It's better that way.'
Her grandfather started the business in the 1950s, and she took it over after her father died in 2011. 'We are the largest bookbinder doing entirely artisanal work in Paris,' she said.
Tsuzaki applies glue to heavyweight paper that will cover a slipcase.
This is a page from an 1839 first edition of Stendhal's 'La Chartreuse de Parme.'
Anne Lecat, who has been at the workshop for 17 years, specializes in paper restoration. First, she dips damaged pages into a special solution to remove the mold.
Then she immerses the pages in a tinted gelatin bath, which returns them to their original hue.
James Hill for The New York Times 'The number of clients has remained constant over the last years,' said Colin. 'They come because they have a love of books, and often the financial resources.'But who does the work has changed considerably.
'Originally it was just men,' Devauchelle said. 'Then, when I came it was mixed, and now it's just women.'