Escape Velocity

Exhibition binding of Escape Velocity for the 2003 Guild of Bookworkers Triennial Exhibition.

• Mark Dery (American, b. 1959).
• Artist binding by Scott Kellar (American).
• Escape Velocity: Cyber Culture at the End of the Century.
• New York: Grove Press, 1996.
• Bound in grey Harmatan goatskin leather with leather onlays, blind tooling and silver foil with Fabriano endsheets, hand-sewn red silk endbands and black burnished edges.
• Housed in a cloth-covered clamshell box with a leather label.

Artist statement by Scott Kellar from the exhibition:

"This binding began as a phrase materializing in my mind. The exhibit was called ‘In Flight’ and binders were to bind a book related to the broad theme. As I pondered, I suddenly said ‘escape velocity!’ Liking the sound of it, I found a book with that title, and read it. The book turned out to be worthy of the phrase, so I bound it. The author examines the yearning that many people have, and have had, to escape the boundaries of the physical, be it through metaphysics, technology or even chemical therapy. My design is intended to give imagery to that craving."