Prison Bindings

The World’s Famous Prisons - An Account of the State of Prisons from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, with the History of Celebrated Cases. Printed in London by The Grolier Society, 1905. 

  12 volume set in octavo.  Each volume creates 1/12th of two complete murals, ( front covers together and back covers together) and a rendering of the legendary Château d’if is depicted by assembling the 12 spines together.  Display : hand forged black metal prison doors, attached to distressed walnut frame and base, depicting etched prisoner markings, 30.75 x 30.25 inches  

“For all evils there are two remedies - time and silence.” 

Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

Humankind has never found difficulty in manufacturing all manner of horrific punishments, and one of the most soul disintegrating fates might be the oubliette, (from the french verb oublier, meaning “ to forget). Briefly described, a person is forced into a small pit within the floor of a dungeon and subsequently forgotten about forever. There is no extravagant torture device, no vast prison term…just lonely dark silence until death from dehydration. 

There is a particularly disturbing element to be considered as disposable, valueless and non-existent whilst still technically existing…ultimately becoming nothing. 

Depicting such a cruel medieval invention became the starting point for this massive binding project, specifically the lower right portion of the assembled front covers, portraying hands grasping iron bars in desperation.

Flowing from the oubliette starting point, the inspiration for the layout came from Picasso’s tumultuous Guernica, a chaotic collage creating front and back murals in twelve volumes. The front covers reveal the hopelessness of imprisonment, a stone penitentiary tower casting a watchful beam of light over rats, insects, a human skull, and iron shackles. In the darkened sky, a hot air balloon arrives too late for a poorly planned escape plan. The back covers show the potential for freedom, a noose yet to hang a neck swaying from the gallows, an empty gibbet cage, an escape rope from a window, a prisoner tunnelling to freedom, white doves flying above a window with dismantled bars… a sail boat at the ready. At the lower right a nod to Tantalus, hooded and bound in waist deep water, unable to drink or eat the fruit nearby…but wait…a key dangles from his neck…

The two murals can be viewed by arranging the volumes in the custom jail display case, the doors can be closed and padlocked. When the volumes are shelved within their slipcases, they reveal a third image of the ruins of the Chateau d’if, the infamous prison of Edmond Dantès and many many other unlucky souls.

This project is another example in the new venture of, “book sculpture”.

-A. von Hemmersbach -  created over 10 months between 2025-2026.

The bindings and slip cases were assembled at Felton Bookbinding by bookbinding Master, Keith Felton. .