Herringbone Bindery
Erin Fletcher : Fine Binding & Edition Binding
Cover of Helen Fragments on a white table. Front cover of Helen Fragments on a white table. Close-up of front cover of Helen Fragments binding on a white table. Close-up of front cover of Helen Fragments binding on a white table. Close-up of back cover of Helen Fragments binding on a white table. Close-up of back cover of Helen Fragments binding on a white table.. Close-up of spine on Helen Fragments binding on a white table. Close-up of spine on Helen Fragments binding on a white table. Detail of edge on Helen Fragments binding on a white table. Interior of Helen Fragments binding on a white table. Detail of interior of Helen Fragments binding on a white table. Interior of Helen Fragments binding on a white table. Detail of painted hinge on Helen Fragments binding on a white table.
Helen Fragments: from books three & six of Homer’s Iliad – translated by Richard Seibert
With drawings by Winifred McNeill
Editions Koch, Berkeley, 2003



French-style fine binding with laced-in boards. Bound in periwinkle goatskin with back-pared onlays in terra cotta and blackberry goatskin and handmade papers in peach and pale peach. Onlays are embellished with embroidery. Details hand-painted on periwinkle leather. Leather wrapped endbands in raspberry goatskin with bands of light pink threads. Sewn on purple case paper stubs. Edge-to-edge doublures in blackberry goatskin with handmade paper onlays. Matching leather hinges. Screen-printed fly leaves with peach and pale pink handmade paper endpapers.

Binding is housed in a clamshell box

28.6cm x 16.2cm x 2.8cm – Completed 2021



Exhibition History
  • American Academy of Bookbinding Open|Set Exhibition (2025)
    • American Bookbinders Museum, San Francisco, CA




Artist Statement
Women who weave are often depicted as spiders. This symbolizes the power to create and to protect. At a pivotal moment in the story, Helen is found at her loom, weaving a cloak to document the impending war as the men in her life fight for the right to possess her. Menelaus, her husband is represented as a bull in continuous battle with Paris, her lover who is represented as a panther. Inspired by the classic Grecian borders in the illustrations, the design is meant to mimic the aesthetic at the time the Iliad was written in the 8th century.