Dominic Riley
Award-winning fine binder and conservator known for design bindings and for teaching hand bookbinding internationally.
Veronica's Take
Dominic Riley, the UK-based bookbinding virtuoso, has been quietly revolutionizing the art of fine binding since the 1990s, earning international acclaim for his radical yet meticulous approach to restoring broken books. His work treats every spine and endpaper with the reverence of a painter's frame, earning him medals for designs that are both innovative and deeply respectful of tradition. As a globe-trotting teacher, Riley has shared his obsessive devotion to hand bookbinding with students worldwide, making him a shokunin whose influence extends far beyond his own studio.
He rebinds broken books by hand and wins medals for covers quietly radical, treating a spine and endpapers as seriously as a painter treats a frame.
Key Facts
The people behind Dominic Riley
Dominic Riley
profileBookbinding
Award-winning fine binder and conservator known for design bindings and for teaching hand bookbinding internationally.
Browse by discipline
More masters worth your time
Bob Kramer
One of few American Master Bladesmiths making kitchen knives, whose chef's knives fetch thousands and sell by lottery.
Korehira Watanabe
One of Japan's last swordsmiths, spending 40 years trying to resurrect the lost 'Koto' method of the legendary Masamune.
Edmund de Waal
Porcelain artist and author of The Hare with Amber Eyes, known for vast installations of pale thrown vessels in vitrines.
Toshiko Takaezu
Hawaiian-American ceramicist who pioneered the closed, sculptural 'moon' form, sealing rattling clay beads inside her pots.
Want discoveries like this in your inbox every morning?
One master of craft. Every morning. Chosen by someone with actual standards and zero patience for the mediocre. Free forever, unsubscribe whenever.