Here's a photo taken on the east side of the 'great room' in our Long Island home. We usually call it our "Gutenberg Library Room." The illuminations in these rare Gutenberg Bibles are truly amazing. Minnie & I have spent many Sunday evenings sitting in this room looking at every page. When I was on staff as a rare book conservator at the Library of Congress, Rare Book Conservation Division, Washington, D.C., I was fortunate to have the honor (on 09 September 1999) of assisting in changing out the Gutenberg (Volume III) on display, with Gutenberg (Volume I), which was opened to the first chapter of Ruth. Two of us then spending some time back in the lab with G-III.

Is there any ONE word to appropriately describe this beauty?

In 1990, Marcia Preston from OSU Friends of the Library commissioned me to create a design binding on a Tern Press edition of the Book of Matthew. Some weeks after the order I received a lovely card in the mail (in her amazing calligraphic hand) with a quote from John Ruskin: "When skill and love work together, expect a masterpiece." She signed the card "I'm expecting a masterpiece, Michael!" The point is this.... I hope these Gutenberg Bible masterpieces are loved as much as I love creating them! Michael L. Chrisman, Bookbinder.