‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ goes the old adage. But that is exactly what we are asked to do in this thoughtful exhibition. Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery in Hampshire occupies a charming building. It has recently benefited from a £4 million redevelopment, allowing it to display exhibits in excellent conditions. It has done just that with ‘Bound Together’, which offers an insight into the life and work of the master binder and local resident Roger Powell, who was born in 1896. It is complemented by a separate display of contemporary works submitted by members of the professional society Designer Bookbinders. The juxtaposition invites us to consider a central question: does the merit of a binding derive from its role in completing and protecting a book, or can bindings be considered works of art in their own right, quite apart from any practical function they may serve? 

While the fact is diplomatically swerved in the exhibition, it is notable that in 1979 Powell resigned his honorary fellowship of Designer Bookbinders, a gesture symptomatic of his resistance to anything overly fancy or that might conflict with his view of books ‘as three dimensional and articulated objects intended for use’. Like the best conservators, he exercised restraint. When asked to consider the conservation of Europe’s earliest complete bound book, the seventh-century St Cuthbert Gospel, he advised doing nothing, suggesting it should not be ‘treated with anything but informed veneration’. 

Powell’s commitment to attractive yet utilitarian bindings places him in the Arts and Crafts tradition. We see the Arts and Crafts influence in some of the earliest examples of his work in the exhibition, modest everyday books he rebound to provide strength and durability. Powell was a pupil at