Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion, Harriet and John Stuart Mill.

Austin, TX: Press Intermezzo, 2001.

Bexx Caswell

Bookbinding and Conservation Portfolio

FINE BINDINGS

My design is representative of the Liberty Tree, a large elm which stood near Boston Common from 1646-1775.  The tree earned its name in 1765, when the Sons of Liberty gathered there to stage a protest against the Stamp Act.  Because the Act imposes taxes on legal documents, newspapers, advertisements, and other publications, it was viewed by the colonists as a means of censorship, or a "knowledge tax," on the rights of the colonists to write and read freely.   In “Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion”, Mill preaches against the rule of a “tyrannical government “, and advocates that the individual should be at liberty to express his views, without the threat of censorship.

Full leather French style fine binding in eggplant goatskin with turquoise, crimson, and brown goatskin onlays; surface gilding and blind tooling with hand cut finishing tools; gouache edge decoration, handmade paste paper doublures.