Judging a Book by Its Cover highlights selections from seven centuries of the Grolier Club’s collection of bindings, largely donated and built by the Club’s members over the course of its 140-year history. The exhibition explores the history of decorated bindings, book bindings as three-dimensional art objects, what makes a binding collectible, and the Club’s investment in commissioning fine bindings through the present day. Highlights from the 15th century to the present will be on view, including a silver filigreed and jeweled miniature Book of Hours (1673); a gilt maroon goatskin binding from a Vatican bindery, presented to Cardinal Basadonna (1674); and a bright green silk and floral embroidered binding created by May Morris, daughter of William Morris (ca. 1888). Judging a Book by Its Cover is curated by Grolier Club member H. George Fletcher, the former Astor Director for Special Collections at The New York Public Library and former curator at The Morgan Library & Museum. The accompanying catalogue, written and compiled by Fletcher, is available from University of Chicago Press.

The exhibition is also available online.