The Creuzevault Collection: In the Name of the Father

The path Henri Creuzevault (1905–1971) took included several steps in search of beautiful work that led to his insatiable passion for sculpture. A bookbinder's son who joined his father's workshop in 1920, he was soon in charge of decorating the bindings, designing his own patterns. His name became famous, alongside those of the older Pierre Legrain and his friend Rose Adler. "The Bibliothèque nationale de France has over two thirds of his nearly 850 patterns," says BnF curator Fabienne Le Bars, a specialist in the history of binding. "They give the full measure of his talent as a designer and show how restlessly he kept pushing back boundaries." The post-war period was fertile: in 1946 Creuzevault cofounded the Société de la reliure originale…