Above: a photo of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge I took on the ferry from Oakland to—you guessed it—San Francisco. 

It was a very late decision to attend the CODEX Book Art Fair in Oakland two weekends ago, but I’m happy I did. Held every two years, the fair brings together an international community of book artists and enthusiasts. It was a great deal of fun meeting some of the people we’ve worked with before and others whose work we’ve admired from a far. 

Here are a few quick snapshots, I’ll keep the captions short but they were all lovely and a lot of fun to spend time with. Photos first and captions after.

Paul Suntup and his team at Suntup Editions helped reshape the modern fine press landscape when they started out, and it was a pleasure to meet up and talk books for a while. The American Bookbinders Museum in San Francisco is hosting an exhibition of the Press’s work, titled A 21st-Century Fine Press, running through April 25, 2026.

I also had the chance to spend time with part of the team from Fablelistik Editions, including Taylor Armstrong. It’s always a pleasure connecting with other people in the publishing world who are passionate and care deeply about what they do, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.

Absolute pleasure chatting with Zoë from Cave Paper, who has created the handmade paper for some of our books including Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Later this year she’ll also be working on another custom project for us. 

Zach from Collectible Book Vault and Kate Holland with the design binding she did of our edition of Treasure Island in the background. Kate and I also spent time discussing the Roman Numeral Edition of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road that she’ll be working on. 

Gillian Stewart from Juju Books who makes beautiful bespoke books and enclosures. 

The incomparable James Freemantle of St. James Park Press, Zach, and Roger Grech of Roger Grech Bindery. Not only is Roger a talented bookbinder, but he’s also always up for an adventure, even when things stall and the way is blocked. 

Larry and Peggy of Foolscap Press, both lovely, warm people who design, print and bind their books. A pleasure to meet them in person for the first time after collecting a number of their books.

David Pascoe of Nawakum Press. Another publisher whose work never fails to impress and inspire. 

Jamie Murphy, artist, designer, and printer, and all round nice guy, of The Salvage Press. I had a chance to see Carbon in person, but I tried not to gawk too much as I plan to save that for when my own copy arrives soon. 

A few Conversation Tree Press collectors also came over to say hi and I completely forgot to take photos. If you’re reading this, it was a pleasure to meet you and thank you so much for coming over and introducing yourselves!