Last October we went to meet Yannick Allen-Vuillet, founder of one of the most recent (and ambitious) workshops in the Montreal book and paper landscape: Atelier Écluse. Despite having only opened in September 2022, the composition of the workshop itself attests to its integration in a long and ardent tradition of bookmaking in Montreal: the paper he uses was made by the Papeterie Saint Armand or the Atelier Retailles, his Challenge proofing press was acquired from the Atelier Universel, his Heidlberg platen hails from the printing arts center “L’imprimerie”, and a portion of his gilding tools come (indirectly) from Pierre Ouvrard. Yannick isn’t starting out, either, he studied visual arts at Concordia and is a trained paper maker and bookbinder.
The particularity of Atelier Écluse’s approach is to assemble the main tools of the different book trades under one roof, founding a concrete crossroads between all the approaches involved in the manufacture of book-objects: printing, binding, gilding, papermaking, weaving of book cloth… the list goes on. According to Yannick, the idea of grouping absolutely every tool all together is a bit excessive, but that’s still the initial intention. And the idea isn’t to become a museum, but to render accessible a well-equipped space for young creators to access a panoply of techniques in a kind of unified laboratory.
“A more felt finish”
In this day and age, the choice of using “vintage”, mechanical, analog tools could be likened to a refusal of new technologies, or even a romantic practice imbued with nostalgia for a bygone era. In the case of Atelier Écluse, however, the notion of any kind of fetishization of the past is rather puzzling. “I don’t think it’s old-fashioned to work with your hands.” Manual techniques allow Yannick, and many other creators, to create freely, at a small scale, for the acquisition price of used tools and a significant investment of time. According to Yannick, the very fact of opposing digital and analog practices contributes to the perpetuation of a myth of obsolescence: if we are not 100% dedicated to advanced technologies, then we must be either living in the past or attracted to the obsolete. Yannick seems to gravitate less to the old tools themselves than to books in general and their related practices. Such “antiques” can be seen more straightforwardly as levers towards practices that simply cannot exist without these tools. Rather than becoming knick-knacks in a flea market or tiny specks in a trash heap, they simply continue to be used at Atelier Écluse.
The loom, the etching press, the proofing press, the stoneframes, the paring knives, les presses à endosser, the standing press, the nipping press, the plough, the guillotine, the paper cutter, the wide variety of ropes, threads, bone folders, punches, knives: all these objects have the ability to contribute in a particular and unique way to the manufacture of a book, even today. They allow for “a more felt finish” that does not stand in opposition to any project that might choose to use laser cutting or 3-D printing — all of these rich techniques can cohabitate and contribute to the realization of contemporary books.