Each month, we invite visionaries, designers, and artists to share their ex libris, providing a diverse array of perspectives and inspirations from the creative community.
Guestlibris
Collection
For Bobbilibris’ first anniversary, I thought it would be meaningful and fun to collaborate with my dear friends Josh and Thierry, a creative duo working under the name Collection. They run a studio in Montreal known for their thoughtful storytelling, strong ideas, and attention to tangible objects. I rent a space in their office, and I’ve had the chance to witness firsthand the care and dedication they bring to their projects, as well as the intelligence behind their concepts.
Rooted in a shared sensitivity for storytelling, materiality, and books, they are currently working on the first issue of their own magazine, Deep Québ — a project driven by their desire to highlight the beauty found in Quebec’s regional realities. Through this publication, they explore storytelling in a more intimate and grounded way, with a strong attention to place, narrative, and overlooked details.
For this milestone, I wanted to bring a different perspective on books. Josh and Thierry each have their own unique relationship with them, which feels refreshing and distinct from more traditional “book lovers” who tend to collect them in a more conventional way. I believe books can be experienced in many different ways, and it’s this diversity of perspectives that I want to highlight through this collaboration.
Yutong’s Book
How would you describe yourself in your creative practice?
J: I’d say our approach is driven by the journalistic urge to tell a truth and the capitalistic urge to do it for brands.
T: We always try to infuse meaning into what we create. We don’t aim to make something beautiful just for the sake of it, nor do we come up with clever ideas just to prove our cleverness. We do a lot of research to ensure our final product is grounded in cultural relevance. That’s how we’ve been carving out a space between the two big chairs of design and advertising. One cheek on each.
J: When I was young, all I ever asked for on my birthdays was books. I didn’t pay attention in elementary school because I was too busy reading. I was in the youth book club in my hometown, and I eventually got banned from the monthly reading quizz because I was DESTROYING the other kids too much. So I ended up studying literature. Reading then became a homework, a chore. I hated it. And it tainted my relationship with books to this day. I still love them as objects, but fiction doesn’t interest me anymore. I read to learn about topics that intrigue me.
T: Books, to me, are manuals, tools that help me achieve a goal, not objects to be displayed. I read them, assimilate the knowledge, complete the task, and discard them.
What is your relationship with books?
How would you describe the place books/magazine hold in your life?
J: Probably not the healthiest thing, but I like that people can see my bookshelf when they walk into my place, because I think of it it as a reflection of my interests.
T: I own three books, each with a clear purpose: A book of photos of James Dean (not photos he took, just photos of him) that made me start smoking, a book on how to quit smoking that made me quit smoking, and Creative Source No. 8, by Peter Cordy, that made me fall in love with graphic design.
For this curation, Josh selected the books, while Thierry chose to respond with a funny constraint, using the same book as a reference across all his entries. What starts as a recurring joke gradually reveals a different way of looking at a single object, and how much it can hold over time.
J: I think the first book I ever saw as a work of art in itself, and not just a container for a story, was Le grand livre de Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama. It was a moodboard of all the elements that made up the universe of his mangas. Even today, 25 years later, it stresses me out when someone flips through it. ATTENTION AUX COINS DE PAGES.
T: My mother had a box of books from her graphic design student years. Among them was Creative Source No. 8 by Peter Cordy, the only book the world needs. It’s a compilation of logos and other design elements. Its influence still shapes my work. It reminds me not to get caught up in trends but rather to learn from past legacies. Fun fact, there’s an old Ski-Doo logo in that book that I’ve always found so cool that I annotated the page, telling myself that one day, I’d work on that brand. Ski-Doo ended up being the first client we landed at Collection.
1. A book that got you into books.
TITLE: Le grand livre de Dragon Ball
AUTHOR: Akira Toriyama
YEAR: 1998
PUBLISHER: Glénat
Houston Rap by documentary photographer Peter Beste. It was out of reach for me for a long time due to its rarity and price, but the gods of edition heard my prayers, and they recently released a reprint.
2. A book that you’re currently obsessed with (new)
TITLE: Houston Rap
AUTHOR: Peter Beste, Lance Scott Walker
YEAR: 2013
PUBLISHER: Sinecure Books
Mainmise. Not exactly a book, more like a magazine. It captured the essence of Quebec’s 1970s counterculture. Their tagline, in fact, was “Organe Québécois du rock international, de la pensée magique et du gay sçavoir.” All the most subversive artists of the time contributed to it. It was kind of a proto-VICE.
3. A book that you’re obsessed with (old).
TITLE: Creative Source no.8
AUTHOR: Peter Cordy
YEAR: 1986
PUBLISHER: Wilcord
TITLE: Mainmise
AUTHOR: Multiple
YEAR: 1970-1978
PUBLISHER: Les messageries du jour
4. A book that has the most unexpected design in your library.
Des grands instants de lucidité, a book about the life of the enigmatic and transcendent Quebecois musician Jean Leloup, written by Olivier Boisvert-Magnen. It's a super interesting book, but by far the most graphically disjointed I own. To not put too fine a point on it, it's très ugly.
TITLE: Des grands instants de lucidité
AUTHOR: Olivier Boisvert-Magnen
YEAR: 2022
PUBLISHER: Éditions Les Malins
5. A book that you wish you had?
It’s not so much a book I dream of having, but a book I hope to get back, because I had it and I’m 95% sure my ex secretly kept it: Trap - Rap, drogue, argent, survie, from Éditions Audimat. Mel, if you’re reading this, I’d like my book back.
TITLE: Trap - rap, drogue, argent, survie
AUTHOR: Multiples
YEAR: 2021
PUBLISHER: Audimat
Shit’s Fucked: A Positivity Guide. A little zine of life advice that I often go back to because shit’s often fucked.
6. A book that you constantly draw inspiration from.
TITLE: Shit’s Fucked: A Positivity Guide
AUTHOR: Gina Sarti
YEAR: 2013
PUBLISHER: Community Printers
True Norwegian Black Metal, again by Peter Beste. I consider it such an important part of my environment that every single time I've moved (like 10 times since I've had it) it’s the first thing I’ve placed in any new apartment.
7. Your favorite book.
TITLE: True Norwegian Black Metal
AUTHOR: Peter Beste
YEAR: 2008
PUBLISHER: Vice Books
8. Enough with the books, what's your favorite magazine?
Lately? Bootlegger, Hobbies, Arson, Garagisme, Entorse, Be About It, Sneeze. Of all time? Exclaim!, VICE, Voir, Rolling Stone, Decibel, Kerrang, The Source, Metal Hammer, Spin, Guitar World, Safarir.
Maybe it’s a writer’s bias, but to me, letters are just as beautiful as the order in which they’re arranged. And nowhere are they more beautifully placed than in the poetry collections of Daniel Romano.
9. The book with the most beautiful typography.
TITLE: Plaisirs (non) coupables
AUTHOR: Chilly Gonzales
YEAR: 2020
PUBLISHER: Édito
For the illustration work, any book by Mordillo.
10. The book with the most beautiful illustration.
TITLE: Football
AUTHOR: Guillermo Mordillo
YEAR: 1981
PUBLISHER: Glénat
Josh’s Curation
Other Quebec Recommendation
Musique du diable et autres bruits bénéfiques, by Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau
Histoires analogues, by Michel-Olivier Gasse
Carnet de tournage, by Olivier Lessard
Sainte-Foy, by Akena Okoko
L’évolution du métal québécois, by Félix B. Desfossés
Les racines du hip-hop au Québec, by Félix B. Desfossés
Plaisirs (non) coupables, by Chilly Gonzales
Football Saved My Life: The Ringleaders Football Club, by Gildas Messan Awuye
Fallait être là, by Marc-Étienne Mongrain
Drive, by Sam Karimi
Et shameless plug, mais Colosses - Mémoire de portiers et récits de bars, par Jean-Sébastien Martel, Catherine Martel, John Pankert, Brendan Murphy, Mélanie Laviolette et moi-même.
Special project at the moment?
J: We’re working on the first issue of Collection’s very own magazine, Deep Québ.
T: The goal is to showcase the kind of beauty we see in the regional realities of the province.
J: I’m a sucker for a good spine. It’s a great place to include a little easter egg. And depending on how your books are displayed, it may be the part of the book that people see the most, so I feel like it should be designed with intent.
What make a book good?
What special details do you always look for in books?
J: Contrary to popular belief, you can almost always judge a book by its cover.
What is your favorite format?
J: I like a zine. Small. Handmade.
J: Bobbilibris