The launch of Bond & Grace signals the return of classic literature combined with the grace of exceptional art.
The first art novel from Bond & Grace is The Secret Garden.
Dispel any notion that Jacqueline Bond, Ayana Christie and Maggie Lemark are misguided for launching a publishing house in 2022. These DC women know exactly what they’re doing, and the spoils that could wait. After all, as recently as 2020, coffee-table book sales reached nearly $448 million, among the big five: Rizzoli, Taschen, Assouline, Phaidon and Abrams.
With Bond & Grace (bondandgrace.com), Bond says she and her colleagues aim to carve out a special-edition classic novel niche within the market currently dominated by nonfiction content, photo memoirs, artist biographies and recreational cooking, among others.
They’ve created an art novel. Which is why their first classic book, The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, is so compelling. With gorgeous artwork throughout by global artists, the 248-page hardcover book features foil embossing on a vegan leather spine and Smythe-sewn binding to ensure longevity, handsewn pages, custom cloth covered in a clamshell presentation box and custom patterned cover liners.
Savannah Bond, Jacqueline Bond and Ayana Christie from Bond & Grace
It’s a commemorative work of art—all locally printed in Maryland by a sustainable commercial printer with soy inks. The Bond & Grace team works with 12 artists as visual collaborators for each book. “They aren’t illustrators; instead they use their respective mediums to dialogue with the novel’s themes through fine art,” says Bond. “Each artwork is uniquely developed for our art novel. By collaborating with a dozen artists per book, we achieve diverse perspectives and interpretations offering a more inclusive and beautiful story.”
More titles from Bond & Grace are on the horizon, and will be classics in the public domain; there are nearly 20,000 books written before 1926 without a copyright law associated with it in the United States (think Little Women, Pride & Prejudice, The Great Gatsby and Alice in Wonderland).
“Because of the long process and high-quality standard needed to craft each art novel, both in design and production, our books are not available on-demand. We instead produced a finite first edition of 3,000 copies,” says Bond. “We work with classic novels—which saves us from chasing trends in terms of what topics people are reading—since classics are above the trends.”
Aesthetically, Bond says the publishing house has found its niche within the home decor and fashion movements like grand millennial and cottage core, which take traditional sensibilities and repackage them with a twist of color, pattern and interest.
Since product pedigree matters to so many people, the Bond & Grace team (Bond is the literary officer, Christie is the chief product officer and Lemak the art experience director), gets into the literary and manufacturing weeds to ensure that each book is a little luxury. “We custom-design the physical attributes of the book to reflect a marriage between our core brand and the visual experience of the novel,” says Bond. “Each book will have unique qualities that evoke sentiments we want our readers to encounter while they experience the art novel. Every color, font and feature is intentionally chosen, and they often hold hidden meanings. It’s a meticulous yet exceedingly rewarding process that requires a rather large team of creatives.”
Bond & Grace also offers work from artists that complement its new titles
Those creatives are also mostly women. “In our research, we learned 87% of artists promoted in galleries, museums and art fairs are still white men,” says Bond. “It was also recently discovered that of the $196.6 billion spent at art auctions between 2008 and 2019, work produced by women accounted for only $4 billion, just 2% of sales. This reality inspired us to breed progress through our Artists Collective for each book, which, for The Secret Garden, was majority female.”
Originating from cities as diverse as Mumbai, London, Chicago and Portland, the publishing team collaborated remotely with the artists on familiar florals, but Bond says they also curated a range of depth to ensure the visual experience could be interesting to readers with varying interests in art.
Art aficionados also will appreciate Art Foreword, the Bond & Grace Art Shop, where there are more than 50 works of original art created for The Secret Garden art novel. “It emerged from our vision of art as a natural gateway to beautifully written literature,” says Bond. “Because we revere how artists can tell compelling stories, drive change and shift culture, we designed our collaboration with our artists to fuel their passion and their social contributions. Unlike most platforms that take 50% or more of an artist’s sale revenue, we offer our artists 80% of artwork sales.”
As for the future of art novels, Bond & Grace will release another title in 2023 (look for hints on its excellent interactive website). Bond says her team is steadfast and, yes, more than a little romantic about their mission. “Our vision for the life of these books is that they be cared for and well traveled from reader to reader over many years. While we’re proud of the book’s craftsmanship, the content holds a vision on its own. We want the love of classic novels to belong to more people.”
Photography by: COURTESY OF BOND & GRACE
