Since 1989 · Private Libraries · Fine Press · Couture Bookbinding
Private Libraries Created as Legacy
Since 1989, Kurtiak & Ley has brought together fine press publishing, couture bookbinding, and the creation of private libraries for collectors, families, and residences of distinction.
The Book Restored to Permanence
We create fine press and collector’s editions as works in which permanence is joined with the individuality of artistic form.
Since 1989, our work has remained rooted in the same atelier, preserving continuity of craftsmanship and direct responsibility for every copy that leaves our hands.
Each edition is conceived as a coherent whole — from the selection of texts and themes to their material embodiment. Content and form are developed in deliberate dialogue. The binding is not an embellishment, but an integral element of the book’s artistic conception. Within the structure of a strictly limited edition, individual bindings may assume a bespoke character, shaped by proportion, material, and artistic intent while remaining part of a unified concept.
Our volumes are carefully crafted using noble fabrics, leathers, and metals, and issued in strictly limited print runs. They are intended for private libraries and institutions that regard the book not as a transient object, but as a lasting cultural presence.
We believe that a private library is a unique space of order and reflection — a place where the marriage of thought and form is fully realised. The books gathered in such a library carry a quiet force, because the thoughts, feelings, and human experiences contained within them continue to resonate in daily life. Such a place may become not merely beautiful, but enduring — a form of legacy.
Recognition and Cultural Presence
Our books have been exhibited in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, Taipei, and Beijing. They are held in important institutional collections, including the Library of Congress, Stanford University Libraries, the British Library, the Vatican Library, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and distinguished private libraries.
A Tradition of Craft Since 1989
Our professional path has led through training in Switzerland and France, studies in art history, and decades devoted to fine press publishing, artistic bookbinding, and the cultural life of the book. Alongside our publishing house and bindery, we have founded a school of artistic bookbinding, established a private museum devoted to the artistic book in Koszalin and created a gallery dedicated to collectors’ books in Warsaw.
This continuity matters. Such work cannot be managed like an industrial luxury business. It requires judgement, discipline, and direct responsibility for every volume that leaves our hands.
Selected Worlds of the Atelier
Only a selected group of works is presented here. A broader illustrated selection may be provided by private correspondence.
Bespoke Private Book Collections
Private libraries intended to endure — shaped with coherence, restraint, and cultural purpose for houses, families, and collectors.
What We Create
Bespoke Private Book Collections
Private libraries intended to endure — shaped with coherence, restraint, and cultural purpose for houses, families, and collectors.
Fine Press Masterpieces
Selected works from the canon of world literature, issued in limited editions and shaped as complete literary and artistic statements.
Couture Bookbinding
Bindings in which structure, material, and interpretation become one — created by hand in noble materials and original forms.
The Art of Gifting
Collector’s books, commemorative volumes, and presentation editions created for singular recipients and lasting occasions.
For Houses, Collections, and Legacies
Whether conceived as a private library, a fine press edition, a couture binding, or a singular gift, each work created by Kurtiak & Ley is made with long duration in mind. We do not create books for the passing moment. We create them for those who still believe that culture may take lasting form.
Frequently Asked Questions
czy to co poniżej zostaje?
The Atelier
A House of Craft, Permanence,
and Quiet Authority
Since 1989, our work has remained rooted in the same atelier, preserving continuity of craftsmanship and direct responsibility for every copy that leaves our hands.
Each edition is conceived as a coherent whole — from the selection of texts and themes to their material embodiment. Content and form are developed in deliberate dialogue. The binding is not an embellishment, but an integral element of the book’s artistic conception.
Fine Press Masterpieces
Collector’s Editions Conceived as Enduring Works
The Art of Gifting
Some Gifts Are Remembered. Others Become Part of a Legacy.
In a world of passing gestures, a collector’s book endures. Not because it is costly, but because it has been chosen with intelligence, intention and regard for the life of the recipient.
For institutions, families and private clients, we create volumes that settle into a library and, over time, become part of personal or institutional memory.
Private Enquiry
Begin a Private Conversation
We welcome enquiries regarding bespoke private libraries, fine press editions, couture bookbinding and distinguished gift commissions. All discussions are conducted with discretion.
Our Heritage, Your Legacy
We create books, bindings and private collections intended for long duration — not for passing visibility, but for enduring presence.