About Us

About the Sobota Bookbinding Family 

Jan Bohuslav Sobota (Master of Bookbinding in categories Design Bindings and Restoration) and Jarmila Jelena Sobotova (Master of Bookbinding in categories Design Bindings a Decorative Papers) belong among internationally renowned design bookbinders.

Their work is often published in bookbinding magazines and is represented in numerous private and public collections in the Czech Republic, England, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Israel, Canada, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, The Vatican and The United States. These include: the Museum of Bookbinding in Loket, National Museum in Prague, Museum of Western Bohemia in Pilsen, the personal collection of Vaclav Havel (former President of the Czech Republic), the personal collection of Vaclav Klaus (current President of the Czech Republic), the Royal Libraries in London and the Hague, the Vatican Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Basel (Switzerland) Museum, the Library of the Greek Patriarch in Constantinople.

Their artistic bindings and objects have been presented at 32 solo exhibits and they participated in over 137 group exhibits in countries on four continents. They have received many prestigious prizes for their work.

The Sobotas are members of many international bookbinding organizations. Their most important achievements in the bookbinding community are their organization of exhibits of artistic bookbinding in Switzerland, the USA, and the Czech Republic, the founding of the Czech Society of Bookbinding, and the founding of the Museum of Bookbinding in Loket, Czech Republic.

Over the years, Jan and Jarmila, have passed on their knowledge and experience to hundreds of bookbinders through professional workshops and in their private school, the School of Bookbinding and Restoration in Ohio and Texas. Today, they continue in this tradition in the bookbinding studio „Sobotas‘ Artistic Bookbinding“ in Loket, Czech Republic where they teach visiting students from  around the world.