Father of Iranian bindery craft Hossein-Ali Matin-Reza, who passed away at the age of 86 on August 6 in Tehran, was buried in the artists section of Behest-e-Zahra cemetery, south of Tehran, on Sunday.
Matin-Reza passed away due to heart failure and kidney problem.
Several artists and cultural figures joined his funeral procession that set off from the Iranian Artists Forum, IBNA reported.
A pioneer of modern book binding in Iran, Matin-Reza opened his own store downtown in 1968 and took up bookmaking as his profession. For his innovation and contribution to the field, he was conferred the title ‘Father of Iranian Bindery’.
In his autobiography, Matin-Reza wrote: “Printing was very limited in Iran when I was a student and most of the books we studied were lithographs and scarce to find. One of my books, published at least 70 years earlier, was in tatters and needed repair as it was falling apart. I was wondering what to do with the book edges.”
While passing a store, “I noticed a machine that was cutting papers. I asked the shop owner to cut the edges of my book too.”
The shopkeeper agreed and did it for the young Matin-Reza. “Suddenly, I felt like a blind man who starts to see the world, and since then, I got interested in book binding,” he noted in his autobiography.
Ali Moradkhani, art deputy at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Seyed Abbas Salehi, cultural deputy and Mahmudreza Barazesh, director general of the Print and Publication office at the ministry, offered condolences in separate messages.
