Timothy C. Ely (born February 9, 1949) is a contemporary American painter, graphic artist, and bookbinder, known for creating single-copy handmade books as art objects.
[1] Following graduate school (University of Washington, MFA 1975), Ely undertook a self-directed study of bookbinding and began to create his first work..[2] Much of Ely’s work is annotated with his own glyphs he calls “cribriform.” [3][4] With a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1982) Ely traveled to Japan, Italy, and England to study bookbinding and paper making.
He then moved to New York where he established a studio and taught at the Center for Book Arts.
From New York, he moved his studio to Portland, Oregon, back to his native Pacific Northwest.
His work is in many private and public collections, including the Library of Congress, the Brooklyn Museum, the Boston Athenaeum, the Getty Research Institute, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Lilly Library.