The tale of Artur Bookbinding

Craftsmen restore history one page at a time

A quiet street in Fort Gibson is the last place you’d expect to find a business with clients from as far away as London. The office of Artur Bookbinding, founded by Zbigniew Niebieszczanski, provides insights into the lives of the owners. Shelves and desktops hold a variety of religious items. Walls feature copies of stories written about the business. Polish posters, even the breastplate of a suit of armor, dark rugs and heavy wooden furniture add to the ambiance. The Niebieszczanski family’s story is one of overcoming challenges leading to a successful conclusion.

As a young man in Warsaw, Poland, Zbigniew Niebieszczanski planned to become a doctor. However, having witnessed the carnage of several severe accidents, he decided that medicine was not for him. Instead he studied the art and craft of bookbinding. He says, “If I am not a medical doctor, I can be a book doctor. Better working with broken books than broken bones.”

After four and a half years at a technical institute, he qualified as a master bookbinder. He also became involved in Solidarity — communist Poland’s first independent trade union — led by founder Lech Walęsa, who later became president of Poland and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

At that time, Poland was anything but peaceful. Due to his participation in Solidarity, Niebieszczanski, his wife, Bozena, and two small sons were forced to leave their native land.

“We left with only three suitcases,” he says. They spent over a year in a German refugee center, where their third son was born, before immigrating in 1983 to Huntsville, Texas. With little English, Niebieszczanski could find only minimum wage jobs insufficient to support his family.  Three years later, the family arrived in Muskogee with a total of $20 in their pockets — both to take jobs with a bookbinding company.

In 1992, Bozena was able to open a small restaurant in Fort Gibson – the only Polish restaurant in the state.

By the following year, Niebieszczanski was ready to open his own bookbinding business.

As for equipment, all he owned was a small hammer he had brought from Germany. Fortunately, he was able to buy traditional equipment from the widow of a bookbinder in Springfield, Missouri. He still uses the machines — the oldest piece having been built in 1888.

Niebieszczanski’s middle son, Artur, began learning the craft at age 11. Now, as Niebieszczanski is approaching retirement, Artur is co-owner and has taken over a lot of the work. He combines his degree in business administration with the art of bookbinding. He does most of the work on smaller study Bibles, while Niebieszczanski does the more challenging jobs. Among the pieces he is proudest of is the restoration of a Bible printed in London in 1640.

Bookbinding involves several skills, sewing pages of books that have fallen apart, replacing covers and spines, repairing torn pages and embossing. Although books make up the bulk of the business, the partners also work with documents, maps, photo albums, storage boxes and more.

Three safes in the office hold pieces awaiting repair. The Niebieszczanskis use only genuine leather and fine materials in their work and each item receives the kind of care only skilled craftsmen can provide.

Artur says, “It’s interesting seeing what something looks like when it comes in and what it looks like when it’s been restored.”  Bookbinding is more than just a job to the Niebieszczanskis. They pursue a craft that dates back to Coptic monasteries in Egypt. Not only is it historic, but, as Artur says, “It’s saving history.”