The ties that bind

My maternal grandfather was a professor of philology -- ironically the only exam I failed at university and had to take a second time... He loved words, language, books. I only knew him for five years or so because he died while I was still a child. One of the memories he left me is showing me how he mended old books whose spines were damaged or broken. It was only after I made this piece with part of a book spine and binder's thread that I remembered...