Drapeau Milot, Odette, 1940- : Odette Drapeau was born in Trois-Pistoles on December 2, 1940. She originally studied music at the Marguerite-Bourgeois School of Music where she received her diploma in 1960. In 1968 she began her training in bookbinding at the L'Art de la reliure in Montreal and in 1977, she spent a year in Paris, France where she studied with binding and edge gilding masters Henri Mercher, and Roger Arnoult. She also has also studied under Roger Gattier, Philip Smith (1982) and Tina Miura (1983).
Odette Drapeau is an internationally renowned bookbinder and artist. She is famous for her innovative use of skins from fish and other aquatic animals as a binding material. Her work has been displayed in solo and group exhibitions in Quebec and Canada and has also appeared in exhibitions in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, New York and France.
Odette Drapeau is part of the second generation of post-war fine binders in Quebec, which is the largest and most dynamic group of binders, made up mostly by a group of female artists in Montreal. Upon her return to Canada in 1979, Odette Drapeau founded La Tranchefile Inc. in Montreal. La Tranchefile is professional bookbinding workshop and economuseum, specializing in binding both as a fine art and as a traditional trade and handicraft. La Tranchefile is internationally renowned as a school for other artists and bookbinders and also provides an exhibition space. It also contributed to the creation of a third generation of fine binders in Quebec.
Odette Drapeau has served as president of the Canadian contingent of the Amis de la Reliure d'Art (A.R.A.- Canada) since 1995 and was president of the Association des Relieurs du Québec (A.R.Q.) from 1988 to 1991. She was also a founding member of the Association Internationale des Reliures (AIRneuf), an international association made up of artists and binders working to promote alternative styles of binding. Through these organizations, Odette Drapeau has organized several international and national exhibitions and conferences.
In 1996, Odette Drapeau received the Antoine Grandmaison international binding art award at the fifth international forum of binding art in Montreal. She was nominated for the Montreal YWCA Women of Distinction award in 1999 and in 2000, for having achieved success in a traditionally male-dominated craft and for opening the doors for other women to enter the profession.
