|
Jump to Items:
1-10
| 11-20
| 21-30 |
31-40
| 41-50
| 51-60
| 61-70
| 71-80
| 81-90
91-100
| 101-110
| 111-120
| 121-130
| 131-140
| 141-148
New from Stephanie Nace
81. Nace, Stephanie. Ball of
Lies. [Columbia, SC: Froglegs Studios, 2005.
$475
Artist’s
Book, actually three paper balls formed from weaving many
strips of text ¼ inch wide each into round shapes, 5-½
inches high and 5-½ inches wide, 3 inches high x 3-½ inches
wide, and 2-½ inches high x 2-½ inches wide, one of five
copies, each signed by artist on the box containing the
three copies of BALL OF LIES. The digital prints were
printed on woven paper and assembled by the artist and
housed in a brown paper lidded box printed with the title in
black with an image of a “ball” for the first word of the
title and signed in pencil below the title. The box is 9
inches x 8-¾ inches x 5-½ inches.
Stephanie Nace, whose work was recently featured in the book
arts magazine, “Bound and Lettered”, describes herself as a
graphic artist by nature. She states she works with symbols,
images and typography on multiple layers to create powerful
visual pieces. About this piece, she states she created it
after she really looked at a marriage that she had assumed
was perfect for years, but she was wrong. When she realized
this, she felt she was lied to and that marriage could
possibly be made of broken promises that start on the
wedding day. These lies then change form, become entangled,
more confusing and more constricting with every passing
year. The text of each ball of lies is the text of the
traditional wedding ceremony. (9594)
New from Charles Hobson & Pacific
Editions
82. Pacific Editions. Barry Lopez.
The Near Woods. Images and Design by Charles Hobson.
San Francisco, CA: Pacific Editions, 2006.
SOLD
One of
26 copies only, each lettered (a to z) and signed in pencil
by the author, Barry Lopez, and the artist, Charles Hobson.
Page size: 10 inches by 7 inches; 10pp; with double-page
fold out containing a monotype image with pastel on German
etching paper reproduced as a digital pigment print that has
been hand-colored with pastel and acrylic paint by the
artist, titled “dream bear,” and another single page image
on the verso of the fold of a standing bear, the two images
signed in pencil by Charles Hobson. Bound by Charles Hobson
and Alice Shaw: paper over boards, the paper a reproduction
of a drawing used to establish land grants in California,
“Dosino del Rancho San Miguelito,” circa 1841, reproduced
with the permission of The Bancroft Library, is on a tan
ground with images of trees, bears, rocks, houses, water,
and roads all in tans and grays with blue and red and brown
crisscrossing the image which extends across both panels,
buff label printed in black with title and author’s name,
new. A small vignette from the paper, that with the bear on
two legs reaching for something in a tree, is collaged on
second half-title. The text was printed letterpress by Jerry
Reddan who also printed 165 copies in 2005, bound in
wrappers and not signed by either the author or artist, and
without the images by Charles Hobson. At that time, these 26
lettered copies were left unbound for this special edition
from Pacific Editions.
Barry Lopez’ story was first published in “Seneca Review” in
2000. It opens, “A bear came last night. It came down
through the trees into the clearing around the house, most
certainly in the bright moonlight.” With this, the reader /
viewer enters that elusive and magic space between the wild,
deep woods and the civilized space of the humans. And, we
are left wondering about the nature of knowledge and man’s
relationship to other living creatures on this planet. The
bear, as imagined by Mr. Hobson, is certainly feral; but by
placing him against a page of script which he almost totally
obliviates, we wonder what he knows that we don’t. A
haunting story well served by the design and images of
Charles Hobson. (9831)
83. Pacific Editions. Hobson,
Charles. Writing on the Body. Pastel and Photogravures by
Charles Hobson. San Francisco: Pacific Editions, 1999.
$2,000
One of
45 copies, each signed and numbered by the artist/publisher,
all on BFK Rives. Illustrated with 8 original photogravure
etchings from mixed media figure drawings by Charles Hobson,
combined with fragments of Degas’ handwriting, on 18 leaves.
The artist has hand colored the etchings with pastel. The
text, selected from letters and other writings by Edgar
Degas, has been handset in Meridien types and printed by
Jack Stauffacher at The Greenwood Press. John DeMerritt has
bound the book in accordion format with cloth spine in
caramel colored silk with Degas’ handwriting reproduced in
black and images by Degas on handmade paper over boards. Nib
pen with title of book printed in white affixed to spine of
book. Housed in matching silk slipcase. Size: 11-½ x 7-¾ x ¾
inches, fine. This is a intriguing book with the words of
Degas (and Paul Valery) concerning his figure drawings. Long
considered one of the most “classical” of the French
impressionists, this homage to the master of the female body
contains Hobson’s own masterful images of the female nude. A
beautiful book. (8964)
84. Pacific Editions. Hobson,
Charles M. R.O.W. (Right of Way) A Consideration of the
Right of Way Rules for Sailboats. San Francisco: Pacific
Editions, 2006. $2,250
One of
12 copies only, all on Rives BFK paper, each signed and
numbered by Charles Hobson and Kay Bradner (who collaborated
on the design of the linoleum block print). Page size: 18
inches x 9 inches when closed and folded into 8 leaves and
when opened fully 7-½ feet. There is a title page and page
of text and a colophon page as well as the 8-page folded
print. Bound: blue cloth spine, coastal map over boards on
covers with white label printed in black on front cover,
housed in translucent plastic slipcase fastening with cleat
and sailing line on foredge, fine. The central image of
this book is a three foot square relief print that was
created as part of a program at the San Francisco Center for
the Book. It was original printed in 2005 by a steamroller
at Carolina and 16th Streets, San Francisco. Kay Bradner cut
the linoleum block and printed it; Charles Hobson designed
the book and assembled it with the assistance of Alice Shaw.
The print, at first glance, seems to show a pleasant Sunday
afternoon of sailing on the San Francisco Bay. However, the
position of the sailboats has been established to illustrate
some of the most basic right of way rules. The rules
themselves are actually embedded in the image in small
window openings cut into the print. As usual with books from
Pacific Editions, all is meticulously crafted, disparate
elements aesthetically incorporated into a beautiful book.
Both artists have a passion for the water and the vessels
that move on it. Charles Hobson’s extensive output has, as a
base, the juxtaposition of word and image. He is a faculty
member at the San Francisco Art Institute and at one time
raced a Cal 20 sailboat on the San Francisco Bay where he
had first hand experience with the application of the right
of way rules. As with other books from Pacific Editions,
this, too, must be experienced. Turning the pages, opening
the “rules” windows, and reveling in the deep blue of the
print brings a land-locked person as close to the water as
is possible. (9787)
85. Pacific Editions. Lopez, Barry.
The Mappist. San Francisco, CA: Pacific Editions,
2005. $2,100
First
Edition thus, one of 48 copies, all on BFK Rives paper,
signed by the author, Barry Lopez, and the artist / designer
/ publisher, Charles Hobson, in pencil and numbered by
Hobson. Page size: 11 inches x 12 inches. Bound: with
original USGS maps for the concertina binding, which, when
opened, creates its own vista of mountains and valleys
representing the maps that figure so prominently in the
Lopez story, covers made of paper over boards, paper
reproducing a 1911 map of Bogota from the collection of the
Library of Congress, publisher’s slipcase of wood-grained
paper over boards with brass-toned metal label holder
attached to spine of box holding white paper label with
title and author in black, all suggesting a map cabinet
which plays a pivotal role in Lopez’s story, further housed
in tan corrugated paper board slipcase, slipcase and board
covers made by John DeMerrit with the assistance of Kris
Langan, new.
The book opens with images of hands emulating gestures of a
map maker at work reproduced as digital pigment prints on
transparent film. The book also contains landscape images
and an image of pencils from the writing desk of Barry Lopez
printed as digital pigment prints from monotypes with
pastel, all created by Charles Hobson. The text has been
printed letterpress by Les Ferriss in Garamond Narrow type.
The book and images were created by Charles Hobson who
assembled the book with the assistance of Alice Shaw.
Barry Lopez’s THE MAPPIST was originally published in 2000
in LIGHT ACTION IN THE CARIBBEAN. It is a multi-layered
story perfectly embodied by Charles Hobson’s book. Themes of
hidden identities searched out and deciphered, hidden
intentions coded in seemingly disparate actions, and the
tantalizing possibilities of bringing order to a chaotic
history are beautifully served by the combination of maps
that are the subject of the story and, literally, hold the
story together. The story itself is certainly one of the
wittiest “legends” ever devised for its surrounding map. The
reader is challenged with images thrown up by the author and
artist: bits of map interspersing text, bits of map as
foredge and gutter outside edge on any turn of the page, a
phrase full of possibilities “he was a patriot” and
suggestions in the form of queries: was Lewis Mumford a
populist? When “The Mappist” gives the narrator a copy of
his very rare book, THE CITY OF GERANIUMS, the reader is
doubly seduced with this act of generosity (or is it
instinct to preserve one’s values) for the words are
preceded and followed by a page of transparent film with the
image of a map being passed from one hand to another.
Turning the film page, the reader is confronted with the act
being completed and the hand off accomplished. The narrator
finishes his tale with a ride down a very dark gravel road,
using the sound of the tires on the crushed stone as his
“map.” We are left wondering where will we find our maps -
and will we be able to read them - or remember what we’ve
read. Pacific Editions’ THE MAPPIST will certainly help in
this ongoing quest. (9671)
86. Pacific Editions. Wilbur,
Richard. The Writer. San Francisco, CA: Pacific
Editions, 2004. $1,600
One of
54 copies, a two-part limited edition, the larger book is
printed on BFK Rives paper and the second volume - a flip
book, or rather a “flutter book,” is printed on card stock.
Each copy is hand numbered and signed by the artist /
printer / designer, Charles Hobson, on the colophon page.
Page size: 11-1/8
inches x 7-15/16
inches; 16pp; plus 8pp. of images interleaved for large
book; “flutter book” is 3-3/8
inches x 5-1/8
inches; 50pp. Bound: blue cloth spine with yellow and blue
paste paper over boards, white label pasted to front panel
for larger book; “flutter book” laid into oblong slipcase of
blue linen with papers made from the artist’s striking bird
images. Both books are housed in a clamshell box designed to
both hold the books and to act as a platform from which to
read the two volumes in conjunction with one another. The
edition in its box measures 12 inches x 12 inches x 1-¼
inches.
Charles Hobson has created not so much an illustrated
edition of a well-known literary work, but more an
interactive event for the reader / viewer and artist and
author. The very act of “reading” Hobson’s book is
interpreting Wilbur’s warm and gentle poem conveying a
parent’s respect and love for his child as she begins the
voyage into adulthood. The larger volume is printed
letterpress by Hobson in 14-point courier, with the
assistance of Les Ferriss. The letterpress pages are
interleaved with vellum pages containing hand-painted
patterns printed as digital pigment prints into which have
been hand cut the shapes of starlings in flight, a motif
that is central to the poem. Initially, the vellum pages
obscure the text, but then lift off to reveal with a flutter
and a flap, the words of the poem.
The
smaller volume, or flip book, is hinged at the foredge and
scored so it can open like an accordion. It contains
selected words taken from the poem that reprise the poem
with a new cadence. It is contained loose in its cover so
that it can be held in the hand and ruffled with the fingers
so as to set the starlings in flight, a visual metaphor
derived from Wilbur’s words. The poet’s wish for his child
is simple and heartfelt. The final pages of the book contain
an original monotype printed over text from the poem,
reproduced as a digital pigment print, which carries with it
the feeling of uncertain first flight the father is sensing
in his daughter. A larger version of this image, on BFK
Rives and hand colored by Hobson is laid into the back cover
of the clamshell box. This monotype is 6-½ inches x 5-¾
inches and has a vellum 8 inch x 11 inch overlay printed
with the word “cargo.” (9483)
Signed by Paul Auster
87. Perishable Press. Auster, Paul.
Reflections on a Cardboard Box. Illustrations by Henrik
Drescher. [Mt. Horeb, WI: The Perishable Press, Ltd.,
2004]. $725
One of
100 copies, 50 of which are for sale, all on hand-made
Twinrocker and St. Armand papers, designed and printed by
Walter Hamady and signed by the author, Paul Auster. The
text is in Gill Sans Bold from Michael Bixler’s Monotype
machine and hand-set by Hamady to “manage minutiae.” The
images were printed from polymer plates from Boxcar Press.
Page size: 10 inches x 7 inches; 28pp. Bound: Sugikawa paper
over boards and brown silk printed in black on spine, hand
sewn, with round label printed letterpress on front cover
reading, “Auster-Drescher Container Corp Hay Hollow,
Wisconsin / Box Certificate... etc. darker brown endpapers.
The text is Paul Auster’s essay on poverty in the United
States, focusing on those in New York. He writes, “A man
does not live in a cardboard box because he wants to...You
live in a cardboard box because you can’t afford to live
anywhere else.” Drescher’s images are in blue, red, black
and brown on the “cardboard” colored paper and are
interspersed with the text and one another making disturbing
but fascinating reading / viewing. Selected as one of “Fifty
Books of the Year” 2004 AIGA (American Institute of Graphic
Art, New York City). (9553)
Announcing the Publication of the Last Gabberjabb
88. Perishable Press. Hamady,
Walter. The Last Gabberjabb Number Eight and IX/XVIths or
Aleatory Annexations... Mt. Horeb, WI: Perishable Press,
2006.
$3,250
One of
108 copies on various papers (hand, mould, machine-made and
even crush or mull) numbered (nine times) and signed by the
author / publisher / designer / printer, Walter Hamady as
well as “augmenters” eight times. Page size: 10-1/8
x 7 inches; 160pp. Bound: brown cloth over boards with
rondel / cameo in dark blue in middle of binding with
silhouette of Hamady within triple-ruled frame containing
author’s name and The Perishable Press Ltd., marbled
endpapers, new. An extraordinary book, the sub-title
“Aleatory Annexations” more than a clue to its nature
(aleatory as pertaining to the chance writing of the
surrealists) The front “blank” is a base map (different in
each copy) from the U.S. Geological Survey Sheets with a
poem by Ruth Evans (Hamady’s grandmother) printed on the
verso with blind stamp copyright notice centered at bottom
of page; title (eight titles listed as follows) on p. [iv]
reading “HUNKERING” in red followed by “Largely by Walter
Samuel Haatoum Hamady / augmented by Henrik Drescher.
Patrick Flynn. David McLimans. Peter Sis and William
Stafford. The Last Gabberjabb number eight and IX/XVIths or
Aleatory Annexations or Odd Bondings or Fortuitous
Encounters with Incompatible Realities or Love, Anguish,
Wonder: an Engagement or a Partial Timeline of Sorts or Bait
and Switch or Finally, A Pedagogical Rememberance.”
The drawing on titlepage number one is a pointillist ink
drawing by Peter Sis. Another title page (double page
spread) featuring a print in teal blue above a figure
drawing printed in brown on the verso with the text printed
in brown on tan paper on the recto above the other half of
the image printed in teal on celadon paper, image by David
McLimans. (Actually, the image is repeated on pp. x-xi in
the reverse coloring.) The header reads, “Hunkering The Last
Gabbrejabb No 8 9/16 / Being the Fade-out Volume of an
(Unforeseen) Series.” Below a red rule at the bottom of the
page is text reading, “Begun in 19-Seventy - 3 by WSHH &
(TH) PRSHBLPRSS LMTD As An Expendation of Energy for the
Sake of Expending (It) Copyright on 436 by PS.3558A42.”
There are words picked from the poem, “The Asshole & the
Earthworm,” in this drawing which was to illustrate the
entire poem (but ran out of room) and is noted as partial
homage to Charles Darwin owing “to his book concerning
earthworms which, it is said, has never been superseded.” P.
13 is labeled, “Things in the Front Matter of Books
According to the 288” and includes, printed in 8pt. along
the fore-edge, below a curved red scribed rule: “usually the
reader is not shown any of the arcane/inside aspects of the
bookmaker’s craft for self-effacemental reasons. This is an
exception to point out the subduing of fore-edge swell.”
There are two curved rules top and bottom of “Major Rivers
of the World” center spread, as well as a red scribed line.
There is a third title page in shorthand by Anna Hamady
calligraphed by Linda Hancock and it faces the eight titles
calli/drawn by Henrik Drescher who also did the copyright
symbol printed under the shorthand. And this is only the
first signature! There were numerous press-runs - at least
284 - to make this book, as well as applications of the
following procedures: collage (six times), perforation,
rubberstamping (18 times), drilling, notching, ticket
punching, numbering (nine times), signing, grommeting,
scribing (40 times), ear-tattooing, ponce-wheeling,
time-clocking 12 times), dog-earing, embossing, shorthand,
corner-rounding. There are elliptical trims and three stubs.
There is much about seeing; Paul Valery’s memorable quote,
“To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.” is
cited and is the title of a triple-page fold out, a panorama
collage. I particularly like the “Senor Wences” fist face
appearing under the text: “1964 (4) FORTY (40) YEARS 2004 /
The Perishable Press Limited has / Been using Weapons of
Mass/ ‘construction.” A 1963 (rubberstamp correction here)
self-portrait in pencil of the author was scanned and
printed on a recto sheet. On the verso is printed an eye
from Traite d’Anatomie Humaine, and it is in register
with the eye of the self-portrait. The center page double
spread, consisting of an incredible number of overprints and
type displays, features a double-rimmed circle with the word
“proof” in the center. In the second “o” of proof is another
eye.
The reader / viewer will understand something new each time
this book is opened. It is astonishing. There is a paragraph
about text and printing and letters and space that is
dazzlingly simple and simply dazzling. The last image
consists of the same two three-page fold out panorama
collages (6 pages total) by Hamady that appeared in
JUXTAMORPHING SPACE, exhibition catalogue and bibliography.
The last signature includes all the footnotes from all the
previous Gabberjabbs and these footnotes are hand-set in six
point - Clarendon for five of the six pages and the sixth in
Sabon. Four pages were printed from Polymer plates with
scale changes and the two pages in the center spread were
printed directly from the hand-set type. The book is a very
wonderful cap to a legendary series. (9822)
Now Out of Print
89. Perishable Press. Hamady, Walter
& Friends. Travelling Gabberjabb No. 7. Mt. Horeb,
WI: Perishable Press, 1991-1996.
$3,250
One of
125 copies on various papers (hand, mould and machine-made)
numbered at least 19 times and signed at least 10, employing
an “unthinkable number” of typefaces, ink colors, and press
runs. With “Front Matter” : “1. Just about all books start
out from an idea. 2. Everything in the world is waiting to
become a book. 3. Before ideas can be read they need to
become words...”. Page size: 10-¼ inches x 7-¼ inches (164cm
x 184cm), 154 pages. Bound by the printer/publisher: old
paper maps over boards (no two alike), variegated cloth
spine, new. Pages are printed, collaged, rubber stamped,
drilled, notched, pigment patterned, (ticket) punched,
grommeted, scribed, ear tattooed, drawn, camouflaged or time
clocked. The critic, Mary Lydon tells us that this No. 7
GABBERJABB also involves, “...iconoclasm/craft, art/daily
life and sophistication grounded in physiology and
earthiness...a reflective vehicle in its ability to break
and intersect narrative lines, play with syntax, integrate
found materials, convey enigma, paradox and information all
at once.”
Walter Hamady, noted artist, printer and publisher, has been
making books since 1964; the current list totals over 128.
In a 1991 article for “Visible Language” by Mary Lydon, “The
Book as the Trojan Horse of Art Walter Hamady, The
Perishable Press Limited”, the author elucidates Hamady’s
theory that “literacy blinds us...to the ‘bookform’
itself...” In order to become a purveyor of information “the
picture plane” disappears from view in favor of its sole
“content.” Hamady is quoted, “[T]he book is perhaps the most
personal form an artist can deal with. It encompasses a
multiple and sequential picture plane, it is tactile, and to
be understood it must be handled by the viewer, who then
becomes a participant...The book as a structure is the
Trojan horse of art - it is not feared by average people.”
The Gabberjabbs are particularly fine examples of Hamady’s
theory. The reader is obliged to read and re-read letters
jammed together, set on different angles, interspersed with
images (or are they?) as Hamady plays with texts, bookmaking
and the book form itself. Compared to Kurt Schwitters,
Duchamp and Joseph Cornell, Hamady has been a major
influence on at least one generation of book artists. He is
the recipient of numerous grants and awards and one-man and
group exhibitions. He has been the subject of many articles,
and his works are in most of this country’s important rare
book libraries, i.e. the Houghton, Yale, Getty Center,
Newberry, Walker Art Center, Cleveland Institute of Art, as
well as outside the U.S.: Bodleian Library, British Library, Klingspor Museum, Lenin Library, Royal Library Stockholm,
Victoria & Albert, etc. Now sold out, this is the most
recent GABBERJABB from one of this country’s most important
artists — at the top of his game. (9083)
Now Out of Print
90. Perishable Press. Olson, Toby.
Depression Dog. Illustrated by Jim Lee, Henrik Drescher,
Peter Sis, David McLimans. Mount Horeb, WI: The
Perishable Press, 2003. $1,100
One of 2
special copies with watercolor of dog on second page of text
in gray, original collage of dog, and signed with red dog
face on the fold-out illustration by David McLimans,
notation in pencil by Walter Hamady that the book was
altered in March of 2006 from an edition of 107 copies, all
on five different mouldmade papers. Page size: 10-½ x 7-¼
inches, 44pp. Bound by Walter Hamady and Scott Kellar: tan
cloth with darker tan printed design. This is the 128th
volume from The Perishable Press and the 11th collaboration
of the author and printer. Taken from an as yet unpublished
novel by Toby Olson, this text will appear as Chapters Four
and Ten. The story’s narrator is the “depression dog” of the
title and the images certainly have elements of the narrator
as well as the bleak American rural landscape of the Great
Depression. The printer tells us that “the author’s
‘segmented looping’ shown in his book, READING, became the
aegis-engine and raison d’etre of this one.” The ten images
were hand-printed from unmounted eleven-point dies. The
printer used five typefaces hand-set in five sizes and
imprinted on/into five differing mouldmade papers, four
German, one French, in several colors. A haunting book,
beautifully made, and a joy to read and savor. Selected as
one of “Fifty Books of the Year” 2003 AIGA (American
Institute of Graphic Art, New York City). (9774)
Next
Jump to Items:
1-10 |
11-20
| 21-30 |
31-40
| 41-50
| 51-60
| 61-70
| 71-80
| 81-90
91-100
| 101-110
| 111-120
| 121-130
| 131-140
| 141-148
|
