Please download our 47-page brochure with several two-page spreads reproduced from the original book. (PDF format, 4 MB).

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Artist’s book by Susan Allix. London. 2011. 127p. 13.75” x 11”. Of the 35 prints, 15 are etchings, 8 a combination of etching and block print and 2 are lino-cuts. A head of Zeus was made as a wire sculpture, photographed and printed, then the sculpture was reworked as Zeus as an Eagle. In a further five prints the original drawings are reproduced digitally to preserve their characteristics. There are two photographs. The hand set and printed letterpress is 18pt. Bell, Roman and Italic, with titling in Caslon and handcut metal letters. The paper is mould made Somerset Book with Somerset Velvet for the heavier multi-plate etchings. The book is bound in full leather. The front board and spine are covered in black goatskin inlaid with a panel of white calfskin, and the back is red goatskin. On the front cover is onlaid a soft-ground etching of a woman, printed onto hard-grain goatskin and some black dye added in pen. The design is completed with red and white onlays and lettered in random red letters sprinkled over the spine. The endleaves are hemp paper decorated with red ink and drawn black lines, the flyleaves are white with distinct fibres and the double endbands are bright red. Laid in a red dropback box lined with black felt lining; white and black leather title labels with the lettering in red on both front and spine. An edition of 28 signed copies. New.

Allix writes: The Greek myths come to us as stories from an old civilisation. Among their interpretations they present a way of making sense of creation and the workings of the living world. Central to the myths is the relationship between gods and mortals so conflict, desire, retribution, creativity, beauty and ugliness all play a part. This is often within a framework of the fantastic and superhuman, although the gods display very human characteristics of personality and behaviour.

“In this book, accounts of the myths are interpreted and combined with a series of portraits. These are not of ancient Greek heads, freizes or draped figures, but people who characterise and might live in the stories, rescuing them from remoteness and relating them to a later time.

“It is organised into five chapters: Creating the World; War and Punishment; Sea, Sky and Underworld; Desire; Personalities. Within these, the focus is sometimes on the lesser-known myths such as the war with the Titans where Zeus’ thunderbolts bear a resemblance to modern warfare, the story of Cyane who gave her name to the colour blue, or of Alcyone of the halcyon days who was changed into a bird – as discussed by Socrates and Chaerephon.

“Likewise, the texts come from the most famous accounts and those of lesser known writers. Earlier descriptions are by Hesiod and Homer, the later from Ovid’s Metamorphoses with smaller extracts from Hyginus, Moschus, Apollodorus and others. The portraits represent a selection chosen from several hundred visual notes and drawings made over a number of years, sometimes with this book in mind, which have been developed in several ways. The choice of myth and portrait combination was resolved when a myth enhanced a certain portrait, or vice versa.”

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1. Susan Allix — Five Delightful And Irresistible Things
2. Susan Lowdermilk — Eadem mutata resurgo (Though transformed I will arise unchanged)
3. Glenn Malkin — Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier

A unique book containing a selection of original still images (hence the odd page numbering) from a short animation by Hugo Jones. The selection was intended to be ambiguous but essentially shows the complete story of the original animation, which was made as a part of Hugo’s degree studies.

The binding is a contemporary structure by Peter Jones designed to enhance the content of the book. It is constructed from acrylic sheet and wood for the boards with carbon fiber rods and vellum for the spine. Black free endpapers. Laid in a black dropback box with gray trim and black felt lining; paper title label on spine. Signed and dated  in pencil on a free endpaper by both collaborators. Fine.

Peter Jones is a member of the British Designer Bookinders. Hugo is his nephew and completed a degree in Illustration at the University of Brighton, Summer (2010).

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(Henry Moore) Moore Lithographs. [Eighteen lithographs by Henry Moore.] Petersburg Press. London. 1974. 26″ x 21″. Proofed and printed on handmade paper at the Curwen Studios. Loose sheets in a wrap of handmade paper, designed by Henry Moore, with an opening lithograph by the artist. Housed in a drop-back box of red cloth, title in black on front cover. One in an edition of 75 sets, each numbered and signed by Henry Moore. Fine.

Selections from Poems by Auden: Lithographs by Henry Moore was a book of thirteen poems selected from W.H. Auden’s writings, with images by Moore which were inspired by Auden’s poetry. This portfolio contains eighteen lithographs, seven of which do not appear in the book. Moore drew the lithographs from February to December of 1973 and dedicated the work to the poet’s memory on hearing of his death on 29 September of that same year. Henry Moore’s remarkable images of stark, rolling hills and figures half emerging from darkness perfectly echo Auden’s at once harrowing and passionate human landscape.

This portfolio, as well as the book, was launched in 1974 at a Special Exhibition at the British Library. Laid-in is that exhibition catalogue. A superb example of Moore’s work on paper.

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(El Lissitzky) Die Kunstismen/Les Ismes De L’Art/The Isms of Art: 1914-1924. Published by El Lissitzky and Hans Arp. Eugen Rentsch Verlag. Erlenbach-Zürich, München und Leipzig. 1925. 46p. 10.25″ x 8″. First edition. Typography by El Lissitzky. Illustrations. Original paper over board covers with design in black, red and cream on front board by El Lissitzky. Black spine. Laid in a black cloth box with a copy of the front cover image recessed in the front; paper title label on spine. Some slight foxing to pages, nevertheless in extremely good condition.

A very good copy of a seminal early Twentieth Century book showing various art movements.

This book gives definitions by well-known artists of the various movements, or forms of art, of the period. They range from Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Abstract, Metaphysicians, Suprematism, Simultanism, Dadaism, Purism, Neoplasticism, Merz, Prooun, Perism, Constructivism, to Abstract Film. The definitions are followed by illustrations of examples of each movement.

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(High Tide Press/John Ross) A Venetian Carnival. Designed and illustrated with collagraphs by John Ross. With excerpts from “Beppo, A Venetian Story” by Lord Byron. [New York.] 1991. Loose in portfolio form.  20” x 15”.  7 double spread collagraph images (20” x 30”), plus title-page and colophon sheets. Printed from collagraph plates on a Charles Brand etching press by Joss and Ann Marie Farinacci at the High Tide print workshop on Rives BFK; text type in Garamond Italic. Headlines are in various antique wooden fonts set by John and Tim Ross and printed on a Vandercook 219 press. Green cloth dropback box with paper title label on front; lined with brilliantly colored carnival images. No. 2 in an edition of 10 signed and numbered copies. Fine. Scarce.

Ross has used 7 stanzas relating to the Carnival from the approximately 55 stanzas written by Lord Bryon in his long poem “Beppo, A Venetian Story”. This poem tells of Beppo, the Venetian who leaves his wife for many years while travelling; she takes up with a Count and the verses recount the results thereof. Ross names every palazzo depicted in each spread, while the  character shown on the same spread is a depiction of one of the many character  masks used in the Venetian carnival, such as the ‘Minotaur’ and ‘Doctor’ masks.

A marvelous portfolio of exciting images.

No related posts.

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(Walter Feldman) My Story. By Juan Ortiz. Rhode Island. 2007. 6.5” x 6.5”. Accordion fold. Text printed by offset lithography on Mohawk Superfine in Bonodi Text wide. All images created by Walter Feldman in woodcut, and then transfered to rubber stamps,printed and individually hand colored. Orange-red cloth boards with recessed image in brown on front board. Text glued onto back board. One in an edition of 50 copies. Fine. Walter Feldman (a.k.a. Juan Ortiz) conceived the idea for this book in 2006.

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Enid Mark’s very beautiful book of poems on flowers

(ELM Press) Ars Botanica. [A Compilation of fourteen poems] with Lithographs by Enid Mark. Wallingford, Pennsylvania. MMIV. [2004.] n.p. 15.5″ x 10.75″. Fourteen 12″ x 8″ duotones created by scanning plant material directly onto a flatbed scanner and manipulating the resultant digital images with Photoshop software. These digital files were used to prepare film positives that were transferred photographically to lithograph plates. The duotones and hand drawings, realized as hand-lithographs, embody both state of the art digital technology and traditional print-making strategies. Papers are mouldmade English Somerset and Denril drafting vellum. Type cast by Michael and Winifred Bixler and printed by Arthur Larson, Horton Tank Graphics. Lithographs hand-pulled by Timothy P. Sheesley. Calligraphy by Susanne Moore. Hand bound by Barbara B. Blumenthal in green Italian cloth lined with green Japanese Echizen Saiko – giving the feel of grass. Recessed square of the Japanese Echizen Saiko with gilt decoration on front cover. A/P in an edition of 40 numbered copies, and 10 artist’s proofs. Fine.

The edition is sold out – only one copy remains for sale.

Poems by Diane Ackerman, Betty Adcock, Nathalie Anderson, Annie Boutelle, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Daisy Fried, Celia Gilbert, Maxine Kumin, Heather McHugh, Constance Merritt, Alicia Ostriker, Susan Snively, Susan Stewart, Eleanor Wilner. Inspired by along tradition of herbariums and botanical books, especially those published in Europe from the 7th century onward. In this contemporary edition the scientific description of flora presented in such early volumes is replaced by poetry. Enid Mark invited the various poets to participate in the book. Each was asked to write a poem in which a flower or plant served as the central image or metaphor. The collected poems, with one exception, were written specifically for Ars Botanica. … The poems reflect the broader concerns of each individual writer.

” … the images … describe more than one aspect of the featured plant specimen. Facing each poem is a photo-based duotone litho-graph of the plant, printed in warm gray and black tones. A second lithograph, derived from a hand-drawing of the same plant, printed in glowing floral colors that vary from page to page, appears on a translucent sheet tipped into the gutter between the duotoneand the poetry.”

Susan Stewart wrote The Elements, this long poem in four parts, in collaboration with artist Enid Mark, who created the book’s visual form. The poet, author of three previous books of poetry and a MacArthur Fellow, called on the long Western history of myths and literature on air, fire, earth, and water; in the end she created a sequence unified by the themes of love and strife traditionally associated with the elements. … The poem unfolds in time as a meditation on time and mortality.

“Each of the sections of The Elements -Air, Fire, Earth, and Water – is defined by a visual image. This image is introduced as a horizontal band that has its own rhythm, fading and increasing in dimension and intensity as the pages turn. On the final page openingwithin each section, three-color lithographs bleed over the four edges of the … spread of the book. Throughout the work, the concreteforms of the sections of the poem, unique to the volume with its wide format, become an integral part of the visual imagery.” Prospectus.

Susan Stewart received the 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, for Columbarium, a trade edition published by the University of Chicago Press. Columbarium features Air, Fire, Earth, and Water from The Elements.

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(Circle Press) Delicious Babies. Poem by Penelope Shuttle. Intaglio designs by Willow Legge. London. 1996. 11.5” x 7.5”. Seven original blind intaglio designs by sculptor Willow Legge. Printed letterpress by the artist in red in Baskerville on white Somerset rag. Four sewn sections in a heavy cream wrappered cover; title in blue on front. One of 85 copies, numbered and signed by the artist, plus 15 artist’s proofs. Fine.

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(Wayzgoose Press) The Isle of Pines. By Henry Neville. Illustrated by Mike Hudson. Introduction by James Rigney. Katoomba. NSW. [Australia.] 1991. 44(1)p. 12” x 7.5”. Linocuts in black, yellow, brown and black with white by Hudson, who also designed and bound the edition. Handset by Jadwiga Jarvis. Printed in black and brown by Jarvis and Hudson. Bound in cream cloth boards; sun design in orange and red, with black ship, title in black on spine. Endpapers printed with sun design in orange and red. Red paper over board slipcase with black paper trim. No. 40 in an edition of 55 copies. Prospectus laid in. Fine.

Henry Neville (1620-1694), the author of The Isle of Pines, was a member of a noble family with a long and influential record of involvement in the political life of seventeenth century England … the tale, written after the restoration of the Stuart monarchy, is a project of the experience of defeat.

The narrative begins with George Pine, an imaginary traveler marooned with four women on an idyllic island somewhere in the vicinity of Australia. With no apparent need to work on this island, he sets about the task of populating and colonizing it. After his death, his only son and heir tries to establish an idyllic republic, but does not succeed.

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