Artists' Books and Rare Books for Sale » Papermaking

Dianne L. Reeves — From Fiber to Paper

wstahl — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:39:40 +0000

(Dianne L. Reeves – Papermaking) From Fiber to Paper. Text and samples by Dianne L. Reeves. Houston. Texas. 1991. n.p. 7″ x 9.5″. Designed and printed by W. Thomas Taylor in Austin, Texas. Printed in Nideggan mouldmade paper, with title page calligraphy by Jeff Jeffries. Stab-sewn binding made from Ogura natural Japanese handmade paper by BookLab in Austin. An edition of 200 copies. Fine.

30 different samples of paper made from various natural fibers such as hibiscus, banana, ginger & gladiolus leaves, cornhusks, rice straw and blue jeans. Information and basic recipes are given for the making of the papers, as well as detailed specifications for the making of the 30 different samples shown. Reeves states: “… this book should serve as a guide for all persons interested in the process of … handmade paper from natural fibers.”

Seven Hills Press — bold strokes — Artist’s book by Brian Borchardt

wstahl — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:17:57 +0000

(Seven Hills Press) bold strokes. Artist’s book by Brian Borchardt. [Wisconsin.) 2009. n.p. 8.75” x 5.5”. Text in black, often in an uneven format. Large wood type is used as decoration in many colors. Papers in this book are random selections from a 1956 edition of Webster’s disctionary and banana leaf papers from the local Asian grocery store, as well as strips of colored handmade paper. Beige handmade paper wrappers, with the front cover smaller than the back and with a cut out ‘comma’ as decoration. Bound with open spine sewn in red string. Yellow handmade paper envelope to protect book. In an edition of 45 copies this is number 22. Fine.

“Printed in the basement from the waning days of 2009 into the cold snowy promise of 2009.” – Colophon. A clever and charming little book.

Lynn Sures — VARIATIONS on the dialectic between Mingus and Pithecanthropus erectus”

wstahl — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:18:58 +0000

(Lynn Sures) VARIATIONS on the dialectic between Mingus and Pithecanthropus erectus”. Conceived by Lynn Sures & Rick Potts. Text by Rick Potts. [Wheaton, Maryland.] 2000-2005. Two-sided accordion fold book. The woodcuts on the reverse are with color. 10.5”x7.5”x.5″; opens to 58.5”. Lynn Sures designed the book; drew and carved the woodblocks from basswood (Japanese shina) panels; made the paper, pulp paintings & watermarks at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, of Silver Spring, Maryland; and bound the edition with assistance from Maria Burke & Jill Christian. Lynn also worked on the text design with Terrence Chouinard and designed the wrapper with assistance from Shawn Sheehy. Harold Kyle produced the photopolymer plates at his Boxcar Press of Syracuse, New York. Printing by Terrence Chouinard. All text and images are letterpress printed, all paper is handmade. Accordion fold with 16 pages of abaca, pulp-painted paper. Eight consecutive pages are printed with woodcuts and polymer-plate text, eight are printed with woodcuts alone. Three pamphlets of abaca and hemp papers are sewn into the accordion; each contains two polymer-plate images and one essay, plus a watermark image. The title and colophon are printed on the front and back of the wrapper, which is a single folded sheet of abaca paper with a woodcut and polymer-plate text. An edition of 55 copies, signed by Sures on both the back of the wrapper and the side of the front cover. Fine.

Inspiring this book is the musical work entitled “Pithecanthropus erectus” written and performed by twentieth-century musician Charles Mingus. Mingus speaks in the album liner notes about the stages of evolutionary development and the self-awareness of humans. Book artist Lynn Sures and paleoanthropologist Rick Potts use images and words to weave Mingus’ musical tale together with the poignant factual story of early hominid P. erectus. The dialectic between Mingus and P. erectus addresses fragility, the power of creation, the hand played by chance, and the blank slate of the future.

Lynn Sures teaches in the Fine Arts Department at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC and in the graduate Book Arts program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. In spring, 2005 she was a Visiting Artist in Residence at the MFA program of the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. In August 2005 her work was exhibited in Italy at the Fortezza Medicea Girifalco di Cortona. The summer 2005 issue of Fibertarts Magazine featured ‘VARIATIONS’ in an article by Debra Riley Parr.

John Gerard — Relay

wstahl — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:35:21 +0000

(John Gerard) Relay. [Poems by] Patrick F. Durgin. Produced at the Columbia College Chicago, Center for Book & Paper Arts. Summer 2008. First Edition. 32p. 14” x 10”. Concept, images and handmade paper by John Gerard with shadow-silhouettes of skyscrapers of Chicago, made as paper painting and with photographs of the city. Many of the gray pages are irregularly shaped.The text is set in 18 pt. Courier and printed on an Epson 9800 inkjet printer. Made at the Center for Book and Paper Arts. Handbound with three-sectioned gray cloth spine and charcoal and light gray boards, which mimic the shaping of the inside pages. Title in black on front board. Laid in a gray cloth dropback box with black title on front and spine. No. 6 in an edition of 20 copies, signed by John Gerard. Fine.

“The poems Relay (Excerpts) were kindly reproduced here by permission of the author.” – Colophon. The poems are on the theme of a metropolis. The book was produced during Gerard’s Summer 2008 Artist Residency. Funding for this residency was generously provided by the Illinois Arts Council.

John Gerard & Heinrich Heine — Schlöpfungslieder.

wstahl — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:30:29 +0000

(John Gerard) Schlöpfungslieder. By Heinrich Heine. [Germany. 2003.] n.p. 11.5” x 8.25”. Translucent sheets printed with text between pulp-painted handmade paper. Stab-sewn Japanese binding in cream handmade paper wrappers with title on front. Laid in a mustard cloth dropback box lined in red and red title on front and spine of box. No. 20 in an edition of 30 copies, signed by John Gerard. Fine.

John Gerard & Berthold Brecht — Lied der belebenden Wirkung des Geldes [Song of the Enlivening Effect of Money]

wstahl — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:25:17 +0000

(John Gerard) Lied der belebenden Wirkung des Geldes. [Song of the Enlivening Effect of Money.] [In German.] [By] Berthold Brecht. Grafik und Gestaltung Jochen Fiedler. Hergestellt in Zusammenarbeit mit John Gerard. Rheinbach/Leipzig. 1999. 48p. 6.625” x 12.75”. Printed on John Gerard’s white handmade papers made with shredded German Mark banknotes. Each full page is interspersed with a half size page. Handprinted in black with blind embossing by Reinhard Scheuble. Lime green handmade endpapers. Green cloth spine with black title; handmade paper cover boards, title in blind. Green cloth dropback box with black spine title and relief title on front. An edition of 25 copies signed by the two collaborators, plus 5 artist’s copies. Fine.

“Leipzig Graphic artist Jochen Fiedler has engraved eight whimsical monetary notes to accompany Bertolt Brecht’s text on the enlivening effect of money. Jochen Fiedler had been making fictitious monetary notes ever since the two Germanys were united and he had to learn to deal with the West German Mark. When the Euro was introduced in 1999, I asked Fiedler to design new notes and illustrate Brecht’s naughty poem.“ – Gerard.

John Gerard & Fritz Best — trans

wstahl — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:20:37 +0000

(John Gerard) trans. [English.] A series of 7 tableaux by Fritz Best made in collaboration with John Gerard. [Berlin. 1998.] 7 double page spreads. 14.75” x 12.5”. An accordion folded book with images and text by Fritz Best. Produced using pulp painting techniques as well as offset 4-color lithography, etching, stone lithography, relief etching, original offset printing. Front page glued to front board. Black linen covers with rectangular cut-out on front board allowing the title to show through. An edition of 20 copies, signed by Best. Fine.

“trans was one of the most interesting projects of all my artists’ books, simply because both the artist and myself had no idea as to whether the book would work technically. The white base sheets were made first and dried; Best printed these in four-color offset; months later we then used stencil techniques and pulp painting to make the second layer of paper in pink or blue. The sheets were then dried again and printed in seven different printing techniques. In each of the sheets is a watermarked word that begins with the prefix “trans”. We even made the sheets transparent. Best has used cliches from advertising – and comments about our desires and misinterpretations of the transferal of ideas.” – Gerard.

John Gerard & Mary Beth Schmidt Fogarty — The Stream of Life

wstahl — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:16:17 +0000

(John Gerard) The Stream of Life. Pulp paper images by Mary Beth Schmidt Fogarty. Papierwerkstatt John Gerard. 1995. Accordion fold. 19″ x 11.5″. A series of images based on the River Rhine which opens to 88″. Textured cream cloth over endboards, with gilt title details on front. One of 8 unique variants, with the initials of the artist painted in with the work. Fine.

Gerard writes: This was Mary Beth Fogarty’s second book made in my paper workshop; she had just traveled up the Rhine from Mainz before coming and was enthralled with the landscape – the small churches, the vineyards, the ships – and felt that a series of broad individual landscape paintings without text would be best. The four sheets were then bound as a leporello. Each book is completely different than the next.”

The last copy of a brilliant visual work, by a very talented artist, now passed away.

John Gerard & Fritz Best — Tag und Nacht [Day and Night]

wstahl — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:11:10 +0000

(John Gerard) Tag und Nacht. [Day and Night.] Text and Images by Fritz Best. [Berlin. 1992.] 11.25” x 8”. A double-sided accordion fold book with pulp paper images and text by Fritz Best, produced in collaboration with John Gerard on handmade papers of cotton. Images and text for ‘Tag’ on one side of the book, and images and text for ‘Nacht’ on the other. Grey endboards with title. One in an edition of 20 signed copies. Fine. $460.00 “Day and Night was the result of an invitation to Fritz Best to make a book in the paper medium in my Berlin workshop. He had been in and out of the workshop for months, seen how many of the techniques function, but still had many questions. The theme he chose was the departure from Berlin, as he was to leave that year back to London and I was to move to the Rhineland. The book reflects all of the chaotic conditions in Berlin: traffic, dogs, the remains of the wall, office work and ends with a relaxing bottle of beer. All of the images are done in paper pulp using stencil techniques; the text was printed in silver, using nylon cliches. This is Fritz Best’s first book.” – Gerard. English translations available for all books.

Press at Colorado College — Printed Poem/The Poem as Print. Twenty-four Broadsides of American Poetry

wstahl — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:18:11 +0000

(Press at Colorado College) Printed Poem/The Poem as Print. Twenty-four Broadsides of American Poetry. Alastair Reid, Dana Gioia, editors. Colorado Springs. 1983-1985. 22” x 16”. Many sheets printed on unique handmade papers of various colors. Display type faces, many uncommon to ‘fine printings’ were used. Virtually all the many devices of relief and letterpress printing – photoengraving, blind debossing, transparent color, tint blocks,linoleum and woodcuts, even gold stamping – were employed. The entire group is housed in an archival black box. One in an edition of 150 sets; all of the poems signed by the poets. Fine.

The poets are Donald Justice, W.S. Merwin, Carolyn Kizer, May Swenson, Dana Gioia, David Barton, Robert Bly, Jared Carter, Amy Clampitt, Laura Gilpin, Judith Hamschemeyer, Barbara Howes,Ted Kooser, Sidney Lea, Howard Moss, Robert Pack, Jay Parini, Franklin Reeve, Alastair Reid, Louis Simpson, Radcliffe Squires, May Swenson, David Wagoner, and Richard Wilbur. Exceptional papers were located or commissioned for each poem. In every case vital elements of the design resonate with the text.

This collection was printed between 1983 and 1985 by James Trissel, Professor of Art and founder of The Press at Colorado College. Alastair Reid, an editor for The New Yorker, now retired, and Dana Gioia, then director of the National Endowment for the Arts, served as editors for the collection. Trissel designed the broadsides in response to each poem and printed them with the aid of his students..
These Broadsides have been exhibited at universities and libraries across the United States.

An outstanding portfolio of broadsides. Highly recommended.