(Laura Wait) T-crossed. Unique variant artist’s book by Laura Wait. [Steamboat Springs.] 2007. 20 paper leaves, 8p. of mylar. 10” x 4” 1”. Etchings, letterpress, handwriting and painting. Handwritten in manuscript on the half title and throughout the book. The pages and the Mylar sheets were first printed with wooden type on an etching press, and the paper versos were printed with etchings. Paste-painting completed on both sides of all paper in many layers. Handwriting on many pages. Sewn onto a concertina with linen thread. Spine of brown Harmatan leather with a gold “T” handtooled at the top. Boards are aircraft plywood covered in etchings printed on Japanese paper. Multiple layers of acrylic paint and varnish were applied to the covers. Brown endpapers of Walnut dyed Cave paper. Black cloth dropback box lined with brown painted paper; paper title label on spine. One in a series of seven unique variants on the intertwined symbols of “T” and the cross. Colophon handwritten and signed by the artist. Fine.

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(simplemente maria press) On the Blue Shore of Silence: Poems of the Sea by Pablo Neruda. A la Orilla Azul del Silencio: Poemas del Mar por Pablo Neruda. Designed and illustrated by Mary Heebner. English translations by Alastair Reid. simplemente maria press. [Santa Barbara. 2001.] Portfolio – 14″ x 11″. The original watercolor paintings in the Isla Negra series were made for the specific purpose of creating the editioned book, On the Blue Shore of Silence, using the Giclée printing process at Duganne Atelier, Santa Monica, under the direction of the artist. They were produced on Somerset Velvet 300. The portfolio consists of 12 hand-folded folios, each containing an image presented with a poem in Spanish by Pablo Neruda and Alastair Reid’s translation into English. The text was printed letterpress from polymer plates at The Lumino Press, Santa Barbara, California, on handmade linen paper produced by the artist with the assistance of Pat Almonrode at the Dieu Donné Mill, New York City. The poems are digitally typeset using Adobe Jenson for the English text and Arrighi for the Spanish; Trajan titles. The cockling on the edge of the linen sheets was purposefully intended to allude to waves approaching a shore. The handmade linen wrappers were individually painted with indigo pigmented pulp by the artist at Dieu Donné Papermill, New York. Images and poems were tipped onto larger sheets of Fabriano Tiepolo. Also included is a hand-sewn signature consisting of title page, introduction, table of contents, colophon and acknowledgments. In a handmade case constructed with imported Japanese blue flecked silk book cloth over boards with Birch wood sides. Title on spine; fasteners are silverplate. Cases were produced at The Lumino Press. An edition of 50 copies; the first 22 are Special copies, each copy containing one of the signed, original watercolor paintings from the Isla Negra series mounted in a self-standing mat. 10 hors commerce copies were also produced. Fine.

One of the special edition copies, with the original watercolor painting laid in. (Regular edition also available)

On the Blue Shore of Silence is Heebner’s fifth editioned artist’s book. Heebner states: “It was Alastair Reid who … enabled this project to come alive by agreeing to work with me and let me use his translations. The unexpected joy of producing this book was the time spent listening to Alastair spin stories about his friendship with Pablo [Neruda] as we selected poems, read them aloud, digressed about the sea and Chile, about language, color, and light. … Carmen Balcells, agent for Neruda’s estate, kindly granted permission to use his poems in their original Spanish.”

Alastair Reid, (b.1926) has lived in his native Scotland, in Spain, Greece, the UK, the USA, France, Central and South America. He is a distinguished poet, author of more than twenty books, and was a contributor to the New Yorker magazine from 1951 until the 1990s. He is an internationally acclaimed translator of Latin American poetry, notably the writings of Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges. Reid said about this book: “I am certain that Pablo Neruda, who was an impassioned book collector, would have crowed with delight at seeing and handling Mary Heebner’s On the Blue Shore of Silence (which has been brought out as a trade book by HarperCollins).

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(Larry Rivers) Diana with poem. A three-dimensional work on paper. By Larry Rivers. U.L.A.E./Universal Limited Art Editions. New York. 1970 – 1974. 25” x 28”. With an original poem by Kenneth Koch, ‘Diana Latin Goddess of the Moon’ facing the image and printed letterpress on handmade paper with U.L.A.E. blindstamp. Four sheets of thin card laminated and hinged to create the three-dimensional image. All in beige linen folder. Cover with title ‘DIANA’ and ‘Rivers’ handwritten in script. No. 8 in an edition of 19 dated copies signed by Rivers, plus 4 artist’s proofs. Fine.

A superb example of Rivers at his absolute best. This evocative portrait of a young woman looking through a window, as reflected in the enclosed poem by the well-known American poet, Kenneth Koch.

Rivers was a highly versatile Post-Abstract Expressionist who anticipated the Pop Art Movement. He was known for his humor, wit, and irony, especially in his narrative paintings.

Copies of this work are at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Texas at Austin.

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(William T. Wiley ) Ships Log. Zephyrus Image. San Francisco, California. 1st Edition. 19 pages. 10.5” x 7.375”. With an original watercolor of a sailboat: marked in pencil ‘1975’ and ‘H.C.’ In the original envelope, with its photograph of the original Log and the larger construction of which it is a part. (Now at the San Francisco Museum of Art.) In a total edition of 1100 copies, the print is No. 23 in an edition of 25 Special copies. Fine, signed with the artist’s imprint and dated. This copy has a variant original watercolor of a sailboat. The envelope has been professionally repaired.

Wiley, born in 1937 in Indiana, is linked to the “Bay Area Figuratives” group of San Francisco, California, where he has spent much of his life. Known for his sense of humor in sculptures, prints and paintings, Wiley is represented in many leading United States galleries, including the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, and other institutions world wide.

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(Edward Ruscha) A few palm trees. Heavy Industry Publications, Inc. Hollywood. [California. 1971.] 1st Edition. Unpaginated. 7” x 5.5”. 14 black and white illustrations. Fine.

Ruscha was born in 1937 in Nebraska. An interesting example of an early item from this well-known Hyper-Realist, who records ordinary details of urban contemporary life (generally in California). In May-March 2006, Ruscha had a major retrospective of his work at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.   Examples of his work are at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Metropolitan Museum of Art;  Getty Library; Yale University and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

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(Larry Rivers) The donkey and the darling. A portfolio of 52 lithographs. Text by Terry Southern. U.L.A.E./Universal Limited Art Editions. 1976. 17.5” x 21”. On ivory handmade paper. Each sheet water­marked with signatures of both artist and author in the corners, plus the embossed U.L.A.E. blindstamp. Lithographic images and text are on the same sheets of French handmade paper. Each lithograph pagi­nated in pencil on verso with initials ‘T.G.’ [Tatyana Grosman], with separate pages for the Table of Contents and the Colophon. Each of the plates includes text in Southern’s handwriting. Dedication page states ‘For Nile and for Gwynne & Emma’ (River’s wife and two children). The portfolio is enclosed in a three-sided wrapper.

Label on wrapper cover reads ‘Proof Set – Larry Rivers/Terry Southern.’ Housed in a new custom-made, moss-green cloth dropback box by Angela Scott. 19.5 ” x 23” x 3.5”. Blindstamped title on front. An edition of 35, plus 6 Artist’s Proofs and 3 Printer’s Proofs.

The complete Proof Set of this important work,which evolved over nine years of the artist’s prolific and innovative career [1968 -1977]. Prepared during the prime period of U.L.A.E., while it was producing the finest quality lithographic prints of that era.

Rivers (1923 – 2002) had limited interest in book illustrations, but “was intrigued with the idea of doing a fairy tale as parody … The resulting project … was the most difficult and expensive project ever undertaken by U.L.A.E … and required … 105 stones, with a total of 126 printings … for the images … 82 plates [310 printings] had been used for the text.” -Universal Limited Art Editions, A History and Catalogue: The first twenty-five years. 1989. Copies of this work are at the Museum of Modern Art, University of Texas at Austin, New York Public Library, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, as well as other important public and private collections.

Notes for the Proof Set:

• Sheet #49 lacks the drawn-in lithographed mouse in upper right corner, as in image #109, page 500, of Sparks, E. Universal Limited Art Editions. A History and Catalogue: the First 25 Years. N.Y., Abrams, 1989.
• Sheet #51 is missing a lithographed image of a bird in the middle bottom of sheet, as in image #111, page 501, Sparks.
• Sheet #54 lacks an image of ‘Miss Darling’ in the middle bottom of sheet, plus coloured embellishments, as in image #114, page 502, Sparks.

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(Robert Mangold) A Book of Silk Screen prints. Multiple panel paintings 1973 – 1976.  Printer: Domberger, Filderstadt, West  Germany. Parasol Press S.A., New York. 1977. Accordion fold. 27.25” x  11.75”. Nine silkscreens on handmade Fabriano cotton paper. Enclosed within a Plexiglas wall hangar, and in its original shipping box. Signed ‘R. Mangold 96’, in pencil by artist. On title page: “Published in a first edition of 300.” Scarce. Fine.

Mangold, born in New York in 1937, is a well known American architectural/minimalist painter who focuses on visual illusion and precisely measured geometry.

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(Jasper Johns) Foirades/Fizzles. [Texts in French and English.] Five prose fragments [”Foirades”] by Samuel Beckett, selected from his Pour finir encore et autre foirades. Original prints by Jasper Johns. Petersburg Press S.A. London. 1976. 13.5” x 10.5”. 57 pages [on double leaves]. 13” x 10”. Twenty-six lift ground aquatints (most with etching, soft ground etching, drypoint, screenprint and/or photogravure); five etchings (some with soft ground etching and/or drypoint); one soft ground etching and one aquatint. Color lithographs for endpapers and box lining on Richard de Bas Auvergne paper. Text pages handprinted at the Atelier Crommelynck, Paris, on handmade Richard de Bas Auvergne paper watermarked with the initials of Beckett and the signature of Johns. In a beige linen-covered solander box, with purple silk tassle. With an internal case lining of color lithographs by Jasper Johns. With original interleaving tissues. One in an edition of 250 copies. Signed by both Beckett and Johns. There are also 30 artist’s proofs and 20 “hors-commerce.”

“Two of the most enigmatic artists of our time, Samuel Beckett and Jasper Johns, collaborated on this complex yet elegant artist’s book. Originally written in French …, the brooding essays were rewritten in English by Beckett for this project. Nevertheless, Johns decided to include both texts that expanded his own involvement to thirty-three etchings and aquatints plus color lithograph endpapers. Johns’s imagery is based on a major four-panel painting, Untitled (1972), along with his classic imagery related to numbers and body parts. This cerebral volume that provokes more questions than it answers is considered one of the greatest artists’ books of the second half of the twentieth century.” – Artists’ Books in the Modern Era 1870-2000, The Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, p. 254-5. “The prose pieces of Beckett in Fizzles were mostly written in French in the 1960s and early 1970s, some of them for Jerome Linton’s periodical Minuit. Beckett’s links with Linton went back to 1951, when the Editions de Minuit published Molloy and Malone Meurt. The author described his method of producing Fizzles as ‘breaking wind quietly, hissing, spluttering; a failure or fiasco.” – From Manet to Hockney, Modern Artists’ Illustrated Books, p. 354. Considered one of the great artists’ books of the latter half of 20th Century, Fizzles developed an international reputation for its complexity. It was included in the important Museum of Modern Art exhibition, A Century of Artists’ Books (1995). Copies are in major institutions worldwide.

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(La Fondation Royaumont) Champs de Silence. [French.] Val d’Oise, France. Published by Stipa, Montreuil, [France]. September, 1992. Unpaginated. 10.5” x 8.25”.  Completed for the exhibition of the same name at the Abbey of Royaumont, between September 13 – October 31, 1992.  No. 39 of 99 Special copies, signed by each of the seven participants. Eleven H/C copies.

In two sections:

1. La porterie, essays by Pierre Alferi, Olivier Kaeppelin, and Madeleine Van Doren. With approximately 30 black and white
photographs illustrating the works of the seven sculptors, poets, and photographers featured in the exhibition. Wrappers. 1500 copies.

2. Champs de Silence.  Sept estampes originales.  La porterie. Seven original lithographs on Velin de Rives paper signed by
Teerd Alkema, Marc Charpin, Francois Dick and others. Wrappers.

The catalogue and the portfolio in an untitled dark blue cloth covered slip case. Fine.

The Abbey, founded in the 13th Century by the Cistercian Order, has belonged to the Royaumont Cultural Centre since 1964. The Foundation focuses on vocal music studies and poetry.

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(Jim Dine) Complete Graphics. Galerie Mikro, Berlin. Petersburg Press, London.  1970. Unpaginated. 8.5” x 8.5”. Typography by Jim Dine. Lithography by P. Clement, Amsterdam; screen printing by Atelier Hass, Stuttgart. Bound with boards covered in handmade paper, with an original collaged lithograph on the cover. Contained in a similarly bound slipcase with matching sleeve containing three loose, colored images, each signed by Jim Dine:

Imogen I – 16 color screenprint, after a watercolor, on parchment type paper.

Imogen II – 6 color collaged lithograph from stone, on handmade paper.

Imogen III – 14 color screenprint, printed on card, after a watercolor.

Image sizes:  8.25” x 8.25”.  An edition of 200, with 20 proofs. In very good condition. Slight repair to slipcase.

Born in 1935 in Ohio, Jim Dine has an unusually varied body of work. He is highly prolific and internationally recognized for his imaginative and technical skills. Always provoca­tive, he attracts large audiences to his numerous gallery and museum exhibitions. Major retrospectives as early as 1970 [Whitney Museum], and as recently as 2004/2005 [National Gallery of Art.]  This catalogue surveys a pivotal decade in his development. Institutions owning this work include the Art Institute of Chicago; Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum, New York;  the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Tate Gallery, London; Harvard University; the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

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