Holiseventh Press – Eurydice Unbound.
(Holiseventh Press) Eurydice Unbound. Text by Patrick E. White. Continuous relief prints by John Talleur. Lawrence, Kansas. 1988. Box – 21.5″ x 14″. In four 10′ accordion- fold sections. Set in Centaur & Arrighi. Printed on a Washington Hoe by John Talleur with Mark Ritchie, John Coleman and Shawn Henning at The Holiseventh Press. The relief prints were printed on Hosho, backed by Kochi. Decorative endpapers and wrappers in blue and yellow. Gray and yellow silkscreen printed cloth box to a design by John Talleur. Binding and boxing done by Louise Reynolds. One in an edition of 25 copies, plus 5 Artists’ Proofs, signed by Patrick E. White and John Talleur. Fine.
Patrick E. White’s short story Eurydice Unbound takes up where the classical version leaves off: after Orpheus has himself been killed and sent to Hades to be reunited with his beloved Eurydice. In this new version, however, Orpheus is anything but the conquering hero. He is portrayed as a feckless artiste who cowers under a hydrangea after encountering Eurydice, now a radical feminist who angrily denounces him and the confinements of love and stomps off to free herself from the underworld.
“John Talleur, the artist-printer of Holiseventh Press, considers Eurydice Unbound a tribute to women’s efforts to liberate themselves, and he has produced a monumental edition of this story to commemorate those efforts. Everything about this book is large scale. … The book is printed on Hosho, backed with sheets of Kochi; together, the expanse of these soft, white papers imparts a sense of strength and luxury. Talleur’s colorful wood and linoleum cuts decorate the pages and illustrate key events in the story. The principal motif of the book is a brilliant yellow line that loops across every page; it serves to tie the book together and signify the psychic journey of the couple. Both the relief cuts and the text type (18 point Centaur) are keenly impressed into the paper, reinforcing the book’s monumental quality.” – Cheryl Miller, Fine Print, Spring, 1990.
This book was the prize-winning entry at the Art of the Contemporary Book Conference in Columbus, Ohio, 1991.
Related items: Catalogue 37 - Summer 2009, Literature, Holiseventh Press