Masks Around the World from John Ross
(High Tide Press) Masks around the World. Prints by John Ross. Introduction by Miriam Schapiro. [New York. 2000.] Collagraph plates made in Venice, Italy, in the summer of 1998. n.p. 11.75″ x 9″. The masks are constructed of mat board, fabric, sand and carborumdum grits glued together with acrylic polymer gesso. All press work, design and prints by John Ross. One plate is included in each book as a frontispiece to the title page. Most have been trimmed to fit into the plastic envelopes. 15 masks on 10 spreads with 4 pop-up images. One image with black Venetian tassels and black bristles. Printed at the High Tide printshop in Primer, on a Vandercook proof press. Tan cloth spine with black relief title, black cloth boards with resin casting of collagraph plate of a mask from N’gere in Liberia glued in on front cover and colored by Ross. Tan cloth slipcase with recessed black paper title label. No. 1 in an edition of 15 copies, signed by the artist. Fine. Scarce.
Masks from Japan, the Aztec, the Congo, the Iroquois, Bali, Mexico, Kwakiutl (Northwest coast of America and Canada), Austria, New Ireland (Melanesia), and Venice. Each has brief explanatory text.
Ross states in his Colophon: ” The depiction of the masks in this book are my interpretations of some of the intriguing masking traditions in the world.” Ross also states: “This is my first pop-up book. The technique is demanding and requires great precision but can yield powerful and surprising visual images. It requires the balancing of the tricky structures of the pop-up with the artistic requirements of simplicity and good design. The actual construction of the dimensional properties of the page has to work to present an image of power without being overshadowed by the structure. Of course, the choice of ‘masks’ as subject helps to solve the problem; they are so much a part of human culture that it seems natural to make them dimensional.”
Related items: Artists' Books, Catalogue 37 - Summer 2009, Catalogue 40- Spring-Summer 2011, High Tide Press, John Ross