Metropolis, an artist’s book from John Ross
(High Tide Press) Metropolis. Prints by John Ross. Text by Selected Authors. [New York. 1995.] Design and collagraph images by John Ross. 10 double-page spreads with collagraphs and text. 14″ x 11″. Images produced on an etching press on Stonehenge white. Most of the text type is News Gothic, with the display type set from wooden fonts; all type printed on a Vandercook proofing press at the High Tide workshop. Binding and slipcase by James DeMarcantonio in Providence, Rhode Island. Accordion fold book in pre-printed boards with an urban design by Ross in black/red binders cloth, with spine title label. Contained in a brown cloth slipcase bearing colored resin casting inset in the front. No. 2 in an edition of 15 copies, signed by Ross. Fine. Scarce.
Ross states: “Since my days at Cooper Union Art School in the 1940s, I have loved architecture, having majored in the subject for a time. This fascination has influenced much of my work since then and the book Metropolis expresses some of my feelings. I have added some thoughts from a selection of authors concerned with the idea of urban life. Most images are from relief rolled collagraph plates, with a few printed intaglio with added surface colors before running through an etching press.”
Ross’s vision of the city includes quotes, of various lengths, by writers – Paul J. Tilich, John DosPassos, Leslie Fiedler, Italo Calvino, Bertold Brecht, Charles Baudelaire, Willard Motley, John Ely Burchard, J.B. Priestly, Plato, Don Martindale, and Frederic Harrison.
Related items: Artists' Books, Catalogue 37 - Summer 2009, High Tide Press, John Ross