Refinery – a 3-d book from John Ross
(High Tide Press) Refinery. Prints [and structural artist’s book] by John Ross. [New York.] 2000. 14″ x 12″. 3-D construction of color collagraph images and etchings with shapes and textures which evoke oil refineries. Images on both the front and the back of the book, with further images which fold out from the back. Collagraphs printed on an etching press on Fabriano Murillo and Arches Cover paper. Text type is News Gothic, set in Linotype. Headlines are in wood and metal fonts by John Ross from the High Tide collection. All type printed on a Vandercook 219 proofing press by Ross. In a specially designed green cloth box with special magnetized front opening. Turquoise boards painted with green/black impression of an oil gusher, which opens out, on the front cloth covered boards. Boxing by John DiMarcantonio. No. 1 in an edition of only 5 signed and numbered copies in a special box. Fine. Scarce.
Ross writes in his text: “The shapes, forms and intricacy of petroleum refineries have fascinated me for fifty years. When I spent some time in Ploesti, Romania in 1964, I visited the nearby historic refineries to study and draw their patterns and details. This resulted in a series of about twenty collagraph prints based on the sketches. Most of these were completed and printed while on assignment with the ‘Graphic Arts USA’ exhibit which travelled to the countries of Eastern Europe, under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. On another trip to Yugoslavia I made drawings of the petrochemical plant at Sisak in Croatia, completing the research for more prints. They are here transformed into a 3-Dimensional fantasy of a refinery. The formulas surprinted on the shapes have been extracted from actual processes in the production procedures. Unlike reality, this version can assume many variations when it is erected.”
Technical petrochemical advice by Alfred Weiss of New Jersey.
Related items: Artists' Books, Catalogue 37 - Summer 2009, High Tide Press, John Ross