Susan Allix’s latest tour de force, Colours of Persia

$7,000.00

() Colours of Persia. Perceptions Accounts Comments Remarks & Descriptions From the travel writings of Arrian, Ibn Battuta, Sir John Chardin, Sir Robert Ker Porter and others. Artist’s book by . London. 2007.13.5” x 11”. Approximately 137 p. some fold-outs, some small-sized and some with cut-out shapes. A variety of colored sheets act as interleaving or free colored collages. The text is arranged around the headings of five cities – Tehran,Mashad, Yazd, Shiraz and Isfahan. The names of these are printed in English in 48pt. Garamond Italic and also in 48pt. Farsi which was cast by an engaging ‘hot metal man’ in Tehran. Different typefaces have been used for the different voices of the authors. Thus Ker Porter speaks in Bembo, and Curzon in Baskerville, while Hafez is set in varying sizes of Garamond. All the letterpress is hand set and printed on handmade Barcham Green 185 gsm. paper. The paper for the prints is handmade Richard de Bas. 26 prints, of which 17 are etchings with drypoint, carborundum and other methods, 7 are linocuts and 2 a combination. Except for 4 in black and white, the etchings are in colour, including hand coloring by watercolor, crayon and airbrush, and gold and silver foil. The binding is in cobalt blue, yellow and natural goatskin, or variations of turquoise, blue, yellow and natural. The inlaid leather is also inlaid with waxed paper printed in a style similar to tilework, its semi-transparent quality allowing the title to show through in a shadowy way. The design, based on architectural shapes, has onlays of black, freely-cut leather reminiscent of calligraphy. The fore-edge flap, a feature of eastern binding, is seen in the extra construction of the box in which the book is enclosed. All the bindings are slightly different and may vary again as the edition is bound. One in an edition of 25copies, signed by. New.

“I shall not attempt to give any bibliography of Teheran, for the reason that very nearly every foreign visitor to Persia has stayed in the capital and has described his stay.” So wrote George Curzon in 1892 in his own extensive records of his experiences in this country. Throughout the centuries visitors, unable to resist writing about their travels, have left behind them countless diverse and various accounts that bear witness to the endless fascinations of Persia. “This book omits many wonderful things, but to prevent an entirely haphazard combination of pages a viewpoint must be taken. Iranis a country of great visual and colourful beauty, from the intense blues, turquoises and yellows of the tilework that decorates the distinctive shapes of its architecture, to the delicate washes of colour in the majestic landscapes and the vibrant tones of everyday life seen in fruit markets and wayside textiles. “Colours of Persia focuses on extracts from authors with a susceptibility towards colour. The earliest of these writers is Arrian, a Roman general who described the tomb of Cyrus when Alexander the Great visited it. Later comes Ibn Battuta writing about red and green water melons, John Chardin on black eyebrows and Robert Ker Porter on most things from royalty to bridges. A description by one observer may be found again in new words by another, written some hundreds of years later, thus illustrating the changing fortunes of cities and lifestyles. Some of the words are my own when a more up to date variation may be of interest. Amongst the descriptions are poems by Hafez, the most famous Persian poet. The English versions of these are by Gertrude Bell, made in the late 19th century and still regarded as some of the best and most perceptive of translations.” - .

“Those familiar with the work of know that her books launch you on a visual journey. Each book is a voyage propelled by color, texture, image, impression, and material. …“

“Allix comes to the book by way of printmaking and papermaking. She first emerged as a printmaker, having studied at the Royal College of Art in the 1960s. Winning the Prix de Rome gave her the opportunity to live for a time in Italy. … After more than three decades and thirty-seven books, Allix continues to be true to her vision. Because she insists on creating the entire book - from letterpress to illustration to binding - her work has a certain recognizable aesthetic; a malleable signature that responds to the particular character of a piece, but is still unquestionably hers.

“Allix conceives each book visually. ‘I am concerned with visual things so I see books as full of colour and form in a pictorial sense as well as through the images created in my mind by the words, and through the sculptural qualities a book possesses.’ The real narrative of her books is the flow of color and image as they move throughout the piece.” - Extract of a Review by Mark Dimunation, Chief of the Rare Book Division at the Library of Congress, Washington DC., in Parenthesis No. 13, August 2007.

In the collections of The British Library, Yale University, National Gallery of Art Washington DC, The Claremont Colleges in California, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Alberta, as well as other fine public and private collections.

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