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(High Tide Press) Venice Saved from the Sea. Prints by John Ross. Text by various authors. [New York. 1995.] Accordion fold. 11.5″ x 8.25″. Conceived, designed, illustrated and printed by John Ross in the High Tide Press workshop on Rives BFK; set in Janson and printed on a Vandercook proofing press. Collagraph images with two three-page fold outs. When open the pages can be unfolded to show a pull-out soft ground etching 22″ x 30″ with hand coloring. Prints done on a Brand etching press. Turquoise cloth boards with a wave pattern, lined in blue slubbed silk. Matching silk slipcase with recessed paper title label. No. 1 in an edition of 15 copies, signed by Ross. Fine. Scarce.

Text by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1833; Fynes Moryson, 1617; Charles Dickens, 1846; George Eliot, 1860; Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818; Canon Pietro Casola, 1494; Philippe De Commynes, 1495; George Sand, 1854; Lord Bryon, 1818; and William Beckford, 1780.

Ross comments: “My wartime experiences in Italy lasted over a year without giving me the pleasures of a trip to Venice. It wasn’t until 1949, during a nine month stay in Europe, that we first visited Venice. However, in the past 14 years, my wife (Clare Romano) and I have spent two months every summer living and working in Venice, absorbing the sights and feeling of this venerable city. Its architectural flamboyancies have impressed thousands of artists and writers through the years and I have joined this group. I have produced 4 books on Venice and may do more.”

A wonderful book, with a dramatic surprise of the fold-out etching.

Related items: Artists' Books, Catalogue 37 - Summer 2009, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, High Tide Press, John Ross, Lord Bryon, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ralph Waldo Emerson