Wagner, Mark – Smoke in my Dreams.
(Wagner, Mark) Smoke in my Dreams. An artist’s book by Mark Wagner. Bird Brain Press. Delafield. Wisconsin. 1998. n.p. 6.75″ x 4.625″. Designed, letterpress printed, bound and constructed by Mark Wagner. Over 15 feet of hand drawn line, collages, cut-outs, rubber-stamping, monoprint, stenciled painting, spattering, embossing, perforation, sanding, and some hidden inserts between pages – called by Wagner triangular fore-edge text spaces; all on various colored Fabriano papers. Blue paper board covers, with title repeated in silver. Front board with illustrated oval hole cut with a jeweler’s saw, allowing the viewer to see through to the first illustration. Open sewn spine with two small tapes. No. 10 in an edition of 70 copies, rubber stamped with the number in red and ‘Mark Wagner’ in blue. Fine.
Wagner states that 67 press runs were used, and each book contains 163 pieces of paper (some only confetti-sized) including the entirety of one ‘Camel Filters’ cigarette wrapper. The first title from Wagner’s press, this is a most exciting and innovative little book. extremely well designed and thought-out, clever and amusing. Wagner received his B.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and now lives in New York City. In addition to writing, he produces both flat and dimensional collage for fine art and commercial purposes.
Related items: Catalogue 37 - Summer 2009, Mark Wagner