Glenview, IL: Karen Hanmer, 2010. Hardcover. Number 21 of 30 copies. Signed and numbered by the book artist. This book was one of six winners of the “Building by the Book” competition sponsored by the Philadelphia Athenaeum and Philadelphia Center for the Book. This work by noted book artist Karen Hanmer is based on Samuel Sloan's 1852 collection of house plans and instructions to contractors titled The Model Architect. Hanmer juxtaposes Sloan's historical text and illustrations with modern text from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's online "Guide to Avoiding Foreclosure." The artist provides commentary in the colophon reflecting on the effects of the 2008 financial collapse in her own neighborhood. She states: "Samuel Sloan's The Model Architect was published at the mid point of a century marked by cycles of rampant speculation followed by financial collapse. The Panic of 1857 came on the heels of publication of Sloan's work, and put a halt to the most active portion of his career. This milieu mirrors what has happened in my own neighborhood of modest homes over the past fifteen years. The transformation began with some owners remodeling their kitchen, or adding a family room or bedroom. Then larger additions came. Ultimately, the houses commanded high prices to be sold as teardowns. Huge new houses were built in their places. The construction proceeded with increasingly grandiose features; portions of the facade faced with thin sheets of stone, wooden garage doors with cast iron-like fittings, decorative copper accents on the roofs, turrets, lions flanking the brick driveways. Now the house across the street, the house next door, and the house next door to that are all in foreclosure, and soon will be uninhabitable. The lawns grow without interruption. Without electricity and heat the basements fill with water, the pipes burst, the mechanicals are destroyed. Few modest, affordable homes remain in the neighborhood." Bound in marbled paper covered boards with black leather spine and red leather title label, titled and ruled in gilt. Bound using the modern drum leaf structure but replicating the look of a 19th century book. Housed in an archival paper case with the edition number and artist's contact information stamped on the front panel. Measures 14 x 11 x .5 inches. 48 pages. ARTB/121212. Fine. More about The Model Architect: The Panic of '09

Glenview, IL: 2008. Hardcover. 1 of 100 copies. Each page depicts the outline of a couple from a romance novel cover. The translucent paper allows the images to interact and form new combinations. According to Sarah Bodman of the University of West England "That shameful temptress Karen Hanmer has really done it this time! Under that tantalizing red cover is a heady series of swooning ladies and masterful men. In a whirlwind of passion, dozens of romance novels have been condensed into one steamy artist’s book of multiple outlines emerging through transparent papers." Fine in red velvet covered boards with gilt title to front cover. The interior is laser printed on vellum paper. Unpaginated [16 pages]. ARTB/060111. Fine. More about Random Passions

Glenview, IL: Karen Hanmer, 2008. Hardcover. Number 17 of 30 copies. At once vast and minimal, sparse and rich, the night sky has always been a canvas upon which people project their myths and dreams. Star Poems presents quotes that document response to the night sky across the ages by philosophers, artists, and poets from Plato and Byron to contemporary writers, scientists and astronauts. This text is paired with 17th century mythological images of constellation forms and images of early star gazers on a background of a NASA photograph of the Milky Way. The book can be held in the hand and read page by page like a traditional book, can be removed from its jacket and unfolded flat to reference historical astronomical charts or contemporary NASA composite photos, or can be folded into an infinite variety of sculptural shapes. Measures: 6.75x5.75x.75" closed, 17.5x 23" open. Housed in a blue cardstock box with velcro closure. Fine. More about Star Poems

Glenview, IL: Karen Hanmer, 2014. Hardcover. Number 9 of 100 copies. Signed by the author. This book was inspired by a call for entries by the Guild of Book Workers with the theme of "vessel." Karen describes the text of her response as 60% memory and 40% casually researched, mostly on Wikipedia. Karen's book focuses on the iconic containers and conveyances of her childhood and adolescence between roughly 1962-1979. She juxtapositions her text with photographs of such "vessels" as the Chevy Nova, Crock-Pot, Electric Frying Pan, Mood Ring, Frye Boots, the 747, and more. Her words are often amusing, but they also offer astute observations on her family and our society during the period covered. This is the deluxe edition with marbled paper covers by Pamela Smith. Digitally printed and housed in a purple paper covered slip case. Digitally printed. In fine condition. 5 x 7 inches. Unpaginated [26 pages] PRI/121415. Fine. More about To Serve and Protect: containers, conveyances, and cosmic happenings

Glenview, IL: Karen Hanmer, 2013. Paperback. Open Edition. A flip book starting with the word Yes, which dissolves into Maybe, then into No, then back into Yes, and so on. Karen describes it as "A quick flip through an indecisive decision-making process." Size: 2 x 4.75 x 1.5 inches. Fine. More about YESNOMAYBE

Basel: Romano Hänni, 2017. Hardcover. Number 64 of 87 copies of the standard edition. The text is in German, English, and Japanese. Master book artist Hanni has long been passionately speaking out through some of his books about the devastating effects of contamination from nuclear facilities. This powerful work is about the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 that occurred after a severe earthquake and its accompanying tsunami. It was the most significant nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. He writes in the text appearing on the inside of the book's stiff paper covers that claims made by nuclear scientists "that no health consequences are to be expected from contamination are unscientific, immoral, and criminal." He further states that "there is no peaceful use for nuclear energy. It is repressive, criminal and deadly. Only nuclear plants that have not been built can offer absolutely safety." Hänni writes much more to detail what happened and the dire effects. He believes that the catastrophe in Fukushima is a "disaster beyond human imagination in both time and scope." The title comes from parts of the text where Hänni writes about the many people permanently displaced in order to escape the contamination resulting from the disaster. The book itself is printed in five colors on paper towels, an innovative technique that Hänni has successfully used in a previous work. On the pages small selections of text are juxtaposed with letters, images, and symbols to communicate the event and its aftermath. The results are stunning and thought-provoking. Hand composed and hand printed letterpress. Most of the pages required several printing forms and runs. Books are handbound. The production took about 1400 hours to complete. Housed in a grey paper covered slipcase with title in the three languages on a white spine. The book is accompanied by a glossy 12-page color pamphlet with 108 photographs documenting the production process. Book has 64 unnumbered pages. 9.25 x 10.25 inches. In fine condition. PRI/101017. fine. More about Es ist bitter, die Heimat zu verlassen [It is Bitter to Leave Your Home

Basel, Switzerland: Romano Hänni, 1988 / 89. Hardcover. Number iii of vi artist proofs. There were 81 copies in the regular edition. Signs from the Stone Age features Swiss book artist Romano Hänni’s modern interpretation of the prehistoric imagery found in the caves of Lascaux in Dordogne, France. Juxtaposed with Hänni’s designs are photographic reproductions of the original cave paintings, excerpts from literature about the people of the Stone Age, and text by the book artist giving his interpretations of the imagery. Fine in off-white paper covered boards with black title to spine and front cover. Hand composed and hand printed in red and black ink with five photographs printed in offset. Text in German. Includes a one page English explanation of the book and its design. 20 pages. ARTB/011713. Fine. More about Glyphen aus der Steinzeit: Entdeckt in der Höhle von Lascaux or Signs from the Stone Age: Found...

Basel, Switzerland: Romano Hänni, 2007. Paperback. 1 of 306 copies. This work by Swiss book artist, Romano Hänni, is a hand printed eight page altar fold with banderole and a card with a poem. The text is in German and an eight page pictorial supplement with translation in English is also included. This work is about the horrors of war and military injustice. There are multiple stories about war and murder including a piece about 306 British soldiers who were court-martialed for ‘cowardice in the face of the enemy’ and shot during World War I by their comrades. In 2006 - ninety years later - these men were pardoned. The enclosed poem is “Glory of Women” by Sigfried Sassoon. The banderole, which is printed on toilet paper, represents the blindfolds of the executed men. It features a wood engraving of a French Military Cross on the front and a statement about four French soldiers who were court-martialed in 1915 and shot in the back. A powerful piece. [8 pages]. Swiss book artist and typographer Romano Hänni (1956 - ) has been experimenting with unusual compositions of letter forms and symbols since the early 1980s. His designs can seem somewhat whimsical but often are reactions to society, politics, and traumatic events. Creating things manually with the participation of all of the senses is very important to him. A master of visual poetry, he enjoys teaching to pass on his knowledge and skills. ARTB/020212. Fine. More about Merciless Execution. Friendly Pardon. or Gnadenlos hinrichten. Freundlich begnadigen

Basel: Romano Hänni, 2010. Hardcover. Number 34 of 175 copies. Swiss book artist and typographer Romano Hänni (1956 - ) has been experimenting with unusual compositions of letter forms and symbols since the early 1980s. His designs can seem somewhat whimsical but often are reactions to society, politics, and traumatic events. Creating things manually with the participation of all of the senses is very important to him. A master of visual poetry, he enjoys teaching to pass on his knowledge and skills. This work offers a commentary on various aspects of life, some of which are illustrated with design elements. For example "with ritalin" shows a series of small, numbered pill shaped designs. It faces "without ritalin" which shows a variety of animals and other creatures. One unillustrated quote from the jacket reads "The daily misconduct: It is not the large catastrophes, it is he daily mistakes in the details that cause the global problems." Bound accordion style in boards with white illustrated dust jacket. Handcomposed and handprinted in black, red, blue, and gold. The text is printed in German; however, a pictorial booklet supplement with English translation is included. A thought provoking, well designed book. ARTB/092117. Fine. More about Typographic Notes II; (Typografische Notizen II

Basel: Romano Hänni, 2008. Hard Cover. Swiss book artist and typographer Romano Hänni (1956 - ) has been experimenting with unusual compositions of letter forms and symbols since the early 1980s. His designs can seem somewhat whimsical but often are reactions to society, politics, and traumatic events. Creating things manually with the participation of all of the senses is very important to him. A master of visual poetry, he enjoys teaching to pass on his knowledge and skills. Number 197 of 290 copies. This book was hand composed and hand printed in black, red, and blue ink. An accordion structure bound in boards with an illustrated white dust jacket and a paper band closure. Includes a two page laid in supplement featuring the title of the work and the colophon. A small book measuring 3.25 inches wide by 5 inches tall. In fine condition. Unpaginated [10 pages]. ARTB/060111. Fine. More about Worte machen das Unendliche endlich or Words Make the Infinite Finite

Montgomery Village, MD: Shireen Holman, 2013. Paperback. Number 15 of 20 copies signed and numbered by the artist. This complex and beautiful artist's book explores time from the viewpoints of religion, literature, science, and philosophy. The book artist, Shireen Modak Holman, has been a printmaker for more than thirty-five years and a book artist for more than twenty. She was born in India, and her work often involves the interaction of her Indian and American cultures. She states that she is fascinated by time and spent several years reading, sketching, and selecting texts to illustrate the imagery she was creating as she tried to visually express time. She has used texts from the writings of Shakespeare, Tagore, Einstein, Thoreau, Hawking, and others. As the design of the book came together, she created a full-sized colored pencil mock-up. The finished book consists of woodcuts printed onto pulp-painted handmade paper. The text was letterpress printed on gampi paper and then pasted onto the handmade sheets. The pages are folded in such a way that one can see a little of each of the subsequent pages from the current page. Thus from the beginning to the end of the book one can see a little of the future from the present. Each page has semicircular areas cut out so that the calendar at the bottom right of the colophon page is visible at all times. Housed in a cream paper clamshell box with the title "Time" in raised letters affixed vertically to the cover. Linen spine. In fine condition. Accompanied by a softcover book titled "The Making of the Artist Book 'Time.'" Unpaginated. [16 pages]. 13.75 x 19.25 inches. ARTISTS/041916. Fine. More about Time

Cairo, NY: Editions, 1999. Number 20 of 32 copies. Signed by the book artist. Book artist Ed Hutchins is known for his inventive and fanciful books that are made from found materials and that use untraditional methods and structures. This miniature tunnel book exemplifies his work. The book's theme is stars and although they are seemingly the same, in fact each really is unique - like humans. A star cutout on the cover reveals a tiny galaxy of varied color stars floating in the air when the tunnel is expanded. The sides of the tunnel are made with different bright colored papers and have the words of the text printed that are also revealed as the tunnel expands. Black covers with yellow title label on front and green label on back with quote about stars, Hutchins's signature, and edition number in pencil. In an orange slipcase and both housed in a purple slipcase with star cutout and title on front. Fine condition. 2 x 3 x .5 inches. ARTISTSBOOK/090717. Fine. More about Rainbow Galaxy