Freeville, NY: Carol Schwartzott, 2022. Number 4 of 5 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. Carol Schwartzott has been creating artists' books for over twenty-five years. Her work appears in many museums, libraries, and private collections including the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. This marvelous work is an entirely new version of a book about quilts that Carol first produced in 1994. She says that this time she wanted to create a work using her original thought of each illustration being a handmade quilt. She writes: "I selected some interesting colors and began to cut and sew...learning very quickly how hard it is to sew tiny...Each part of the story needed variations on quilt design...patchwork, appliqué, crazy quilt, etc. Needless to say, I made a lot of quilts, choosing only the best eleven for the final illustrations. They are accompanied by descriptions of the quilting techniques on the facing page and protected by tissue papers. The book itself, proved a challenge. Because the quilts were dimensional, I needed pages that would allow for hat depth but also be part of the overall design. I decided to work with a binding style that I had used many years ago in a series of books on color. [She used] 2 ply archival cotton mat board, with cut windows to place the quilts. These panels were attached to the printed pages to form the spine and binding, with Japanese accordion folded paper as an interior hinge system. The text is printed with pigmented inks on Mohawk Vellum. The book block itself is hinged onto green cloth-covered boards, with printed color endpapers. Next came the cabinet....I wanted it to be a sort of 'a visual library of quilting materials'. I had this concept early on, so I started collecting materials that I might use. I had lots of old threads, fabrics, ribbons, beads, and I knew where and how to sort out items...old thimbles, scissors, interesting needle cases...I even made tiny pincushions." The various items are charmingly assembled on shelves and in compartments visible through the clear glasson the cabinet's top . "Little by little the actual cabinet took shape. I had collected old frames for years...luckily I found 5 that were just the right size...The glass cabinet is built into the picture frame, a shadow box of sorts...this is then hinged to the bottom, which forms the cradle that houses the book. The final curiosity cabinet [is a box that] presents itself either on a wall, or shelf, or lying on a surface....once opened it reveals the book." The green box is secured with a metal clasp. The book with a multicolored title label rests inside and there is a ribbon pull to lift it out. A beautiful and creative production in fine condition. Measures 8 x 10 x approximately 2 inches. Unpaginated. ARTB/051523. More

Rutland, VT: Carolyn Shattuck, n.d. A striking open edition book with a "magic star" construction that allows the work to be opened to reveal the interior pages. Gee's Bend, Alabama is famous for the quilts created there by African American women The expertly crafted Gee's Bend quilts are known for their bold and improvisational use of color, geometry, and mixed materials. Every Gee's Bend quilt is unique yet belongs to the same aesthetic family. Their quilt making tradition dates back four generations. The goal was to improvise upon designs that had already been made in order to create a truly unique composition. Materials such as old clothes, cornmeal sacks, corduroy, denim jeans including the inside pockets for darker colors and any fabric that fit the color palette were used. This work was created by the book artist to honor these quilters. With stiff black paper covers with title label and orange decorated paper. Affixed to each folded page is a replica of a bright and colorful quilt design. Printed on Red River paper and Hemptone from Paperworks. In fine condition. Measures 4 x 4 x 2 inches. ARTB/082123. Fine. More