Toronto: Cheshire Cat Press, 2018. Hardcover. Number 13 of 42 copies signed by the printers and the author of the introduction. This is a delightful new edition of Lewis Carroll's famous poem, The Hunting of the Snark. It was produced by a writer, artist, and book designer and printers who are ardent and well-known Carroll admirers. The Cheshire Press was formed by book designer and printer George Walker in 1991. The press began when he and two colleagues produced new editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Edward Wakeling, who wrote the introduction, is an internationally known authority on Carroll. In addition to writing a recent biography of him, Wakeling also created a comprehensive catalogue raisonne of over 1000 photographs taken by amateur photographer Carroll. Byron W. Sewell is a prolific illustrator, author and bibliographer of works associated with Lewis Carroll. For this edition of Snark, Sewell created new illustrations inspired by contemporary carte-de-visit photographs that were so popular in Victorian England. He has one for each character in the poem, adapting images from actual photographs. They are ideal depictions for this fantastic nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, written when he was forty-four years old. Bound in maroon cloth with title in gilt to spine and on cover label. Handprinted in New Caledonia type on Bfk Rives Cream paper. The printing was completed by George Walker and Andy Malcolm, and the book design and layout were by Walker. An original print inscribed and signed by Sewell is inserted in a sleeve on the front pastedown. Housed in a slipcase in the same maroon cloth with gilt title on cover. In fine condition. 6.5 x 10 inches. 72 pages. PRI/010319. Fine. More

Rockville, MD: Crooked Crow Press, 2017. Limited edition. A pair of beautifully designed and printed broadsides with several hundred ornamental printing blocks of various sizes and shapes arrayed in a intricate fashion that highlights their beauty. From the colophon: "The collection of blocks above was obtained by the proprietor of the Pembroke Press, Mr. Roland Hoover, circa 1980 from the Pridemark/Garamond Press in Baltimore, MD. Some of these blocks came from an earlier Baltimore printer, Norman T.A. Munder the 'Dean of American Printers," and the display type used here, designed by Robert Wiebking, is "Munder Venezian' named in his honor. Blocks signed with a "G" were designed by Frederic Goudy and some of his original drawings for them are part of the Goudy Archive at the Library of Congress." The broadsides were composed and printed by Chris Manson at his Crooked Crow Press. These are splendid examples of fine printing for private press, book arts, and related collections. In fine condition. Each broadside measures 18.5 x 27 inches. PRI/113018. Fine. More

Portland, OR: Anne Greenwood, 2008. Number 8 of 30 copies. Anne Greenwood is a well-known artist who has exhibited widely and whose works can be found in museum and library collections around the country. She was born on the high Dakota Plains and was led to an art degree by her artist grandmother. In 1990 she moved to Portland, Oregon and began her career as an artist and horticulturalist. Anne’s artwork explores an interest in folk art and speaks of her kinship with the natural world and how this influences her connection to daily life. In 2002, Anne set up a textiles studio integrating handwork, book arts, and textiles into an interdisciplinary practice. From Anne's artist's statement: "My artistic practice navigates an infinite network of connections: narrating the simple and complex, physical and ephemeral, past and present, within the context of place, history, and transformation. I form relationships that expand and fortify admiration and reverence, leading to the discovery of new truths about the world around us." This interesting and evocative work exemplifies how Anne integrates her textile skills with book arts. She explains that Winter Counts were historic calendars used by the Plains Indians to record time pictographically. This book is Anne's interpretation of the Sioux tradition to record her personal history using hand-stitched embroidery and letterpress printing. The 41 embroideries were scanned and then made into print form from hand-processed photopolymer plates run on a Vandercook Universal hand press. Printing was done by Inge Bruggeman. Each is printed in the same color as the embroidered version. The loose images and text pages are housed in a light red clam shell box. The text pages are printed in Goudy Sans type and include the title page, artist's statement, two commentary pages for images titles and stitch identification, and colophon with quotes relevant to the winter count tradition. An impressive production in fine condition. PRI/031819. Fine. More

Basel: Romano Hänni, 2018. Hardcover. A set of three books in the Words Make the Infinite Finite series. Volume VII is limited to 290 copies, Volume VI is limited to 187 copies, and Volume V is limited to 86 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 intricate 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. Each of these books was hand composed and hand printed in black, red, yellow, and blue ink. All are accordion structures with stiff paper illustrated wrappers, which when removed, allow the twelve pages of the contents to be unfolded into one continuous strip. With a paper band closure for the folded book. Includes a four page supplement featuring the title of the work and the colophon in both English and German. A small set in a slipcase measuring about 3.25 inches wide by 5 inches tall by 1.25 inches thick. In fine condition. Unpaginated. PRI/112818. Fine. More

Minneapolis: Indulgence Press, 2011. One of 20 copies. Arthur & Barbara is a portrait of art critic/philosopher Arthur Danto and artist Barbara Westman as seen reflected in the space of their New York City apartment on Riverside Drive. This book embodies their life and work in symbolic forms of thoughtful play. Arthur & Barbara is a collection of simple objects, images and “games” referring to both Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise and to Fluxus Collections. The box contains laser-etched glass with a plan view of the apartment. Beneath the glass, separated spaces hold a DVD with images of Arthur, Barbara and their apartment, a hand-bound codex filled with photographic illustrations and brief text, a glass block laser-etched with an illustration by Barbara Westman, two chairs, handmade dice, and a spinner. A drawer holds a folio of letters written by Sean Scully, Shirin Neshat and Barbara Westman, and an introduction by David Carrier. A fascinating way of documenting the lives and personalities of this interesting couple. In fine condition. Size: 13 x 12 x 7 inches. PRI/041111. Fine. More

New York: Russell Maret, 2021. Number 23 of roughly 90 copies, signed by the book artist. Printed on a variety of vintage hand- and mould-made papers and handset in Cádiz Ornaments, Baker, and Hungry Dutch types, making this the second book Maret has printed entirely from metal typefaces that he designed. Maret writes in detail of the making of this book on his web page. From his fascinating description: "In 2013 I designed a couple of typographic ornaments while thinking of the pavement designs around the city hall in Cádiz, Spain. The ornaments were not intended to be reproductions of any specific pavement designs, they were simply prompted by the memory of a lovely day walking around Cádiz. Once the metal ornaments were in my hands, I realized that they could be assembled into many more combinations than I had originally imagined. I began to think about a small specimen book. Many of the Cádiz patterns I was designing reminded me of textile designs and, unlike my book Ornamental Digressions, I initially wanted the Cádiz book to starkly emphasize the ornaments’ patterning structure, rather than to concentrate on potential color applications. As part of my bookmaking process I always need to break through a certain amount of thick-headedness before I can get to where I want to be. In the case of this book the breakthrough happened while showing the prints to Annie. After looking through my endless permutations, Annie suggested that I might not need to show every combination, that in fact it might be a more engaging book if there was a bit of surprise, a little variety. This may sound obvious now but, once in it, it can be very hard to see over the walls of a design rut. Finally, the stagnation broke when I realized that I was concentrating on how the pages looked rather than what I wanted the book to be. And what I wanted was a book that felt like a salesman’s swatch book, something assembled from different shapes and sizes, that showed potential without being restrictive, that was not too neatly put together, that had a bit of randomness to it. I began looking through my flat files and found all kinds of vintage papers, none of which I had enough to print an entire edition. They would be perfect for this book. [He changed his ] five-signature dummy into a single signature of a mere 41 press runs. (After printing the book, I realized that some of the sheets had an unacceptable level of show-through. Rather than discard these sheets, I added an “Appendix,” a second signature in which the sheets could be seen, but at a remove from the rest of the book. To make this happen required a final, 42nd pressrun. Not exactly a small specimen book….)" This beautiful book was designed by Russell Maret and printed by him and Sarah Moody during the Covid-19 pandemic. All of the patterns are made from two pieces that were engraved and cast by Ed Rayher at Swamp Press. In fine condition. Measures 9.25 x 6.375 inches. Housed in an acrylic slipcase. ARTISTSB/112321 I. More

n.p. [1894]. A lovely lithograph printed in green ink by Charles Hazelwood Shannon. It is an image of three bending nude female figures and appeared in #2 of "The Dial." Shannon and Ricketts were artistic and personal partners for more than fifty years. They designed and illustrated books, founded "The Dial" magazine and Vale Press, and were key figures in the London cultural world. The 4 x 5.5 inch print is on a sheet of 11 x 14 inch paper. There are a few small creases and light brown spots along the paper margins, not affecting the illustration. Said to be from the collections of T. Sturge Moore and his daughter Henrietta but there is no evidence of provenance. Very good condition. ORIG/092413. Very Good. More

Arlington, VA: Turtle Light Press, 2017. Hardcover. Number 7 of 18 copies. This is a magnificent artist’s book that pays homage to one of the greatest Hebrew-language poets, Yehuda Amichai. The Amichai Windows is an exquisite bilingual artist’s book in Hebrew and English of Amichai’s poems that opens a window on love, war, and being Jewish today. Through his poetry Amichai sang of the everyday experiences of private individuals caught in the middle of war and historical events. He was often considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature and his poems have been translated into more than 30 languages. Book artist and poet, Rick Black, fell in love with the poetry of Yehuda Amichai even before working for the Associated Press and The New York Times in Jerusalem, where he resided for six years. He particularly loved Amichai’s poems that dealt with family, love and war. He spent ten years creating this limited-edition artist’s book of the poet’s work. The book offers a visual odyssey through Jewish history as filtered through 18 poems. Each poem is wrapped and folded in an individual, handmade paper triptych. When one opens each triptych, one discovers a different world within. The book incorporates replicas of some of Amichai’s original, handwritten poems as well as over 100 collaged images of Jewish history and life that have been culled from archives around the world. There are also replicas of Amichai’s handwritten poems. Printed on handmade paper with deckled edges, with gold leaf highlights and blind embossments in some of the designs. The collection of triptychs and a 28 page guide are housed in a box enclosure shaped like a Jerusalem window. With a special introduction written by the eminent Hebrew literary critic and translator, Professor Robert Alter of the University of California at Berkeley. The newsletter of the American Jewish Libraries Association called The Amichai Windows “a major contribution to American arts and letters.” (Artist’s statement and descriptions). The book recently won the Isaac Anolic Jewish Book Arts Award. In fine condition. Fine. More

Washington: Wiesedruck, 2018. Hardcover. Number 29 of 40 copies that included five deluxe copies. Vogel Totentanz is a bird dance of death alphabet book inspired by Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death woodcut alphabet. After the Black Plague ravaged Europe in the late 14th century, death as inevitable regardless of status or age became a pervasive motif in art and literature. My present-day Totentanz is a reflection of that idea in context of our environmental crisis. Birds are indicator species for overall environmental health and human well-being [from the artist's website]. The 29 etchings were drawn from specimens at the Cashmere Museum, the Wenatchee Valley College collection, and the Burke Museum in Washington State along with other found remains. Diotima types were used throughout. The text was letterpress printed on Zerkall Book paper by Arthur Larson of Horton Tank Graphics. This regular edition is bound in a bird-footprint-etching printed blue paper and housed in a slipcase. Binding and slipcase by Claudia Cohen. In fine condition. Measures 6.875 x 5.5 inches. Etchings are 2.5 x 2.5 inches. [60 pages.] PRI/122121. Fine. More

Lincolnville, ME: Dudley Zopp, 2017. Hardcover. Number 10 of 25 standard copies of a new limited edition book by artist and scholar Dudley Zopp. Signed and numbered by the book artist. Ms. Zopp graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.A. and M.A. and completed postgraduate studies in Drawing and Painting at the Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville. She now lives in Lincolnville, Maine. Zopp finds inspiration in geological processes and cultural histories of place. Her engagement with restoring habitat where she lives feeds directly into her work, which ranges from site specific installations to paintings, woodcuts and limited edition books. She has completed residencies at geologically significant sites in Newfoundland, Spain and Italy. She has exhibited widely at galleries, universities and museums in New England and the Midwest. Her work is included in university and museum collections nationally. This book is offered as both a limited edition deluxe set of 25 with one of the original signed drawings and marble ,and as a slipcased set of 25 with a limited edition print. of which this is one. The book considers our relationship to the Earth in a sequence of annotated watercolors. It was originally presented digitally for a 2014 exhibition "Turning in Your Hand: The Blue Marble Project,” at Waterfall Arts in Maine. Twenty artists were given a blue marble and asked to respond to the pale blue dot we call home. Dudley's images and notations provide a unique look into the oldest of concerns: our place in this world (artist's statement). The illustrations began with a month-long daily ritual of erasing an earlier charcoal drawing and, using watercolor and ink, creating a new drawing in its place. As part of this Dudley noted the weather and the color of the ocean as seen from her studio. She also added a few lines adapted from ancient Buddhist texts. The resulting 31 watercolors were collected in a mystical and magical book that beautifully captures Dudley's artistic consideration of our place in the world. Design, typography, and assembly of books and cases are by Richard Reitz Smith. Text and images are printed as offset lithography by Penmore Lithographers. Typeset inFutura on Cougar Opaque Smooth paper. Covers are blue Dover book cloth.The book is presented in an accordion format and can be read in the round or displayed as sculpture. The book is housed in a dark blue cloth slipcase with an archival pigment print of the drawing for Day Sixteen. Book measures 5 x 7 inches. 82 pages. In fine condition. ARTISTSB/110717. Fine. More