Washington DC: Abstract Orange Press, 2017. Hardcover. Number 11 of 20 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. Lauren Emeritz is a book artist, letterpress printer and graphic artist and runs the Abstract Orange Press. She creates prints and books by hand using a Vandercook press and wood type, including type she designs and carves herself. Lauren holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Delaware. She is the President and Creative Director of Abstract Orange, a graphic design firm in Washington, DC, and a letterpress associate at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Hyattsville, Maryland. This boldly designed book is one of a series of books that Lauren has done using her handmade wooden type to explore letters, numbers, and shapes. In this accordion style book she has printed her hand carved wood numbers from 1 to 0 in various bright colors either on a single page or on a fold-out page. Bound in dark blue cloth with title in orange on front cover and spine. In fine condition. Measures 5.25 x 7 inches. In a protective stiff plastic case. ARTISTSB/082018. Fine. More

2021. Number 7 of 40 copies, signed, numbered, and dated by the book artist. "Transpose" is a bilingual book in English and Arabic that investigates talismanic shirts. A talismanic shirt (or talisman shirt) is a textile talismanic object that is worn. Talismanic shirts are found throughout the Islamic world. The shirts may be inscribed with verses from Quran, names of Allah and of prophets and with numbers. They may carry images or symbols, e.g. astrological ones. The inscribed names are believed to be capable of offering protection and guidance to the wearer. Historically there were various uses for the talismanic shirts; they could be worn as a shield in battles, during illness, used as protective amulets, and produced for ceremonial purposes. They would have a distinctive vocabulary, a mixture of religious texts, sacred invocations, symbols, magic squares, and seal markings. In this inventive work, there are seven symbolic replicas of talismanic shirts housed inside a cloth covered box. The "shirts" are actually small, intricate paper pamphlets that are sewn onto wooden dowels that hang from the top of the box, They are constructed from linen thread, book board, museum board, acrylic colors, and laser-cut handmade and Fabriano papers. The green cloth-covered box has a magnet closure and an orange cloth pull cut in the shape of a shirt. There are hand stenciled images and inkjet printed text on the interior of the box. It includes a quote from Virginia Woolf about wearing clothes: Box size: 9.5 x 8.7 x 2.7 closed, 9.5 x 18.25 x 2.7 opened. Pamphlet size: 7.5x 6.5. Islam Aly is an Egyptian-born book artist and teacher based in Cairo, who studied book arts and art education at the University of Iowa. His books explore the possibilities of historical bindings in contemporary book art practices They have appeared in international exhibitions in the United States and abroad, and in private and public collections including the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Library of Chile, Yale University, and Bibliotheca Alexandrina. In an artist's statement he writes: "When I make a historical book structure, I go through a learning process. I learn the history as well as the different physical aspects of the binding such as how a book form is constructed in a specific sequence. I learn about the use of different materials such as paper, wood, leather and dyes. I learn to make choices in selecting and replacing traditional materials that I don’t have access to. I use these different experiences to enhance my work in making artists’ books and to use historical and cultural references from these structures in the actual content. In essence, I wish to explore new ways to use the rich structures of historical books in contemporary artists’ book practice and incorporate contemporary content into strictly historical structures." In fine condition. ARTISTSB/050322. Fine. More

Brooklyn, NY: Anne Beck, 2000. Hardcover. Anne Beck is an interdisciplinary artist working collaboratively & independently in a wide variety of media from paper, print & book making to painting & textiles to social practice. Through her work, Anne explores the roles of amateur naturalist and lay surveyor of the current landscape – collecting specimens & recording data, cataloguing that which seems useful, and investigating further that which seems impermeable. This is all in the context of envisioning a sustainable path forward for herself and the planet, which is often a playful exercise in the face of absurd & complex circumstance. Anne lives & works in Northern California. She also a core member of The Printmakers Left, an international collective working together for over 20 years now on artist books, printed matter & installations. She is also half of the collaborative team behind The Rhinoceros Project exploring the communal & revolutionary power of sewing circles & hand papermaking. This provocative work is a unique manuscript. It begins with whimsical pictures and apocalyptic visions of a high-tech synthetic mechanized culture and evolves into a loose social history and critique. The pages were originally painted in a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn as individual paintings but then coalesced into this evocative book. The images are varied in design and image, and sometimes mysterious as there is no text. They were hand painted and drawn with casein, acrylic, gouache, watercolor, ink, graphite, and collaged intaglio on heavy watercolor paper. The endpapers are hand-made cotton rag paper. It is handsewn and casebound in found gray suede printed with a black outlined map of the American West. In fine condition. Measures 12.375 x 8,75 inches closed. 56 pages. ARTSB/040623. Fine. More

Moscow: Emil Goozairow, 2023. Emil Goozairow is a Russian artist who paints and draws, produces movies, and creates exceptional miniature handmade books that are printed on rare types of paper and published in limited editions. His techniques create unique designs that often are made with natural materials alone or in combination with relief decorations made from metal, polymeric clay, or 3-D printing. He creates books that he describes as "pop up," “kinetic carousel," “liporello” or “3D origami.” He also writes fairy tales, stories and mystical scenes. This charming handmade edition of Lewis Carroll's well-known Christmas poem from a fairy to a child. Emil's delightful color illustrations unfold on one side of each of the eight pages that fold out and can be seen together, while the text of the poem appears on the other. The book's covers have a striking three dimensional gilt and green polymer structure of a dazzling Christmas tree seemingly on a pedestal. When closed the book fastens with a brown cord that attaches to a hook on one of the covers. A delightful Christmas memento from this inventive book artist. In fine condition. Measures about 2.5 x 2.5 inches when closed. The Christmas tree structure is about 3.25 inches tall. More

New York: Béatrice Coron, 2001. One of 12 copies. In this lovely book Béatrice Coron illustrates and decorates this poignant poem, “Sardines a l’Huile” (Sardines in Oil) by Georges Fourest. Fourest (1864-1945) was a well-known French writer and poet. His poem describes the sad fate of sardines in their oil filled tins and imagines them freed after death to ascend to a paradise for fish where they may swim and pray for us. Coron combines her papercutting artistry with handmade papers for this book. One sheet of paper includes dried bits of sardines! In a cloth covered binding with a cut-out to front cover to display the title. The rear pastedown has a holographic color diorama of fish swimming in the sea. A silver string with a tiny metal fish attaches the text pages to the binding. Ink jet printed.  In fine condition. Measures 5 x 6 inches.  Coron describes her book work: "For the last 20 years, I have been exploring visual storytelling in artist books, paper cutting and public art. Collecting memories from individuals and communities, I stage narrative allegories in silhouette to create a dialogue with the viewer in playful fantasies. These visual chronicles record archetypal stories that transcend time and space. I have been fascinated by the relation of people to their space and the sense of belonging. Using papercutting where everything is cut from a single piece of Tyvek, the profusion of individual stories makes a coherent whole world." [From her website]. ARTB/081921. Fine. More

Sebastopol, CA: Deeply Game Publications, 2022. Hardcover. 1 of 20 copies. Sara Press says of her book: "What if there was a standard-issue handbook that resolved grief, discord, paradox and ancestral trauma? As young artists, we dreamed of a world where there were no rules, but in this time of internal & external chaos, we wish there were more definitive answers. During a particularly difficult year, we traded sketchbooks back and forth, completing each other’s empty hands with objects that communicated our struggles and sought solutions. We know nothing is simple, but we indulged ourselves with the fantasy that things could be. We knew our drawings, born from questions, would contain all the answers if seen in the right combinations. So we indexed them with the moral authority of any other handbook grasping at truths, and solved all the world’s problems." Sara and Tiana's book addresses such problems as dealing with intolerable grief, dismantling capitalism, how to raise a child, and when to shut up, among many other topics. Each problem refers to one or more drawings of hands. The book is accompanied by a life-sized gypsum cement hand that cradles it for display in different ways. Book is bound in grey cloth with titling in black to cover. Minor rubbing to back cover otherwise fine. The text is letterpress printed and the water color pencil drawings of hands are digitally printed with Indigo Electroink on Mohawk Superfine paper. Housed in a brown cardboard box with the title inserted into a metal slot on the front. An inventive work in fine condition. Measures 5 x 7 inches. 84 pages. ARTISTSB/060222. Fine. More

Portland, OR: Anne Greenwood, 2018. Number 3 of 10 copies in the deluxe edition, signed and numbered by the book artist. This deluxe edition includes a hand-written poem in a rear folder with a bound in fabric piece. Vestiges was conceived in Iceland where Anne was an artist-in-residence in April and May 2018. This striking work includes folded, sewn, dyed, and printed crinoline cloth pieces accompanied by text. They beautifully capture the almost intangible nature of vestiges - things disappearing or no longer in existence. The book's wrap-around cover is white crinoline. The book is printed with Weiss Italic type on Mohawk Superfine paper by Diane Jacobs of the Scranton Press in Portland. The text is hand-written and authored by the artist as are the hand-dyed fabric manipulations (from the colophon). 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. She makes objects, installations, and works with her community. 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. I enter into inquiry-based community engagement through arts education, residency, public work, studio practice, and collaboration. " A lovely work in fine condition. ARTS/031419. Fine. More

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

New York: Intima Press, 2021. Hardcover. Number 8 of 26 copies from the standard edition signed and numbered by the book artist. There were 6 deluxe copies. Artist and Master Printer, Mindy Belloff, specializes in fine book editions and custom letterpress. She has been creating art for over 35 years and printing letterpress since 1996. Her books are numerous permanent collections. Her press is committed to traditions of high art and the by-hand craft of letterpress printing, fine artist's books, unique bindings, poetic broadside editions, and elegant designs and typography. Mindy Belloff's custom designs are a union of art historical traditions with modern technology and sensibilities. Edition limited to 32: This fine edition is limited to 26 standard and 6 deluxe bindings. The volume is 300-pages, consisting of 75 folios folded into 19 signatures, with back endsheet printed letterpress. The text is digitally typeset in Adobe Jenson Pro with additional fonts (Lydian Cursive MT, Fine Gothic Medium, Luminari, Berliner, Berliner Fraktur, Garamond Premier Pro, and Goudy Text MT). The typography and page composi- tions were designed in Adobe InDesign over many hundreds of hours for more than 30 months. Image reproductions of artworks were painstakingly color-corrected in Adobe PhotoShop. A selection of drawings and photographs were manipulated in Adobe Illustrator. The text of the novels was digitally printed with archival pigmented inks on over 3,600 sheets, with an Epson Professional SureColor P600 inkjet printer. Most of the commentaries and calligrams were printed letterpress on a Vandercook Universal III Automatic Adjustable Bed Press (Uni III A/B), with a limited color palette of deep red, aqua blue, and grey inks. There are over 180 letterpress print runs. The pages are Crane's Lettra archival cotton rag text weight papers. The palette is limited, and the commentaries and page designs thoughtfully composed with reverence to the history of the book. The concept, designs, typography, research, artworks, and printing are by Mindy Belloff. This splendid production from Mindy's Intima Press is a feminist reading of three literary classics: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter,” Gustave Flaubert’s “Madam Bovary,” and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” The artist writes: "The volume gives voice to the main female characters, Hester Prynne, Emma Bovary, and Sonia Marmeladov, and presents multiple voices in dialogue. The subtitle, Joni. Annie. Tracy, highlights contemporary singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell, Annie Lennox, and Tracy Chapman along with other favored musical artists including Janis Joplin, Etta James, Leon Russell, Paul Simon, Mary J. Blige, Laurie Anderson, and others, whose poetic lyrics provide commentary in the margins. Text of philosophers, writers, and poets such as Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Karen Horney, Jean-Paul Sartre, Julia Kristeva, Rainer Maria Rilke, William Blake, and Arthur Rimbaud, are incorporated into brilliant typographical designs, deconstructing the original narratives. A selection of text is in Latin, French, and Russian." Mindy writes on her website that the book has additional references to contemporary issues including Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter protests. She further states: "The three sections are abridged and combined into one volume, reframed to create a critical dialog in the 21st-century. The resulting layered narrative recontextualizes the stories, bringing additional voices to the fore." This was an over three year project, with the concept, designs, typography, artworks, printing, and publishing all done by Mindy Belloff. The edition includes an Introduction, "No Text Stands Alone," written by Saul Ostrow, art critic and curator. There is an extensive appendix with over 50 bibliography listings to materials referenced in creating this work, over 50 lyric references used in the book, and an index of over 40 artworks reproduced in the book that were created by Mindy the artist at various times over her career. The book required 180 letterpress runs. It is digitally printed with archival pigmented inks on Crane's cotton rag text weight paper using various fonts. It is bound in in white letterpress printed covers, with an aqua blue Sokoto leather spine millimeter binding. Housed in a red cloth custom box with a unique middle opening showing the title, sewn and bound by Celine Lombardi. In fine condition. Measures 10.5 x 7.75 x 1.75 inches. 300 pages. ARTB/051223. Fine. More

Ft. Lauderdale: Viewpoint Editions, 2009. Hardcover. This is number 20 of 100 copies in the limited edition. There is also a deluxe edition 6 and a softcover trade edition. Losing Ground is a plea for awareness of our role as stewards of the environment. In its content, Losing Ground is a plea for awareness of our role as stewards of the environment. In its production, it is an example of how exceptional artists books can be made by combining traditional processes and digital technology with a smaller open edition was made available on Blurb. Using images spanning more than a decade and text from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change it combines traditional processes and print-on-demand technology to share its important message. This book was one of 50 selected for the Guild of Book Workers Traveling Exhibitions, "Marking Time" (2010 - 11). Fine in black cloth boards with embossed copper title plate affixed to the cover. Includes tipped-in details and handwork on some pages. Printed on an HP Indigo Press 5500 by Acme Bookbinding on Mohawk Options 65 cover paper. Housed in a fine black cloth clamshell box with small copper decoration to edge. Unpaginated (41 pages). ARTB/051221. Fine in Fine Box. More

Seattle: Marquand Editions, 2013. One of 20 copies plus 5 artists proofs. This complicated and fascinating artist's book was described and exclaimed over by a number of reviewers and critics at its publication. Most simply, it is a magician's case of graphic story books, but in reality it is much more than that. Chris Byrne's obsessional graphic novel took a decade to realize and another two years to produce. He and designer Scott Newton worked with Paper Hammer Studios in Seattle to construct an audaciously ambitious bit of publishing magic. The Magician is an epic graphic novel, a bookmaking tour de force, a mesmerizing art object, and the completion of over a decade-long obsession of author Chris Byrne. This enigmatic box of wonders houses a dozen separate publications, printed and hand bound using a variety of techniques. Although individual works, they are considered parts of the whole. The twelve books include Theogony, Handmade, Down the Head, Mountain Man/She-Wolf, Letterpress Flipbook, 4-Ply Toilet Paper, Moleskine, The Magician Manual, M'Phase, Unfinished Versions, Colophon, and Curtains [From Marquand Editions website]. The magician's large case measuring a foot long and foot wide is custom-built with plywood and metal and sits atop casters. It is painted black and decorated by a white rope pattern that crisscrosses its width. Wrote art curator and critic Dan Nadel in 2013 about this production: "There is no single apt reference point for Chris Byrne's ingenious The Magician. It is a wunderkammer, a Cornell-ian box, a visual novel, a conjurer's tool kit. Above all it's a moving, multi-faceted graphic narrative. There's never been anything quite like it." From writer and editor Christina Geyer's review in FDLuxe in 2014: " [Chris Byrne] is indeed the author. In this case, though, author is a loaded word - and means much more than one who writes a story. For The Magician, which Byrne began working on as an undergrad student in 1987, it refers to conceptualizing, illustrating, designing and storytelling. The novel - actually 12 stylistically different books in one box - sprang from Byrne's longtime fascination with semiotics and the language of signs. Thus began the idea of creating an alternative comic strip of sorts. It is, in short, a story about a hermaphroditic magician who was conceived in a public bathroom and who eventually creates the universe. 'It's an exploration of the realms of the unreal,; Byrne says. 'It may even be a goof on the creation myth.' The books and their many visuals, illustration and symbols are meant to be read. interacted with and interpreted deeply by the reader....The result is a high-design book and a collectible art object." In fine condition. Extra shipping costs will apply. ARTB/120821. Fine. More

Dania Beach, FL: Claire Jeanine Satin, 2020. A unique artists' book from Claire Jeanine Satin, a well known book artist, sculptor and designer of public art installations. Satin's work has been extensively exhibited and collected in the United States and in Europe, including at The Library of Congress, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Getty (CA), MOMA, and The Victoria and Albert Museum. She is known especially for her conceptual works in uenced by the ideas of her friend and mentor the composer/visual artist John Cage, and the conversion of ordinary industrial materials into environmental constructions and book works of layered transparent mass. This is one of a series of lovely unique works by Satin, each signed by her. Each book is created with fine acid-free paper. This book uses various metallic papers, postage stamps, small blue and purple plastic shapes, sequins, crystals, and monofilament to create precise and inventive designs on the cover and each page. In a white gauze bag. In fine condition. Measures 5 x 7 inches. Unpaginated [8 pages]. ARTISTSB/032521. Fine. More