New York: Béatrice Coron, 2022-2023. Number 3 of 6 copies. French born Béatrice Coron is a renowned artist whose work includes book arts, fine art, and public art. Her work can be found in major museum collections, libraries, as well as private collections. Her books are fascinating creations made through cutting images in paper or Tyvek. Cristina Favretto, Head of Special Collections at the University of Miami describes her creations in Coron's "artfragments" portfolio: "There is a palpable joy in the work of Béatrice Coron, the kind of joy we felt as children in unwrapping a particularly enticing holiday gift. But...for Béatrice the gift is a sheet of Tyvek...or paper, and the stories to be unearthed and unleashed within and through the medium." 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] This book was inspired by "The Conference of the Birds," a Persian poem of 1177 by Sufi poet Farid ud-din Attar. Ab mid bin Ab Bakr Ibr h m (c. 1145 – c. 1221; Persian,is better known by his pen-names Far d ud-D n and A r of Nishapur (Attar means apothecary), was an Iranian poet, theoretician of Sufism, and hagiographer from Nishapur who had an immense and lasting influence on Persian poetry and Sufism. He wrote a collection of lyrical poems and number of long poems in the philosophical tradition of Islamic mysticism, as well as a prose work with biographies and sayings of famous Muslim mystics. The Conference of the Birds, The Book of Divine, and Memorial of the Saints are among his best known works [Wikipedia]. Coron states that the papercuts created for this book display the journey of life through the seven valleys. While keeping the symbolism of the epic poem, the images also represent the environmental and conflictual challenges of today. Her marvelous papercuts were done with dark blue hand-cut Lokta paper, backed in white paper to showcase the papercut images. Each panel has a word: Start, Believe, Explore, Forget, Merge, Trust, and Fuse that reflect the meaning of the images. The book has an accordion structure that allows either to be opened like a codex or to be unfolded to show all of the panels at once. The book is housed loosely in a green leather folder with the images of a bird and the artist's name made in tin affixed to the cover. The book in turn is housed in a bright yellow leather clamshell box with tin images of birds and a title label affixed to the cover. The edges of the box are covered in decorated tin. Each box binding in the edition is unique. Noted bookbinder Monique Lallier made the bindings for both the book and box. A striking production in fine condition. The book measures 7 x 6.5 inches when closed and 7 x 49 inches when opened. ARTB/090523. More

New York: Béatrice Coron, 2006. One of 8 copies. Made from lasercut metal featuring city views with magnetic text that can re-arranged by the viewer. Created as a reaction to students being accused of forgery, the artist has incorporated 48 Shakespearian quotes to illustrate that nearly everything written has been written before. Rather than choosing well known quotes, she has selected common phrases such as "I know you did" from Love's Labour's Lost, Act 2, Scene 1; "The cat is gray" from King Lear, Act 3, Scene 6; "Let me read" from Coriolanus, Act 3, Scene 1; "But What's the matter?" from Cymbeline, Act 1, Scene 1; and "Let her come in" from Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5. The quotes have been selected from over twenty of Shakespeare's plays. This sculptural book fits together with removable metal wires to form a three-sided pyramid shaped house. A light (not included) can be put inside to help showcase the silhouetted window scenes. Housed in a large yellow and black box covered with canvas and hand painted. As the metal pieces are so heavy, the box has become worn and the edges are beginning to split in a few places. Size: 16 x 20 inches (closed). Weight: 16 pounds. Fine. More

Kingston, NY: Marueen Cummins, 2023. Hardcover. One of 30 copies. Foetus Envy is a grim and satirical look at the present state of reproductive rights in this country. Conceived of and produced by Cummins, with typographical assistance from Kathleen McMillan, the book imagines an alarming new mental illness, “Foetus Envy,” which turns otherwise cheerful, angelic, and biologically fit wives into “Resistant Mothers,” women who do not wish to procreate and stubbornly refuse to accept the naturally superior powers, privileges, and legal protections of their unborn offspring. Cummins references language from Aeschylus to fugitive slave laws to faux scientific texts to locate our present moment within a long history of reproductive control and coercion. The book is written in the style of eugenics texts published in the early-to-mid twentieth century by the now-infamous Eugenics Publishing Company. Cummins’s primary inspiration, from which she based her images, is the 1919 text, Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living, which reads more like a sex manual for men than the guide for married couples that it purports to be. In the quotes below from Sane Sex Life, so eerily like phrases heard on the Fox News channel, it’s not difficult to see the relationship between the eugenics movement of a century ago and the contemporary Christian right: No two normal men can make a home! No two normal women can make a home! It takes a man and a woman to make a home! It takes father, mother and children to make the most perfect home. Make up your minds to have a most perfect home and do your utmost to reach that goal! ….all sane and intelligent men and women agree that anything even approaching infanticide is nothing short of a crime, and that abortion, except for the purpose of saving the life of the mother, is practically murder.  In her re-created eugenics text, Cummins mimics the badgering, preachy style of Sane Sex Living, while making liberal use of “alternative facts” and sanctimonious, moralizing language. Similarly, the artist plays with her imagery: the Caduceus logo on the title page is made up of entwining sperm, not snakes; the pattern on the slipcase, which appears to depict sun rays, is, on closer inspection, a swarm of sperm rushing to impregnate an ovum. While these surface elements of Foetus Envy are playful enough, the mood of the book grows increasingly grave, culminating in one final, terrifying image, of a woman entrapped within a womb, the ultimate example of a Ro(l)e Reversal. Foetus Envy was set in Bodoni Roman and printed letterpress onto Surface Gampi paper. Over one hundred silkscreen runs were required to print the accompanying images. Bound in faux leather with a gold-stamped title. The book is housed in a handsome cloth-covered slipcase. Size: 9.5 x 7 x 1 inches. 35 pages. A note from Maureen about the book and proper handling: “Two things to note about the book: the paper that I used, Surface Gampi, handmade and imported from Japan, contains tiny bits of fiber;  these are natural and not imperfections in any way. Also, for ease of reading, and so that the accordion book lays flat, you may need to shift the text block on the right to meet the pages on the left. The final page is meant to remain under the flap until viewed.”. Fine. More

Roanoke, VA: Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, 2009. Paperback. Includes a chronology, list of works, exhibitions with catalogs, selected writings, and seleted public collections, as well as introductions by Professor Bill White, Curator and Amy G. Moorefield, Director. Exhibition catalog to accompany exhibit at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University October 7, 2008 through January 10, 2009. Quarto in side stapled paper wrappers with white title to front cover. Clean and bright with color illustrations. [24 pages.] ART/102623. Fine. More

Allen Lane, 2022. Hardcover. First Edition. "This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years. A monk in Normandy, a prince of France, a Florentine bookseller, an English antiquary, a rabbi from central Europe a French priest, a Keeper at the British Museum, a Greek forger, a German polymath, a British connoisseur and the woman who created the most spectacular library in America - all of them were participants in what Christopher de Hamel calls the Manuscript Club" (jacket). Fine in cream paper covered boards with gilt title to spine. Color illustrations throughout. Clean and bright. In illustrated off-white jacket with black and red title to spine and front panels. Light wear to edges of jacket, else fine. 616 pages. BOB/101923. Fine / Fine. More

New York: Johnray Publishing & Distributing Corp, 1977. Paperback. Signed by Edward Gorey on title page. Includes laid in prospectus for the program with an article about the production, two Gorey postcards from the Gotham Book Mart, and original purchase receipt indicating that it was originally sold for $2.50. A must have for any serious collector of Edward Gorey's work. Originally preformed at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston for a limited time, Dracula appeared at the end of October in New York on Broadway at the Martin Beck theatre in 1977 - just in time for Halloween! This dramatised version of Dracula starring Frank Langella featured costumes and scenery designed by Edward Gorey. True to Gorey's illustration style, the costumes were all designed in black, white, and gray with touches of red. He won a Tony award for his costume designs and was nominated for a Tony for his set designs for this play. Bound in illustrated side-stapled stiff paper wrappers with title to front cover. Light wear to edges of wrappers including sunning to rear panel, else clean and bright. Filled with photograhic illustrations of Gorey's costumes and sets along with costume sketches; biographies of the actors, Gorey, producers, designers, and director; an article on the original Dracula; Gorey's "Vision of Dracula"; a recipe for Miss Mina's Chocolate Drops (All the little children in the neighborhood will howl for more), and Twenty Questions About Dracula. [20 pages.] Size: 7.5 x 12 inches. DRA/120723. Fine. More

Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1966. A history of the Oval Room from Willow Brook which is installed at the Baltimore Museum of Art. In light blue paper wrappers with a cream wrap-around - all side-stapled and titled in black on the top of the front wrapper. Pencil drawing of a mirror to front wrapper aldong with minor rubbing and light soiling. Clean interior with photographic illustrations. 16 pages. BALT/072023. Very Good. More

New Haven, CT: Henry W. Wenning, 1966. Hardcover. Number 147 copies of 218 copies signed by the poet. Copies 5 to 215 were for sale, with the first three copies lettered a, b, c reserved for the poet, publisher, and printer. William Everson (1912 - 1994), was also known as Brother Antoninus, A deeply serious and religious writer, Everson spent 18 years as a Dominican monk and published many of his works under his name in religion, Brother Antoninus. He was variously classified as a nature poet, an erotic poet, and a religious poet, but, contended Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor James A. Powell, “above all else, Everson is an autobiographical, even a confessional poet. Throughout his career…he has made his personal life the predominant subject of his poetry.”was a poet, critic, and globally renowned handset printer [Poetry Foundation biography]. Bound in decorated paper covers in green, red, black on cream background, with brown leather spine with debossed titling. Spine with slight wear along joints and small tear on rear joint. Lightest wear to edges of covers. Small brown stains to fore-edges of two of free front endpapers. Signed by the poet in black ink with brown wash. Printed by Claude Fredericks in Pawlet, VT on kochi paper. Very good condition. Measures 10.5 x 6.5 inches. Unpaginated [13 pages]. PI/082423. Very Good. More

New York: The Grolier Club, 1996. Hardcover. One of 1000 copies of which 100 include an original numbered woodcut by Antonio Frasconi and are specially bound. This is number 40 of 100 with an original hand numbered woodcut tipped in. Printed to accompany an exhibition at the Grolier Club 21 May through 31 July 1996 by the Stinehour Press in Vermont. Designed by Jerry Kelly. Features a selection of 68 items with color photographs and brief descriptions, as well as an introduction, essay, and brief chronology. Antoni Frasconi (1919 - 2013) was a Uraguayan-American artist best known for his woodcuts. A quarto bound in tan cloth boards with dark brown title to spine and paper title label to front board. Clean and bright. Housed in a light brown paper covered slipcase with minor sunning to spine and edge of slipcase. Unpaginated. BOB/102623. Fine. More

Philadelphia: Henry Perkins, 1836. Hardcover. Fourth Edition. Very good in brown paper covered boards with brown leather spine and gilt title to spine. Bookplate from a Greek society to front pastedown. White binders tape repair to front endpapers. Front board is nearly detached. Dampstaining to boards and edges of pages. Foxing and soiling - heaviest to last few pages and rear endpapers. A good reading copy. French language. FRE407261. Very Good -. More

Waltham St. Lawrence, Berkshire: Golden Cockerel Press, 1925. Hardcover. Number 294 of 450 copies. [From Roderick Cave's History of The Golden Cockerel Press] "Were it not for his sister Enid Clay, Eric Gill might not ever have been tempted to work with Robert Gibbings. Gibbings had approached Gill in late 1924 with an offer of work as an artist for his newly procured Golden Cockerel Press, but Gill refused on the ground that the press was not Catholic. Their acquaintance might have ended there, but as it happened Gill’s sister was in want of a publisher for her first book. Gibbings volunteered to take her on, and Gill was induced to be her illustrator. Following Gill’s temporary refusal, Enid Clay’s Sonnets and Verses (1925) became the first Golden Cockerel publication he was to illustrate. It was the beginning of a prolific seven-year partnership. The illustrations for his sister’s book are largely a continuation of the ones he had produced for St Dominic’s Press. In contrast to those seen in later publications, Gill’s nudes are white-on-black and lack the strong lines that characterize most of his engravings. Their Art Deco undertones render them barely distinguishable from similar illustrations of the period. As for their physical relationship to the text it is nonexistent, with none of the illustrations connecting particularly to the next." A handsome book from the famed Golden Cockerel Press. Bound in blue paper covers with light brown linen spine with paper title label. Book is lightly worn with fading to top edges, darkening to spine, and crease and tiny chip to the spine label. Interior pages are generally clean and bright with light darkening to edge of front pastedown and evidence of a label or bookseller ticket removed from rear pastedown. Top edge trimmed but fore-edge and bottom edge untrimmed. With eight full and partial page illustrations including the title page by Eric Gill. Very good condition. Measures 6 x 9 inches. 35 pages. PRI/083123. Very Good. More

Moscow: Emil Goozairow, n.d. Small unnumbered limited edition. Goozairow is a Russian artist who paints and draws, produces movies, and creates exceptional 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 or polymeric clay. He creates books that he describes as "pop up," “kinetic carousel," “liporello” or “3D origami.” He also writes fairy tales, stories and mystical scenes. A playful alphabet book with 26 delightful illustrations that are symbolic of dreams related to its letter. There are alliterative phrases (many comical) for each letter such as: Angel's Acorns for A, Creeping Cats for C, Delightful Desire for D, and Ugly Unicorn for U. The book has a special folding design that seems to unravel as you open each page. The book must be turned and flipped as you read in order to see all of the letters in order. Both boards are pyramid shaped and the covers are made with a 3-D printer and are painted green and red. The book has a brown cord strap with hooks to hold it closed. In fine condition. Each side of this triangular shaped book measure about 2 inches. ARTISTSB/112923. Fine. More

Moscow: Emil Goozairow, 2023. Small open edition. Goozairow is a Russian artist who paints and draws, produces movies, and creates exceptional 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. An inventive book in a 3-D printed, hand-painted tower binding with brown cord closure. This sculptural book resembles a small tower. It is hand-painted green and metallic gold and bronze paints along the exterior. The interior features a collection of imaginary creatures printed in full color from drawings by the book artist. The book has a special hexagonal folding design that Goozairow calls a "Bee Book." A charming alphabet book in an unusual binding. In fine condition. Size: about 3.5 inches tall x 1 inches on each side of book. ART/112923. Fine. More