Washington DC: Abstract Orange, 2021. Number 9 of 10 copies of this inventive work by Lauren Emeritz in honor of Emily Dickinson. The artist's statement: "This book was based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson and released on her birthday, December 10th. The book started as visual interpretation of the words 'Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul' with a thing of feathers perched in a box." The simple construction mimics that of a case-bound book, with a spine and fore-edge but it is actually a box. The box is made of basswood and the spine is white birch wood veneer. A gentle wire clasp holds the book shut, but not locked shut. "Inside the box is "the thing with feathers. "The 'thing' is not a bird with a beak and feet, but a grouping of brightly colored orange feathers. They do not represent a specific bird, but rather a fictional idea of a thing with feathers. The feathers are made from cut paper that is scored to looks like feathers and held together by a simple wire. The cover is a bright, glowing yellow with the title in orange letterpress printed type, and a wooden “inlay” with the author's name. This represents that the while the poem is by her and she was the inspiration for the piece, the piece is not just about her, but the idea of hope [artist's statement]." In fine condition. Measures 5.25 x 7.25 x 1 inches. ARTISTSB/041223. Fine. More

Ogdensburg, NY: Caliban Press and Floating World Press, 2010 and 2022. Softcover. One of 40 copies. This poem by Whitman was inspired by the landscape of Colorado, which he visited in 1879. He described his train journey: "I am on the great Plains of Colorado....We ride and ride all day & it is nothing but plains - but I enjoy it all very much indeed....I have seen mountains just before sunset...I shall never forget it." He stayed in Denver for about four days, making side trips to various sites including the Platt River Canyon, after which he composed "Spirit." He was awestruck by the red Colorado sandstone that let him to compare his own poetry to the poetry of the landscape around him. The poem first appeared in the 1881 (7th) edition of Leaves of Grass [From the prospectus]. Printed in 2010 from 18-point Bodoni bold foundry type on machine made sage gray papers folded accordion style. Landscape images are made with torn paper strips in cream, red, blue, and black to form images of the topography of mountain ranges, with the poem's text printed below. Papers from La Papeterie St-Armand, Montreal. Bound in 2022 in orange paper covers with marbled paper ornament affixed to the cover. Housed in a gray slipcase with multi-color dots and title label to cover. In fine condition. Measures 5.5 x 6.25 inches, unfolds to 48 inches. Unpaginated [About 6 pages] ARTB/022223. Fine. More

Toronto: Cheshire Cat Press, 2023. Hardcover. Number 20 of 42 copies. Signed by Tannenbaum, Richards, Malcolm, and Walker. Quarto. A parody of Lewis Carroll's "Hunting of the Snark", written during the COVID-19 quarantine, that involves an expedition to cure infectious diseases by procuring a tissue sample from the elusive Snark, which is said to have immunity to all germs. Unfortunately, all but one of the crew members takes ill and dies from one of the diseases they set out to cure. Includes the Snark Map and a table of diseased crew members. The author of the introduction, which discusses infectious diseases during Carroll's lifetime is Catherine Anne Richards (1963). She is a retired English paediatric surgeon with a passion for Carrollinia. The author of this parody, Alison Crane Tannenbaum (1946), is a neurobiologist that spent most of her career in biomedical research at the National Institute of Health. Bound in red cloth boards with leatherette title label to front cover and gilt title to spine. Printed in New Caledonia type on Velin BFK Rives paper by George Walker and Andy Malcolm. With wood engravings by Walker, made from end grain end grain maple wood. The engravings of each crew member are underprinted with engravings based on photographs of viruses, which were provided by the author. Housed in slipcase covered in same cloth as book with gilt titling to cover and spine. In fine condition. 54 pages. PRI/030923. Fine. More

Oldham, England: Incline Press, 2023. Softcover. Number 7 of 60 copies printed on handmade Two Rivers paper. An additional 80 copies were printed on Zerkall paper. Signed by the author at her introduction. Hand set, printed, bound and published by Helen Morley and Graham Moss, proprietors of Incline Press. They write: "Poetry, book design and typography working together. It was an issue of some importance among private presses in the 1930s, expressed and addressed in passing by Francis Meynell of the Nonesuch Press: if poetry is better read slowly for sense, rhythm and understanding, how can the publisher assist by designing a book that slows the reader? Part of Meynell’s answer was to use italics, but we wonder if that goes quite far enough. Nancy Campbell’s poem, Song for the small hours, was published in the Spectator in 2022, and is printed here for the first time as a separate piece. Presented as unadorned typography, and deliberately set to add another answer to Meynell’s concern. We think it works very well; although our answer could be applied to any poem, here it works to perfection, so long as you are willing and able to let it." Nancy Campbell writes poetry, essays and non-fiction books. Among her works are her recent poetry book, Uneasy Pieces, and Thunderstone, a memoir of love, loss and a vintage caravan. The poem and title page use Baskerville types; the introduction and colophon are set in Bell type. This is a poem about letter writing, so all copies are sewn onto re-used vellum strips from old legal documents. This is a non-adhesive binding, using a heavy blue card paper from Two Rivers.Title and author on front cover. The bottoms of the book's cover and the fore-edge of the text are untrimmed. A lovely edition in fine condition. Measures 5 x 9 inches. Unpainted [20 pages printed on recto only plus colophon]. PI/050423. Fine. More

Pomona, NY: Kelly-Winterton Press, 2006. Hard Cover. 1 of 99 copies. A beautiful version of Rilke's incomparable Elegies, which he completed in 1922 just four years before his death at the age of 51. A two page introduction adapted from an afterword to the Hogarth Press edition describe the Elegies as complex and difficult but that they are "a monument, in their strange perfection, of absolutely first class poetry". This is the first book printed in book designer Jerry Kelly's first typeface, called "Rilke" after this publication. Handbound by Judi Conant in marbled multi-colored paper covered boards with a white paper title label to spine. Clean and bright. Quarto. In fine condition. 43 pages. PRI/020323. Fine. More

American Samoa: Dorothy Simpson Krause, 2018-2022. Hardcover. Number 2 of 2 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. Dorothy Krause is a painter, collage artist and printmaker who incorporates digital mixed media into her art. Her work is exhibited regularly in galleries and museums and featured in numerous current periodicals and books. In her artist's statement she says: "My work includes large scale mixed media pieces, artist books and book-like objects that bridge between these two forms. It embeds archetypal symbols and fragments of image and text in multiple layers of texture and meaning. It combines the humblest of materials, plaster, tar, wax and pigment, with the latest in technology to evoke the past and herald the future. My art-making is an integrated mode of inquiry that links concept and media in an ongoing dialogue – a visible means of exploring meaning" Many of her books, like this, have been inspired by her travels. She writes in her colophon: "In 1889 Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped, settled in the Samoan islands in Vailima, a home he built for his extended family. Immersing himself in the culture, he became a reporter and an agitator, alarmed above all by what he perceived as the Samoans' economic innocence. In 1894 just months before his death, he addressed the island chiefs 'There is but one way to defend Samoa. Hear it before it is too late. It is to make roads, and gardens, and care for your trees, and sell their produce wisely ... if you do not occupy and use your country, others will. It will not continue to be yours or your children's.' Stevenson died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1894 at the age of 44. The Samoans bore him on their shoulders to nearby Mount Vaea, where they buried him on a spot overlooking the sea. Stevenson was loved by the Samoans, and his tombstone epigraph, his poem Requiem, included in this book, was translated to a Samoan song of grief. He wrote: Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie, Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will. This is the verse you grave for me, Here he lies where he longed to be, Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill. This evocative work was done in mixed media, with images of Stevenson in white in photos with Samoans, his portrait, and an image of his grave. Pages are done in brown and orange tones, with faint facsimiles of Steveson's handwriting, and the poem printed along the bottom margins. In a drum-leaf binding, with vintage orange and black tapa cloth wraps on the cover and the top of the book's box. Tapa cloth is bark cloth, or tapa, is not a woven material, but made from bark that has been softened through a process of soaking and beating. Housed in a box with the colophon printed on the boom of the interior. In fine condition. Measures 5 x 7 inches. Unpaginated [24 pages]. ARTB/051923. Fine. More

Amstelodami, Typis Danielis Elzeverii, Sumptibus Societatis. 1664. Hardcover. In Latin, this is a new edition of Heinsius's text of 1652 of the poetry of Ovid. A lovely small volume that contains the text of Ovid's first two books, the Amatoria and the Metamorphoseon. Bound in period brown mottled leather with gilt decorations and red label to spine. Expertly restored with dark brown Japanese tissue reinforcing both joints and off-white tissue reinforcing both hinges. Fading to gilt title on spine and there is a closed crack going down the middle of the spine. Original white endpapers with some fading and soiling. Text pages have lightly browned and there is occasional foxing but text is still clean and legible. There is a split between the two volumes but the text block remains firm. With a general title page with a woodcut illustration and an ownership signature, and each book has a title page with Elsevier's printer's device in vignette. Housed in a custom brown leather clamshellbox with gilt titling to cover. A nice copy in very good condition. Measures 2.5 x 4.5 inches. Box is about 5.5 x 3.25 x 2 inches. Volume I: 268 pages. Volume II: 292 pages. CLA/031423. Very Good. More

Freeville, NY: Carol Schwartzott, 2021. Hardcover. Number 20 of 25 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. A collection of seven love poems originally from the book "India's Love Lyrics" compiled and translated by Laurence Hope. It includes the original illustrations that have been reworked from Carol's earlier book, "King Zada's Song" (1995). The interior of the book "follows a simple flutter style / accordian format, with each of the six hand-cut arched windows folding out to create tiny theaters displaying illustrations reminiscent of classic Indian miniatures" (artist statement). Bound in paper covered boards with title label to front cover. Digitally printed on Mohawk Superfine Vellum with additions of hand coloring. Housed in a handmade box covered in a variety of papers with title label to spine panel. In fine condition. Measures 3 x 2 inches in a box that is 4.25 x 2.5 inches. Unpaginated. [46 pages.] ARTISTSB/051723. Fine. More

Toronto: Studio Robert Wu, 2021. A unique pop-up book by Robert Wu, a noted bookbinder, paper marbler and stationer residing in Toronto. Robert trained at the American Academy of Bookbinding (AAB) in Colorado with Monique Lallier and at the Canadian Bookbinders and Bookartists Guild (CBBAG) in Toronto. He was the recipient of the first ever Tini Miura scholarship for the study of fine binding at the AAB. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions and can be found in several notable collections including Harvard University. He has also become well-known for his mastery of marbling paper. Marbling is an ancient art of floating colors onto a bath of liquid gelatin and using combs and rakes to manipulate the colors into patterns. His unique designs are each done by hand. As a stationer and paper artist, Robert creates intricate pop-up structures inspired by his love of Victorian art, decoration, and sentiment. This charming work was created as a ornately decorated box that is affixed to a stand of a floral stiff paper, with a gilt die-cut ornamental center. The box has a lid with lovely diecut flowers,a butterfly and a paper ribbon handle with which to open the box. An attached tag handwritten by Robert has the title and author. When the lid is lifted, the sides of the box open up to reveal a confection of small color paper flowers with gilt and glass bead centers. Sitting atop the middle flower is a small brown origami snail. The box's four sides comprise two connected panels - the inner panels are decorated with Robert's marbled papers and various die-cut leaves, a bee, and a butterfly. The outer panels have the handwritten text of Longfellow's sweet poem. In fine condition. Box measures 3.5 inches square. The floral stand is 5 inches square. ARTB/010223. Fine. More