Gainesville, FL: Crooked Letter Press, 2020. Hardcover. Number 14 of 40 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. Crooked Letter Press is the imprint of book artist and graphic designer, Ellen Knudson. Ellen is currently Associate in Book Arts at The University of Florida. She holds an MFA in Book Arts from The University of Alabama. Ellen has been a book artist for 17 years and a professional graphic designer for 20+ years . She has taught letterpress printing and Book Arts at The University of Florida, The University of Alabama, and graphic design at Mississippi State University and Wayne State University. Her work is in the collections of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA), Yale University (CT), The Library of Congress (DC), and many other national and international collections.

From the artist's website and colophon: "Rule of Thumb is a moveable book about the historical human obsession with ourselves and with approval from others. In the last 10 years, we have become obsessed with living online instead of actual living. We seem to only care about how many "thumbs up”, likes, or hearts we can accumulate on social media platforms. We practice a psychological social separation. We live virtual lives. Now, with the proliferation of the COVID-19 virus, we are living with the physical reality of "social-distancing". How will we make it back? Can we make it back? I hope we will realize how much we don't want to live without one another." Rule of Thumb considers the ways in which humans have used our thumbs to, at best, twist reality, and at worst, ruin ourselves.

The serious questions addressed in this book are approached through a seemingly whimsical description and movable depiction of various expressions with the word thumb - the pricking of my thumb, rule of thumb, sticks out like a sore thumb, under my thumb and more. These are accompanied by information about the phrase's origin and a few relevant quotations. Printed on and constructed from Colorplan paper (350gsm, Natural). Letterpress printed from linoleum blocks and photopolymer plates. The orange and red binding is a storage book binding with a green concertina spine made from Tyvek hand-tinted with acrylic inks. It is housed in a red portfolio with thumb images and with soft flaps (made using directions by Peter D. Verheyen). The spine of the portfolio and the book cover are foil stamped in matte black foil. In fine condition. Measures 6.5 x 11 inches. Portfolio measures 7 x 11.5 inches. Unpaginated. ARTB/030823. Fine.

Item #36538

Price: $950.00