Penngrove, CA: Spell & Bind Press, 2023. Hardcover. Number 5 of 8 copies. Tiana Krähn is an accomplished book artist who makes small edition, hand-bound, letterpress printed poetry and story books under the name Spell & Bind Press. She writes about her work: "For me, hand setting type is a meditation. There is intention behind each letter, each word, each sentence. I believe that words, like spells cast into the world, should be carefully chosen. As I work I have pause to examine my motives. Poems and stories open portals in and out of other realms. Printing on a letterpress machine is such a physical process, and as the weight of the words sink deep within the page, I am always struck by the permanence of this action, and the beauty of marks that make meaning out of chaos and ink. The binding of books is yet another ritual I relish. It is work full of metaphor where each stitch is a scaffold in the building of a physical home to our thoughts and feelings, resulting in an intimate object to be kept close or to be shared. That is the magic of it all. "

Bush Tea is a collection of vignettes, the memories of one man's childhood in rural Jamaica in the late 40's. As he grapples with the onset of Alzheimer's the simplicity of those early years are salve to his soul. Once bemused by the many jars of unlabeled herbs in my father's kitchen cupboard in London, I learned from him what he learned from his grandmother, that Bush Tea was the answer to all life's problems. It is a hot drink made from the healing herbs and edible plants one might find growing in the yard or along the roadside. Bound in red cloth with a black spine in a variation of a drum leaf binding, with a cream title label on the front cover. Black endpapers with images of plants. The book is letterpress printed on tea dyed Fabriano paper, with hand colored original illustrations that depict some of the traditional plants that might be used for tea in the Caribbean. In fine condition. Measures 5 x 6.5 inches. Unpaginated [about 15 pages]. ARTB/052423. Fine.

Item #36620

Price: $700.00