Birds of the Bible: Raven
Berkeley: never mind the press, 2019. Hardcover. Number 6 of 18 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. From the website of Alisa Golden's never mind press: "As a writer, printmaker, and letterpress printer, I work with words and images on paper and cloth. The bridge between writing and art has taken the form of books and prints since 1983, and expanded into felt and art quilts since the early 2000s. Additionally, I founded, edit and publish the art and literary magazine, Star 82 Review. For many years teaching was also a main part my life; workshops for all ages and semester-long courses as an adjunct professor around the San Francisco Bay Area. My work explores interaction and change, primarily the intersection between urban environments and natural settings, conversations and conflicts." She also wrote: "Book art can be made of many materials and take many forms: an interactive, touchable object that opens; a merging of words and images and structure; it can also be sculptural work that references reading or printing or the characteristics of a book. I'm interested in how each part adds to a whole tactile and sensory experience."
She writes of the making of this striking book: "After learning that the raven was the first bird Noah sent out of the ark, preceding the dove, I had questions. If ravens mate for life, what happened to the mate? What did the raven do besides return and fly 'to and fro?' Raven was the bird I knew I would explore when I turned in my proposal to create book art around 'Birds in the Bible' for the Anolic Family Award. Quail was the first book of three that I completed. I began with the Japanese marbling technique, suminagashi, done in blue on the background mulberry paper. There's a raven nest camera mounted outside a store in Iceland that I was alerted to by one of my fellow Osprey nest camera watchers, so I studied the ravens in motion and close up, when possible. At first I wanted to print the babies when they were young because their red mouths are such a good contrast against the black, but the book didn't want that. So I did a reduction print from a screenshot of the juveniles, a few days before they fledged and disappeared from view for good, which was the beginning of June. I carved other linoleum blocks and printed the ravens in dark blue-black and overprinted in black with some black pigmented mica powder for a subtle sheen. I set the biblical verse in Hebrew and English. Machine-sewed with variegated rainbow thread and a leaf pattern to attach the mulberry paper to the front and back title pages. The book is covered with black book cloth and has recesses like windowpanes that show the raven outside. Or inside, depending how you like to look at it. I chose walnut Paperwood endpapers to represent the ark, and printed a few elements in brown. The center mountain fold is letterpress printed in both English and Hebrew in rainbow colors with part of the Jewish prayer said upon seeing a rainbow." Bound in black cloth covers with an accordion structure. Printed with Baruch-Schocken Hebrew type, linocuts and ancient Caslon 471 type. Housed in a black cloth covered slipcase with a brown cloth spine. In fine condition. Measures 5.5 x 7.5 inches. Unpaginated. ARTB/011625. Fine.
Item #37739
Price: $650.00