[Editions Verdigris] Sybil ( pseudonym of Elsa Koberlé), poet; Judith Rothchild, book artist; Mark Lintott, typographer and printer
Octon, France: Editions Verdigris, 2022. Hardcover. Number 8 of 25 standard copies. There were also 5 deluxe copies and one copy reserved for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Signed and numbered by artist Judith Rothchild and Mark Lintott, the printer and typographer. From the press website describing this prolific and important private press: "With their well equipped workshop in the south of France enabling them to be completely independent, Judith Rothchild and Mark Lintott imagine and produce artist’s books from start to finish. Concerned by the rhythm between text and image, the visual and literary relationship between the blocks of print, the mezzotints and the white page, the artist’s book becomes a spatial adventure. The book as art, a singular typographical, visual, boxed object. At the helm of this creative process, Mark Lintott, is passionate about letterpress on antique presses, paper and serigraphy. Each project taken on by Verdigris is a new technical and visual challenge. The ideas often start with Judith’s mezzotints or with a text of a contemporary author they wish to work with such as Marie Rouanet, Claude Ber, Ruth Fainlight, James Sacré, Frédéric Jacques Temple… or a classical author they feel a connection to: Charles Baudelaire, Pablo Neruda, Paul Valéry. The first surprise, the wide variety of formats (nothing is forbidden, everything is possible), the mezzotints by Judith, the centre of this sensual ritual and not simple illustration, the precision letterpress of Mark and finally the boxed object."
This exquisite book contains three poems in French by Elsa Koberlé, using the pseudonym of Sybil. The poems were written in her youth in Alsace before she settled at the Abbaye Saint André at Villeneuve les Avignon. Elsa Koeberlé was a French poet, born in Strasbourg (Alsace) in 1881. She died in 1950. She discovered l'Abbaye Saint André in 1915 and lived there from 1916 until her death. The abbaye was renowned for its beautiful and romantic Italian style gardens . A copy of her bookplate is affixed to the front pastedown of the book. The poems are accompanied by four lovely mezzotints by master engraver Rothchild, done from drawings that she sketched at the abbey. The book's structure is a leporello - a style of parallel folding with the folds alternating between front and back; concertina fold. that can also be opened as a codex. The linocuts on the cover were printed by the artist. The letterpress text was set in Garamond 16pt and printed by Mark Lintott. He also created the slipcase. Housed in a green paper covered slipcase decorated with linocut designs similar to that used on the book's green cover. Titling in black on front cover and spine. In fine condition. Measures 7 x 9.5 inches. Unpaginated [About 8 pages]. PRI/031824. Fine. More