Avian Habitat Loss
Deluxe Edition, limited to 7 copies

Austin, Alice.
Nesting.
Philadelphia: Alice Austin, 2022.

Number 4 of 15 copies, of which 7 copies were deluxe and 8 copies were standard. Signed and numbered by the artist. This deluxe edition is bound in tan goat parchment by Pergamena with yellow caterpillar stitched details. The standard edition was bound in handmade paper wrappers. A delightful collection of linoleum prints of birds and nests, ending with a poem remarking on habitat loss and the joys of birdwatching: "Due to habitat loss, there are 25 percent fewer birds since 1970. still, birds are nesting calling to each other. and a glimpse, through binoculars, wondrous, fleeing." Prints and handset type are printed on Rives BFK heavyweight paper. Housed in an archival grey corrugated clamshell box with paper label to spine.

Alice Austin is a printmaker, book artist and painter living and working in Philadelphia. She has been on the faculty at the University of the Arts, teaching book structures, and has also taught workshops at the Center for Book Arts in New York, Ballinglen Foundation in Ireland, The Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, and other institutions. She earned a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art and has been an active member of the Guild of Book Workers since 1998. She worked as a rare book and paper conservator for over 20 years at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Alice has also been awarded several artist residencies in Europe, and her work is widely held in private, public and special collections worldwide.Book Size: 8.25 x 7.75 x .75 inches. Box size: 8.5 x 8 x 1 inches. Fine. (#36229)

Price: $1,200 

Spanish Poem on Transitory Nature of Life
Printed and Illustrated by Russian Artist (resettled and teaching in Mexico)
Limited to 5 Copies, handmade paper

Akhmadeeva, Ioulia (artist); González, Raul Eduardo.
Seda Espinosa / Thorny Silk.
Michoacán, Mexico: Ioulia Akhmadeeva, 2021.

Number 2 of 5 copies. This beautiful work is from Russian born book artist Ioulia Akhmadeeva, who has resided and worked in Mexico since 1994. She is a full professor of the book arts at the university in Morelia, Michoacá. The text of the book is a Spanish poem by González on the transitory nature of life, using the life of a rose as metaphor. The poem is inkjet printed on small floral themed papers that are bound with Ioulia's full page evocative and mysterious engravings. Printed on kozo paper and handmade paper with dried rose petal inclusions. Bound in beige patterned yotsume toji silk covered boards with metal corners. In fine condition. Measures 9.25 x 12.5 inches. 24 pages. (#35549)

Price: $1,800 

Let all of your cares slip away on Quiet Island!
Unique Embroidered Book

Childs, Lucy.
A Blustery Windy Day on Quiet Island.
Martinez, CA: Lucy Childs, 2021.

A unique embroidered artists’ book. Lucy’s exquisite embroidered books are inspired by her “exploration of the history, craft, and culture of early American and British sewing samplers, made mostly by young girls to learn the practical craft of sewing but also to learn letters and spelling. Many old and antique samplers included text or images in memory of family members who had died.” Lucy’s beautiful and painstakingly created books are a fitting tribute to and continuation of the craft she honors. Her unique books can be found in several artists’ books collections.

This beautiful work evokes the feel and mood of its inspiration - a windy day on a quiet (imaginary) island off of the New England coast. A card depicting Quiet Island has the following text inside: "Blustery windy days on Quiet Island are those in-between weather days (gutsy and wild , but not hurricane) where being outside is fine and even enjoyable. But if you’re biking along the coast, use your helmet's strap and remember - strong winds will push you over. Quiet Island is within the sweep of the North Atlantic Drift of the Gulf Stream and inside the arm of land that guards against the hurricanes hitting most everywhere else nearby. A few hundred or so people live on the island. Houses are simple, cars are shared, and the three public libraries are loved. On very stormy days friends can be found watching the weather from the sea-facing libraries' cushioned window seats or down in one of the cafes."

The intricate embroidery depicting a Quiet Island beach on a blustery day is stitched in blue, green, brown, purple, orange and yellow threads on white linen cloth. The lower borders are stitched with intricate white designs. The cover is blue wool with the title and border stitching in various colors of thread. The folded book measures 6 x 7 inches. Unfolded the book is about 24 inches. The book and card are housed in a light gray clamshell box with a blue wool decoration affixed to the cover. In fine condition. (#32927)

Price: $2,400

Celebration of Dance
Papercut Book Collaboration
Limited to 4 Copies

Coron, Béatrice, book artist; Andrea Arroyo, illustrator.
Let's Keep Dancing with Andrea Arroyo.
New York: Béatrice Coron, 2015.

Number 3 of four copies. "Let's keep dancing if that's all there is! This is a lively and engaging book that Andrea Arroyo and Béatrice Coron did in collaboration. It features Arroyo's color illustrations of dancers and Coron's paper-cuts of dancers and the brief. It was created using Arches paper. The book is housed in a red cloth folder with the silhouette of a dancer affix to the cover. The book slides into an interior sleeve within. In fine condition. It measures 6 x 30 inches when extended.

Andrea Arroyo is an award-winning artist working in a range of media including public art, painting, drawing, illustration and site-specific installation. Her work is exhibited widely and is in private, corporate and public collections around the world. Her artwork has been published extensively including in or on the cover of The New Yorker, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and The Nation and has been the subject of over two hundred features in the international media.

French born Béatrice Coron is a renowned artist whose work includes book arts, fine art, and public art. Her work can be found in major museum collections, libraries, as well as private collections. Her books are fascinating creations made through cutting images in paper or Tyvek. Christina Favretto, Head of Special Collections at the University of Miami describes her work in Coron's "artfragments" portfolio: "There is a palpable joy in the work of Béatrice Coron, the kind of joy we felt as children in unwrapping a particularly enticing holiday gift. But...for Béatrice the gift is a sheet of Tyvek...or paper, and the stories to be unearthed and unleashed within and through the medium."

Coron describes her book work: "For the last 20 years, I have been exploring visual storytelling in artist books, paper cutting and public art. Collecting memories from individuals and communities, I stage narrative allegories in silhouette to create a dialogue with the viewer in playful fantasies. These visual chronicles record archetypal stories that transcend time and space. I have been fascinated by the relation of people to their space and the sense of belonging. Using papercutting where everything is cut from a single piece of Tyvek, the profusion of individual stories makes a coherent whole world." [From her website] Fine. (#34331)

Price: $800 

A Powerful Work on Dr. Walter Freeman ("Father of Lobotomy")
Limited to 40 Copies

Cummins, Maureen.
The/Rapist.
Maureen Cummins, 2016.

Number 34 of 40 copies. Signed the artist. In this powerful work, noted book artist Maureen Cummins investigates the dark side of the history of psycho-surgery, as exemplified by the career of Doctor Walter Freeman (1895-1972), a professor of neurology who became known as the father of lobotomy by single-handedly popularizing the pre-frontal lobotomy in America. Although he had no formal training in either surgery or psychology, Freeman modified the traditional procedure for lobotomies by driving ice picks through his patients’ eye sockets rather than drilling into the skull to sever nerve connections in the prefrontal cortex to treat mental illness. Despite his championing of his procedure he admitted that lobotomies often created childlike behavior or a vegetative state in patients. Hundreds of patients died. The controversial procedure also raised numerous questions about patients’ rights, the abuse of institutional power, and the disproportionate targeting of women. Of the more than 3000 patients that Freeman operated on, two-thirds were women. Cummins uses physical rape as an analogy for neurological penetration, a form of sexualized violence that was perpetuated for decades in the name of medical progress. She visualizes this by a series of laser cut holes that bore through each page, becoming smaller page by page. The holes penetrate reproduced images of lobotomy patients’ heads and on the last page the title “The Rapist” becomes “Therapist?” The images of women are from 'before-and-after” photos used in Freeman’s textbook, which are re-contextualized, with lines of typography serving as blindfolds, reclaiming for these women a measure of dignity, humanity, and anonymity. The pages of the book are laser-cut aluminum with silkscreen-printed text and imagery. The covers are also laser-cut aluminum with a large hole that reveals the subsequent holes and "The" and "rapist" on either side of the cover's hole. The pages are attached to the cover by two ring binders. Housed in an aluminum box with a metal title label affixed to the top. In fine condition. 16 pages. 24” x 9” x 1” open 12” x 9” x 1 closed. Fine.

Maureen’s work is held in over one hundred permanent public collections internationally and has been included in exhibitions at the American Craft Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Rotunda Gallery (amongst others). She has received over a dozen grants and awards and has been an artist-in-residence at numerous venues, including the American Antiquarian Society and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. (#33615)

Price: $3,300 

Sci-Fi Story - About Giant Snails!
Limited to 100 Copies, Letterpress

[Foolscap Press]
Highsmith, Patricia (author); Peggy Gotthold and Lawrence G. Van Velzer (designer, printer, and binder).
The Snails.
Foolscap Press, 2016.

Number 16 of 100 copies. The Snails is a short story by Patricia Highsmith (author of The Talented Mr. Ripley) about giant snails with huge teeth that inhabit a remote island. When an out-of-shape professor decides to visit the island in hopes of capturing one of the snails in order to secure fame for himself, his plans go awry. A seemingly peculiar topic for a story, it was perfect for Highsmith who kept snails as pets and was known to take them to parties on leaves of lettuce in her handbag.

The book is housed in a brick red cloth box with a cast-paper sculpture of a snail shell to the top cover. The book is bound in tan cloth with an illustration of a snail pasted down to the front cover. Within the folds of the accordion structure binding are smaller gatherings of pages, which include the text. Illustrations of snails roaming the island and encountering the professor are printed on the larger pages. An interesting structure, as is frequent with books issued by the Foolscap Press. Letterpress printed from polymer plates. In fine condition. Unpaginated. [44 pages] (#31009)

Price: $500 

Inspired by Pictographic Calendars Used by Plains Indians
Limited to 30 Copies

Greenwood, Anne.
Winter Count.
Portland, OR: Anne Greenwood, 2008.

Number 8 of 30 copies. This interesting and evocative work exemplifies how Anne integrates her textile skills with book arts. She explains that Winter Counts were historic calendars used by the Plains Indians to record time pictographically. This book is Anne's interpretation of the Sioux tradition to record her personal history using hand-stitched embroidery and letterpress printing. The 41 embroideries were scanned and then made into print form from hand-processed photopolymer plates run on a Vandercook Universal hand press. Printing was done by Inge Bruggeman. Each is printed in the same color as the embroidered version. The loose images and text pages are housed in a light red clam shell box. The text pages are printed in Goudy Sans type and include the title page, artist's statement, two commentary pages for images titles and stitch identification, and colophon with quotes relevant to the winter count tradition. An impressive production in fine condition. 

Anne Greenwood is a well-known artist who has exhibited widely and whose works can be found in museum and library collections around the country. She was born on the high Dakota Plains and was led to an art degree by her artist grandmother. In 1990 she moved to Portland, Oregon and began her career as an artist and horticulturalist. Anne’s artwork explores an interest in folk art and speaks of her kinship with the natural world and how this influences her connection to daily life. In 2002, Anne set up a textiles studio integrating handwork, book arts, and textiles into an interdisciplinary practice. From Anne's artist's statement: "My artistic practice navigates an infinite network of connections: narrating the simple and complex, physical and ephemeral, past and present, within the context of place, history, and transformation. I form relationships that expand and fortify admiration and reverence, leading to the discovery of new truths about the world around us." (#33025)

Price: $1,000 

Exploration of Death and Loss
Limited to 11 Copies, Letterpress

Gu brandsdóttir [Guobrandsdottir], Kristin.
Awakening.
Washington DC: Kristin Gubrandsdottir, 2010.

Number 10 of 11 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. Kristin is a book artist, furniture maker, and teacher from Iceland. Her works typically address feelings, memory, and experience. She studied book arts at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington DC where she made this book. She currently resides in Brussels.

Awakening is a powerful photobook done in response to the loss of friends that "left me wondering about the meaning of our existence and why some leave too prematurely." The photographs and text address these questions and the strange feelings that arose in her at night that left her waking up "knowing that one day I will die." The twelve evocative color photos are reproduced in an oblong accordion style book and juxtaposed with letter press text. Printed on Soberest paper using Minion Pro Regular and Medium Italic fonts. Bound in white stiff paper with titling on front cover. In fine condition. Unpainted.  (#32922)

Price: $285 

Subjugation of Women
Text from Kate Chopin's "The Awakening
Limited to 5 Copies, Letterpress, Screenprint, & Lithography on Handmade Paper

[Heirloom Press]
Mauro, Melanie.
Curio.
Philadelphia: Heirloom Press, 2017.

Number 4 of 5 copies. Signed by the artist. Folio. "Curio is a collection of quotidian objects that speaks to the idea of woman as domestic curator and as weaker vessel. Images of household vases, cups and bowls are paired with inkblots that evoke the trappings of middle-class existence" (artist's statement). Includes text adapted from the 1868 collection of articles, "Modern Women and What Is Said of Them" and the Kate Chopin novel "The Awakening." Many of the excerpts that the artist has chosen to include objectify women, likening them to jewelry, tables, and other precious possessions. For example: After scolding his wife for sun bathing, Mr. Pontellier looks "at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage." Also "The mind ought to be developed a little, and in such a way as to make the body more piquant and attractive. Like the candle inside a Chinese lantern, it may serve to lighten up and show to advantage the pretty devices outside. But the outside is the important thing, and the inside only incidental" (from "Modern Women ...). Others comment on how wives should be controlled or "managed" and the power dynamics within the home. A powerful book about the subjugation of women. Bound in full white alum-tawed leather with seven raised bands to the spine. Printed using letterpress, screenprint, and lithography on paper handmade by the artist. Size: 22 (wide) x 14.5 (tall) inches when open. Fine. (#34043)

Price: $1,500 

String Drawings - Demonstrate Principles of Tension / Order / Chaos
Limited to 25 Copies, Hand-Sewn

Hiebert, Helen, book artist.
Intensio.
Red Cliff, CO: Helen Hiebert Studio, 2021.

Number 7 of 25 copies. Helen Hiebert is a noted paper artist who constructs installations, sculptures, artists’ books and works in paper using handmade paper as her primary medium. She teaches, lectures and exhibits her work internationally and online, and is the author of the several how-to books about papermaking and papercrafts. She writes about this inventive and fascinating work: "My father was a physicist who studied how the universe began, and my mother has degrees in psychotherapy and divinity. My thoughts linger between them as I find myself comparing the tangible puzzles I explore in my work to the invisible physical properties my father researched and the emotional tensions my mother explored. Tension is a pulling force in physics. The strings within these pages cannot be pushed to form a definitive shape: when a page is closed, the thread – without tension – goes slack, lying in chaos between the folds. As you turn the page, extending it to 180 degrees, the single thread pulls taut, and the invisible property of tension creates beauty and order. Each of the eight string drawings is composed with a single piece of linen thread – one continuous line, ranging from six to sixteen feet in length – with one exception: two threads were used to create two parabolas in drawing 7. I constructed each drawing on a flat sheet of paper, punched a pierced pattern, and then stitched in and out of the holes across the scored centerfold – the axis of the page. Two surprisingly different drawings were created in tandem as the needle and thread moved from the front to the back of each page, and there is a sequence to the stitching that is not readily visible."

Hiebert designed this book and created all of the handmade paper in this book with a 90% cotton rag/10% abaca fiber blend. She composed the string drawings and stitched them with the assistance of Will Katauskas. The end sheets are machine stitched. Tom Leech printed the text at the Press at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe from polymer plates made by Boxcar Press. The typeface is Dante. Claudia Cohen bound and made the green cloth covered box with a white spine label. In fine condition. Box size: 9-1/4 x 6 x 1-1/4 inches. Book size closed is 8 3/8 x 5 3/8 inches.  (#35586)

Price: $2,800 

Exploration of Time
Woodcuts on Pulp-Painted Paper
Limited to 20 Copies, Letterpress Printed

Holman, Shireen.
Time.
Montgomery Village, MD: Shireen Holman, 2013.

Number 15 of 20 copies signed and numbered by the artist. This complex and beautiful artist's book explores time from the viewpoints of religion, literature, science, and philosophy. The book artist, Shireen Modak Holman, has been a printmaker for more than thirty-five years and a book artist for more than twenty. She was born in India, and her work often involves the interaction of her Indian and American cultures. She states that she is fascinated by time and spent several years reading, sketching, and selecting texts to illustrate the imagery she was creating as she tried to visually express time. She has used texts from the writings of Shakespeare, Tagore, Einstein, Thoreau, Hawking, and others. As the design of the book came together, she created a full-sized colored pencil mock-up. The finished book consists of woodcuts printed onto pulp-painted handmade paper. The text was letterpress printed on gampi paper and then pasted onto the handmade sheets. The pages are folded in such a way that one can see a little of each of the subsequent pages from the current page. Thus from the beginning to the end of the book one can see a little of the future from the present. Each page has semicircular areas cut out so that the calendar at the bottom right of the colophon page is visible at all times. Housed in a cream paper clamshell box with the title "Time" in raised letters affixed vertically to the cover. Linen spine. In fine condition. Accompanied by a softcover book titled "The Making of the Artist Book 'Time.'" Unpaginated. [16 pages]. 13.75 x 19.25 inches. Fine. (#31003)

Price: $2,000 

Shakespeare's "Seven Stages of Man" - Rewritten for the Life Stages of Women
Unique

Krause, Dorothy Simpson , book artist.
7 Stages of Woman.
Ft. Lauderdale: Dorothy Krause, 2010.

This is an intriguing unique artist's book from noted book artist Dorothy Krause. This unusual work beautifully demonstrates Krause's approach to creating artists' books. The book is based on Shakespeare's "Seven Stages of Man;" however, this version has been rewritten to reflect the life stages of women. This rewritten version includes infant, schoolgirl, lover, mother, matriarch, Sixth Age (of forgetfulness), and Seventh Age (a return to childishness - without teeth, sight, taste, etc.). Following is an excerpt: "... Then a mother. Full of strange oaths, and aware of her children's needs. Jealous in their honour, sudden, and quick in response. Seeking their good reputation even in the tempting life. And then matriarch in fair round belly. With good capon lin'd with eyes severe. And dress of formal cut. Full of wise saws. And modern instances. And so she plays her part ..." It is made from Katie MacGregor's lime green handmade paper over multiple layers of mat board in which dimensional objects, including brass stencils for numbers 1 through 7, unexposed glass negatives, padlocks and keys are embedded. It is housed in a vintage green silk dome lidded box embroidered with cream and dark green threads. It is lined with ivory silk, with a vintage linen napkin hemmed to the size of book and tied with tea-dyed trim that enables the book to be removed from box. Shakespeare's "Seven Stages of Man", rewritten for Woman, is printed digitally in olive green ink on a sheet of vegetable vellum paper and laid in the box below the book. In fine condition. Measures 9.75 x 5.875 x 2.25 inches, [14 pages].

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." Fine. (#35147)

Price: $3,500 

Human Mortality / Memorial for a Tree
Limited to 66 Copies, Letterpress with Wood Engravings

[Lone Oak Press]
Rorer, Abigail.
Matriarch of the Forest.
Petersham, MA: The Lone Oak Press, 2009.

Number 26 of 66 copies. Signed by the artist. A poignant poem about a beautiful tree that is slowly dying and reflections by the author on her own mortality. Illustrated by the author with five wood engravings. In the enclosed afterword the artist elaborates on her relationship with the tree: “One day we were surprised to discover a string of scarlet beads hanging on our beloved tree. They didn’t seem to belong there. After work on The Matriarch of the Forest [a book about this favorite tree] was complete, the engraving of the branch with the beads reminded us of the garish red polish painted on the fingernails of an elderly friend who was approaching the end of her life. She was unable to articulate her wishes any longer ... and we knew she would have hated [the red polish]. It diminished her dignity in the same way the scarlet beads defiled the tree.” Fine in blue paper wrappers with cream cloth and paper title label. Wood grained endpapers. Housed in a grey cloth covered slipcase with a copy of the paper-bound two page afterword included. Unpaginated. [10 pages.]  Fine.

Master wood engraver Abigail Rorer is considered one of the finest engravers working today. She founded her Lone Oak Press in 1989 and has published many beautiful works that often focus on nature - animals, flowers, trees, and water. Abigail has also provided lovely illustrations for other private and commercial presses. Her fine press books have been in numerous exhibitions in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland. They can be found in many public and private collections. (#30545)

Price: $185 

Extinction of the Western Black Rhinoceros
Deluxe, Limited to 14 Copies; Letterpress with Wood Engravings

[Lone Oak Press]
Rorer, Abigail, book artist; Don McKay, poem.
Extinct. The Western Black Rhinoceros.
Petersham, MA: Lone Oak Press, 2022.

Number ix/xiv of the fourteen deluxe copies that are accompanied by an extra suite of prints. Signed and numbered by the book artist. There were also fifty-six standard signed and numbered copies. Abigail writes in her prospectus about this important new work, saying that it is the first book in the "Extinct Pentalogy" series. Originally she had planned one larger volume covering five diverse animals, four that are extinct and one that came perilously close. But she decided that each animal deserves its own tribute. The western black rhinoceros was declared extinct in 2011 and all remaining rhinoceroses are endangered. She writes on her website: "Extinction as a theme has been a focus of The Lone Oak Press for a few years now, beginning with the publication of our book Extinction in 2015. We are living in the age of the Sixth Extinction, the Anthropocene: the Human Epoch. Human activity has made such an impact on our planet that climate patterns are changing, glaciers are melting, the ozone layer is thinning, and species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. For such a magnificent and noble animal as the rhinoceros to be on the verge of total extinction is tragic and unacceptable. The rhinoceros has lived and flourished on this earth for tens of thousands of years. Within only a relatively short period of time, the last two hundred years or so, with the advent of guns, the Industrial Revolution, exploding populations, and other factors, we have decimated the rhino population and brought it to the brink of total extinction. This book is a way to honor a subspecies of the black rhinoceros that disappeared in 2011 and to highlight the plight of all species of rhinoceros.

Bound in a gray and black paper created from a hand-draw closeup image of rhinoceros skin over boards with a stamped gray leather spine. The text was set in Dante and Othello type. The text and engravings were printed on Zerkell paper. many of the engravings are multi-block color with some hand-coloring. Amy Borezo of shelter Bookwords bound the books. This copy from the deluxe edition comes in a special clamshell case covered in gray Cave Paper with cloth sides and a stamped red leather title label. It includes the book, a set of the prints in a portfolio, and a unique recessed well with a trap door called the "Cache of Curiosities." Contained within are seventeen small engravings and two stamps with images of rhinos. With prospectus. In fine condition. Measures 7 x 9 inches. 52 pages.  (#36390)

Price: $1,800 

Exploration of Cardiac Systems of Humans and Other Animals - with CD of Heartbeats
Limited to 100 Copies
Text in English, Spanish, and Catalan

March, Sandra.
I hear(t) you.
Barcelona: Printed at The Folio Club for Sandra March, 2014.

Number 83 of 100 copies signed and numbered by Sandra March. Text in Spanish, Catalan, and English. March is a talented young book and installation artist. With this work she draws a metaphorical, graphic, and auditory journey captured by words, illustrations, and sound. Thus the contents comprise the book, two posters, and a CD. She writes that this project has a scientific basis with a therapeutic and artistic impulse, starting on a subconscious level after losing both her sister and her father from heart diseases. The journey goes from a symbolic loss of the heart until its restoration, through a tour of the beautiful and varied morphology of the cardiac systems of thirty-one different animals and the sounds of their heartbeats. The heartbeat sounds are from a jellyfish, starfish, black widow spider, giant tortoise, Nile crocodile, frog, parakeet, and human being among many others There were a number of contributors to this project, including the biologist Francesc Uribe Porta, sound engineer Vicente Rosati, and illustrator Raquel Bullon. Bound in a white cardboard CD case, with posters attached to the back cover by a pink elastic band and CD held on the middle fold of the case. In fine condition. 58 pages.  (#28187)

Price: $200 

Study of Fiber, Fabric, and Appliqué in 3rd and 4th World Countries
Limited to 150 Copies

Nell Battle Booker Sonnemann; Patricia Malarcher (compiler and editor).
Wings of a Ragtag Quest: Chronicles of a Passionate Pursuit of Appliqué.
Hopewell, NJ: Sans Serif Studio, 2015.

Limited to 150 unnumbered copies. An artist and a professor of art, Nell Battle Booker Sonnemann became deeply interested in fiber, fabric, and appliqué during the last three decades of her life. She was particularly intrigued by appliqué techniques used in Third and Fourth World countries, but found that little scholarship and very few photos documenting this area of study existed. She took it upon herself to investigate further, to travel around the world, and to commission others to travel for her when her health began to fail. This collection of twelve journals include photographs, research, and anecdotes from her (and her friends') travels into the Canadian arctic, Syria, Egypt, the Peruvian Amazon, India, Indonesia, Finland, Bhutan, Tibet, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Panama, Japan, Senegal, Nigeria, and Palestine. The introductory booklet includes three essays: a background on the project and how Nell came to it, a biography and remembrance of Nell, and an essay by Nell herself. She writes: "My search was an adventure, and from the beginning the joy in telling the story has been at odds with my sense of duty to my graduate training in bibliography and research. Now I know that, for better or worse, 'Wings of a Ragtag Quest' has been just this - playing - and that is what it wants to be."

All twelve volumes are bound in side-stapled illustrated paper wrappers and are housed in a grey box. Digitally printed. Each copy has a different piece of cloth appliqué extending out of the box. The box measures 10 x 7 x 4 inches and is titled in printed cloth on one side. Fine. (#31591)

Price: $250 

Tonya Harding Story (Sympathetic Viewpoint)
Limited to 10 Copies, Screen Printed

Pearson, Jennaway.
A Lady's Champion.
Washington DC: 2017.

Number 5 of 10 copies. Initialed and numbered by the book artist. In this provocative work, Jennaway explores the meaning of “champion” by connecting figure skater Tonya Harding with the goddess Juno, protector of women. Despite being a record-breaking skater, Harding was a victim of her family, a demanding sporting organization, a tragic marriage, and an insatiable tabloid culture. Pearson suggests that Harding, like many women, would have benefited from the protection of Juno, whom the Romans saw as presiding over all aspects of a woman’s life. The book begins with three pages of text printed as handwritten script on yellow tablet sheets. It offers a sympathetic telling of Harding's life, drawing from an early documentary and a later media reports. This is followed by striking images representing both her life and the themes of the book. The text and images are each in a gathering with a cover sheet with two white squares and black numbers representing skating competition scores. The book was supported by a grant from the College Book Arts Association. Bound in black cloth with title in blue script on front cover. In a coptic-style stitched binding. The book is entirely screen printed on Arches 88 and Rives BFK papers. Housed in a black cloth slipcase with title on front. In fine condition. Measures 11.5 x 13.25 inches.

Jennaway Pearson is a printmaker and book artist residing in Washington, DC. She teaches at American University and George Washington University. Her work is held in institutional and private collections across the US including the Museum for Women in the Arts, the Library of Congress, and UCLA. (#32366)

Price: $1,900 

An Ode to the Number 43
Mathematical Formulas, Maps, Page Numbers, Poetry Lines, Etc.
Limited to 86 Copies.

 Price, Robin.
43, According to Robin Price, with Annotated Bibliography.
Middletown, CT: Robin Price, Publisher, 2007.

Number 49 of 86 copies. Robin Price has designed, printed, and published books for over twenty-five years. Her works can be found in university and public library collections throughout North America and Europe. This book is particularly personal, as well as complex and mysterious. Ms. Price says that “Text excerpts from 86 books significant to me - mostly other artist’s books - were gathered using formulas based on the number 43, which was my age at the genesis of the project.” In her announcement for this book, she says that simple formulas, using modular arithmetic with the number 43, were applied to categories such as page number, paragraph, sentence, line of poetry, etc. The text is grouped by subject matter into sixteen page spreads. Titles of spreads include “Water,” “Counting,” and “Flora.” Paper maps from locations along the 43rd parallels are bound in an accordion that structurally supports the main text, which is printed on graph paper and also hinged together as an accordion. A Legend Card and supplemental Annotated Bibliography are included. The unusual double-layer accordion is housed in an olive green cloth covered clamshell box with a river section printed in blue, and a map-paper spine label.

The book was co-designed and co-produced with Daniel E. Kelm at the Wide Awake Garage. The typefaces are handset ATF Garamond and Kabel. Six colors are printed letterpress. All additional printing within the structure is also letterpress, except for the laser-printed text sheets of the 32-page bibliography. 11.75 x 8 x 1.5 inches, opens to 20 feet wide; 32 pages with supplemental 32 page booklet. Fine. (#24237)

Price: $2,250 

Segmented Letter Puzzle Book - Focusing on Extremes in Emotion, Politics, Etc.
Unique, Collage

Satin, Claire Jeanine.
WHIM: Extremes.
Dania Beach, FL: Claire Jeanine Satin, 2022.

A unique artists' book from Claire Jeanine Satin, a well known book artist, sculptor and designer of public art installations. This is one of a series of unique works by Satin, each signed by her. The aesthetic overall image of these pages are tranquil, soft, and pretty - but when the segmented alphabet letters are correctly joined, they spell bitter words. Those words are lightly penciled in on the bottom of each page. This work plays with the extremes of hidden negative sentiments juxtaposed with crystals and uplifting pastel colors. Satin hides her "bitter" words by cutting each letter in half and rotating the segments.  According to the artist: "The idea behind (this book) is extremes: reflections / range of human feelings / emotions; opposing political positions; philosophical disparities; gentle and hard/bitter ... The aesthetic images are calm and soothing, [but] the segmented alphabet letters/text when joined, reveal opposite meanings." Created from acid free white card stock paper and bound with clear filaments and beads, this book includes segmented letters, various papers, crystals, and beads. In fine condition. Measures 5.5 x 8.5 inches. Unpaginated [12 pages].

Satin's work has been extensively exhibited and collected in the United States and in Europe, including at The Library of Congress, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Getty (CA), MOMA, and The Victoria and Albert Museum. She is known especially for her conceptual works influenced by the ideas of her friend and mentor the composer/visual artist John Cage, and the conversion of ordinary industrial materials into environmental constructions and book works of layered transparent mass. (#36088)

Price: $500

Porcelain with Miniature Book
Unique

Serebrin, Judith.
Bookhead I.
Redwood City, CA: Judith of Serebrin Books and Prints, 2015.

Unique artist's book. The artist says of this work: "This is part of a series of porcelain figures called “Soul Books.” Figures with books in them represent a symbolic and tactile way of being able to reach into someone’s soul without embarrassment, censorship, or fear. Both human and animal-like figures—all represent the importance of every creature to the world. Bookheads" are a twist on my sculptural series, Soul Books. The Soul Books are intended to bring heart to living creatures. In the Bookhead sculptures I’m looking more to the intellect. Even though this Bookhead's interior drawings are abstract, my thoughts are moving up to the mind, to sorting information, reason and understanding." The figure is made of stained porcelain and measures 2 x 6 5/8 x 2 inches. The book is made with handmade paper from Taiwan with silkscreen ink and a binding of exposed link and kettle stitches. It measures 7/8 x 1 ¼ x 1/2 inches. In fine condition.

Well-known artist Judith Serebrin received a master's degree in fine arts from the University of Utah in 1990 and has been making limited edition and unique books since then. Her work can be found in public and private collections in the United States and abroad. She states: "All my life I have observed, listened and looked at the world around me and have tried to make sense of it. I am concerned with issues of social justice, and liberation. Art for me is a way to learn about the world and to challenge oppressive mores, to make interesting connections that I can share with others. I hope to make others think as well, to grin, to perhaps gain insight and to spark new thoughts. Interrelations between people, animals and the planet are explored in my work--I hope in ways that are accessible. Using "book arts" as a format is part of that for me as you can have an intimate experience holding a book and looking through it." She often creates her artists' books by combining ceramic structures with mixed-media paper books for striking effect. (#35209)

Price: $650

Significance of Textiles to Andes Culture
Unique Calligraphic Work by Argentinian Book Artist

Soria, Marina; Ruth Corcuera (text).
Textile Womb / Útero Textil.
Buenos Aires: Marina Soria, 2021.

A unique artists' book with text in English by Ruth Corcuera from the book "Teleras, Memoria del Monte Quichua." The text describes the importance of textiles in the Andean region and describes how they were used "to protect, to give warmth, and to sustain life" - much like a mother's womb. Corcuera's text goes on to say that "In time, textile art will be the means to tell us through colours and designs that the world can be read through symbols, as in a written text ... Textiles [were] a major art with many roles, among them to express that where words did not suffice."

Marina Soria's calligraphic interpretation is in a style that resembles the flowing of thread arranged in rows of color like in a woven textile. In some places the words are clearly legible, but in others they are are purposefully distorted to create an impression of thread, texture, and weaving. When viewed fully open, each letter appears like a stitch to create the illusion of a sewn tapestry. This homage to Andean textiles, which were traditionally conceived of and created by women, depicts the shape of a womb in negative space with words stretched along the edges. Bound in brick red cloth by the artist with an inlay of antique textile. Includes an attachment of fleece, beads, and found objects. The calligraphy is done in gouache on Rives BFK, 100% cotton paper. This piece can be unfolded and read as a codex or displayed in full on a wall using the cloth tabs bound into an edge of the front cover and accompanying wooden dowel. In fine condition. Size: 110 x 22 cm open; 22 x 25 cm closed.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Marina Soria is a seasoned artist and educator with degrees in Fine Arts and Graphic Design. Not content to just immerse herself in learning calligraphy at international conferences, and through courses with renown calligraphers, she studied Eastern principles of Beauty in sumi-e (Japanese painting). She distilled and blended these principles with her rich experience and background in the fine arts, typography and graphic arts, employing unique approaches and techniques. She has also dabbled in the textile arts, creating a metaphor for weaving; letters as stitches and text as if it were a textile. Her works, vibrating with a love for nature and exploding with life and color, can be found in calligraphy collections in museums, universities, and libraries in the U.S., Europe, and South America. Marina has received numerous national and international awards, and has been featured widely in calligraphic arts publications. A prolific artist, experimental calligrapher, book artist, and educator, her goal is to mingle diverse disciplines to challenge the limits of conceptual art and technique. Fine. (#36075)

Price: $5,500

Four Dancing Girls (Created from Type & Ornaments)
Letterpress Printed, Limited to 50 Copies

[Starshaped Press]
Farrell, Jennifer.
Dance Party with the Girls of the Starshaped Press.
Chicago: Starshaped Press, 2017.

Number 20 of 50 copies, signed and numbered by artist. "The term 'girl' has a host of negative connotations; it sounds condescending to any woman who's done her share of living in the adult world. The subcultures represented here owned it, building their personas on style, music and most importantly, their attitude and approach to creating a self-defined culture. The girls of the Starshaped Press are letterpress printed with modular metal type and rule, proving even squares are hip" (title page). Includes four "girls" with accompanying lyrics: Rude Girl, Mod Girl, Good Girl, and B-Girl.

Bound in black paper wrappers with circular cut out revealing title on first page (appropriately resembling a record cover). Includes prospectus, which has photographic images of the metal type used to create two of the four girls. Printed on black and metallic silver Mohawk Paper. A creative and beautifully printed book. [8 pages] Fine. (#33354)

Price: $150

Relationships
Limited to 15 Copies

[Susan Lowdermilk]
Hathaway, Jeanine, poet; Susan Lowdermilk, book artist.
XO, On what might have been our anniversary.
Eugene, OR: Susan Lowdermilk, 2007.

Number 7 of 15 copies. Signed and numbered by the book artist.  The artist met the poet Jeanine Hathaway several years ago at a show of her prints in Eugene and they became friends. ""Jeanine was inspired by my woodcut diptych titled, “Remembering, Forgetting,” and wrote the poem, “XO, On what might have been our anniversary.” I created my artist’s book, inspired by her poem, printed with the woodblocks from “Remembering, Forgetting,” thus continuing our circle of creativity and inspiration." Bound accordion-style with red paper covered boards. The text is laser printed with Futura Book and Bernhard Modern Italic type on organdy fabric that overlays the woodblock designs printed on Zerkall Frankfurt paper. In a paper chemise with woodblock design. In fine condition. 6.5 x 4.5 x .75 inches. 

Susan Lowdermilk is a book artist and printmaker working in traditional processes such as woodcut, wood engraving and intaglio etching as well as digital media. Her artist’s books involve movable parts, pop-ups and LED circuitry. She is a professor at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, teaching courses in printmaking, artist books and graphic design. Her work has been collected by over 60 public institutions including, the Getty Museum, the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library. Her artist’s books are represented in galleries throughout the United States. She earned her Master’s of Fine Art from the University of Oregon. Her artist's statement: "Our experience of reading books is increasingly changing from being physical and tactile to digital and virtual. My artist books are hand printed and hand constructed and feature low-tech movable elements that are meant to be technologically transparent. I view my artist books as a counterpart to the flood of mass-produced, digital imagery that we contend with constantly. I am interested in the dualities that complicate our human condition—chance versus strategy, faith versus reason, serendipity versus design, peace versus war, winning versus losing and our relationship to and separation from nature."(#32397)

Price: $400

Fossils and Star Explosions
Limited to 5 Copies

Tyler, Ann.
Bloodstone Bloodstar.
Ann Tyler, 2021.

1 of 5 copies. Signed and numbered by Ann Tyler, the book artist. Anne says of this new book: "Bloodstone Bloodstar is an accordion fold book with hand punched, layered forms embedded in corrugated cardboard ‘pages.’  The corrugated edges reference geologic strata. The abstract forms I created reference fossils and star explosions (nebulae). Material connects time and space — the micro of life forms and the macro of universe. The images on the surface of the papers was created by scanning and greatly enlarging the surface of stones collected in the southwest." The result is an imaginative and beautifully produced work. The interior ‘pages’ are comprised of 4 layers of corrugated cardboard. The cover and back ‘pages’ are comprised of 3 layers of corrugated cardboard. There are nine fossil/nebula forms that are embedded in the cardboard pages. Each form is 10-15 layers of Canson Infinity, ink jet prints, and hand punched with a 1/8” punch. Their edges are painted with calligraphic ink. On the cover is a layered form of hand punched black Canford paper (each book has a different cover form mirroring one of the interior forms). The back cover is rubber stamped with the title Bloodstone Bloodstar. In fine condition. The book measures 7 ¼ inches wide x 7 3/8 inches tall x 4 inches deep. There are 12 'pages.'

Ann is a noted book artist and print maker whose works have been exhibited at many galleries across the United States. Her artist’s books are in several permanent collections including the Tate Gallery, London, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. (#35242)

Price: $500

Trauma of the Holocaust
Letterpress Printed, Limited to 36 Copies

[Wiesedruck]
Horowitz, Sarah, etching and design; Dan Pagis, poem; Carl Adamshick, translator.
Footprints.
Peshastin, Washington: Wiesedruck, 2016.

Number 26 of 36 copies. Signed and numbered by the artist. In this book of poignant poetry, "the narrator struggles with existence, voice, and memory after the trauma of genocide. Souls and words cannot burn but they can be forgotten in the smoke, fog and hail of the Holocaust" (artist statement). Horowitz was inspired to create this book by her friend and poet Carl Adamshick’s translation of the original by the late Israeli poet Dan Pagis, which was published in his book 'Transformations.' Permission to use the original text came from the estate of the author and from ACUM in Israel. Horowitz's stark etchings of thousands of tiny tick marks and swirling lines, seemingly representative of thousands of lost souls, effectively create a melancholy atmosphere for this poignant poem.

An excerpt from the English translation of Pagis's poem: "From the sky to the sky of skies, from the sky of skies to fog. Yannai Despite myself I continue in this cloud: hurried, gray, trying to forget. In the distance the distance is retreating. The knocking teeth of hail: seeds, refugees shoved quickly into their deaths. ..."

Bound in white textured paper wrappers with exposed sewing on spine and grey title to front cover. The text was printed in Arno and Harel types on Zerkall paper by Art Larson of Horton Tank Graphics. Thirteen etchings were drawn, etched, and printed in graphite ink by Sarah Horowitz. A translucent sheet of abaca paper covers the book. Housed in a grey cloth covered box with paper title label to spine. Binding and box are by Julia Weese-Young. In Hebrew and English. Size: 12.5 x 9.5 inches. Fine.

Sarah Horowitz has been awarded multiple grants and has held residencies at several arts centers including ArtBellwald in Switzerland. She taught printmaking at Portland State University for over ten years and was a member of Atelier Mars printmaking workshop during her time in Portland. Her press is named for the Wiese stream that runs through her grandparents backyard near Basel, Switzerland. Much of her work is printed on a Charles Brand Press once owned by Leonard Baskin. Her work is held in private and institutional collections across the U.S. (#36230)

Price: $2,800 

Immigration Issues / Familial Relationships / Text in Russian and English
Stone lithography, Limited to 12 Copies

[Windhorse Press]
Shukhin, Tatiana.
Murmurs.
DC: Windhorse Press, 2011.

Number 7 of 12 copies. Signed by the artist. Text is in Russian and English. This book is based on recollections from the artist's childhood about her relationship with her grandmother. After years of knowing her, she is perplexed to learn that she speaks another language, has not always lived in Russia, and has a very different personal history than once assumed. She works through this revelation and ultimately forms a deeper bond and understanding with her grandmother. The text is printed in English with Russian entwined as the narrator gradually embraces her grandmother's revelation.

The book is bound in red paper wrappers with black title and illustration printed on front cover. The binding is handsewn using red and grey threads. It is printed using stone lithography for the images and lithographic pronto-plates for the text. Printed at the Corcoran Print Shop on Canson Velin Arches paper. Housed in a red cloth covered clamshell box with inset illustration to front panel. Folio. Unpaginated. [16 pages.]

Born in Moscow, Tatiana has been interested in books and bookmaking since her childhood. She holds degrees from the Moscow University of Printing, the University of Maryland, and the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Her work is in collections nationwide and she has recently won an award for traditional illustration. She currently resides in Takoma Park, Maryland with her family. Fine. (#29131)

Price: $750

Memory vs. Reality | Maps vs. Territory | Perceptions
Limited to 12 Copies, Screenprinted

Zussman, Na'ama.
A Survey of a World.
Washington DC: Na'ama Zussman, 2015.

Number 7 of 12 copies. A beautifully conceived and produced book from Na'ama Zussman, a powerful new book artist from Israel. She describes her book: "A Survey of a World scrutinizes interactions between map and territory, along with memory and reality, whether of the surveyor herself - the creator of this artist's book - or of other people. It surveys and seeks to capture the doubt in the role of the surveyor, and the inevitable immersion in this role. "A Survey of a World" portrays the endeavour of grasping the moment ahead of the impression of the territory, when doubt turns into representation." Na'ama's exquisite images are interwoven with her evocative text as she ponders interactions, memory, and reality.

Bound in brown Cialux book cloth, with a goatskin leather spine. The images throughout the book were created through the screen printing process and are done on lovely Thai Kozo paper. The text is composed in Meta Capitals and Constantia. The book is housed in a surveyor's bag made out of grey cashmere, with a leather string. The colophon is in a pocket on the back of the bag. 7 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches. Unpaginated. Fine. (#28553)

Price: $1,500