101. Inangaro: a Polynesian folktale of love lost. [And:] Inangaro: the legend of the coconut. Columbus: Logan Elm Press, 1987.
$850
Edition limited to 70 copies, folio clamshell box designed by Greg Campbell and constructed at the Campbell-Logan Bindery, using Flax, Abaca, and Coir fiber paper made at the Logan Elm Press, and with an inset on the front of a coconut monkey head.
The box contains four different versions of this Polynesian folktale by four different designers/printers (Rod Johnson, Ruth Leonard, Richard Brunell and Robert Tauber); and illustrated by four different artists (Eric May, David Macaulay, Sidney Chafetz and Margret Prentice). Each volume is is signed by the printer and the illustrator, and the first is also signed by M. Charlotte Johnson. The volume size ranges from a small square16mo (6") to a small folio (12").
102. Cafe charivari charlatan chrom. Berkeley: Poltroon Press, 1975.
$50
Edition limited to 200 copies, oblong 12mo, pp. [36]; fine in original printed tan wrappers. Composition at the Arif Press. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
Artist's book of concrete poetry, with ruled headlines page numbers, and selected entry words from Heath's English-German Dictionary (1906), from "bunk" to "Joe Lewis." The text of the book, including the title page, are solely the rubrics and page numbers appearing at the head of selected pages of that dictionary (the page numbers appear between the rubrics; thus, the title actually reads: Cafe 230 Charivari. Charlatan 231 Chrom.)
103. Three poems ... with drypoints by Virginia Piersol. [Iowa City: privately printed at the Typographic Laboratory of the University of Iowa, n.d., [1966].
$600
First edition limited to 19 copies (this, no. 4), 8vo, pp. [16]; 4 drypoint etchings (3 full-page); original blue paper wrappers; fine. From the library of Kim Merker.
This copy inscribed, albeit faintly, "For Kim Merker" in an unknown hand.
Delaware and Buffalo only in OCLC.
104. A bonsai-shaped mind & postures of the heart. Engravings Richard Wagener. Petaluma: Mixolydian Editions & Nawakum Press, 2024.
$4,500
Edition limited to 82 copies, this one of the 20 special Engraver's Edition (this, copy no. V), signed by both the artist and the author in a full leather goatskin binding with pictorial onlay, 8 end-grain boxwood engravings by Wagener on Japanese gampi paper, with other illustrations in the text, and with an extra suite of 5 bonsai tree prints (9¾" x 10½") and one unique print which is not included in the book; contained in a folding box of red and black Japanese book cloth. Original 8-page [prospectus laid in.
The edition is a collaboration between Richard Wagener, award-winning master wood engraver and fine press publisher from Petaluma, California, David Pascoe of the award-winning Nawakum Press in Gig Harbor, Washington, and Marc Peter Keane, artist, Japanese garden designer and author of fiction and non-fiction from Kyoto, Japan.
The first section of the book consists of a series of five short essays on bonsai from the internationally known author and artist, Marc Peter Keane, living in Kyoto, Japan. These essays address bonsai culture, the awe-inspiring yet humble nature of the art form, and the foresight required to work within its realm. For the author bonsai is a living art; it is the art of shepherding; it is the art of inheritance ... In the second section of the book is an intricately crafted short story in nine parts ... The story takes place over a five-hundred-year period ... Three owners of the bonsai, and their circumstances while shepherding the tree, are portrayed.
105. [Kerksieck, Friedrich.] I, NE: iterations of the Junco. [Birmingham, Alabama]: Small Fires Press, 2008-09].
$75
Edition limited to 100 copies (this, no. 47); approx. 7" x 6½"; "designed & printed ... by Friedrich Kerksieck of Small Fires Press. The images & type faces (Caslon & Bickham Script) were reproduced with photopolymer on a Vandercook 4 at The University of Alabama. Text for the book was printed on reinterpreted Pendaflex Archival Quality 3 Tab File Folders. The images were printed on handmade cotton paper with unbleached abaca & banana added. The slipcase used Bristol Board, Brillianta Cloth & about 40 pounds of banana stalks cooked, rinsed & beat into a 5:1 mix of unbleached abaca & cotton. Both handmade papers were pulled by FK with help from H.H. Trimm in the Lost Arch Papermill.
Not found in OCLC.
106. The cat approaches ... Drawings by Brenda Kicknosway. Grindstone City: The Alternative Press, [1978].
$125
Edition limited to 600 copies paperbound, 150 bound in boards, and 26 lettered copies bound by hand, and signed and numbered by the artist and the writer, of which this is letter 'Y', signed by Kicknosway and Goodman. 8vo, pp. [44]; fine in original gray pictorial boards stamped in red and black.
107. Alphabetica concertina. [Minneapolis]: Circle Press, 1984.
$100
Second printing, edition limited to 1000 copies, 6½" x 4¼", accordion-fold, 26 double-page panels each revealing in pop-up form a letter of the alphabet; fine copy.
108. Women and cars. Rosendale, New York: Women's Studio Workshop; Santa Monica: Paradise Press, 1983.
$500
Edition limited to 500 copies, 8" x 5", accordion-fold and containing 21 leaves on 7 folds mixing images and text - a so-called 'flag book' as developed by the preeminent book artist Hedi Kyle in 1979; original pictorial cream paper-covered boards; fine copy. Printed letterpress and offset.
Made possible by a grant from Women's Studio Workshop, Rosendale, New York. When open this image is of King's "mother in front of my dad's first car. This book contains stories about women and their cars, from my mother, to aunts, to Gertrude Stein. After my move to L.A. I couldn't help thinking about these stories, and women's mobility ... Written after a decade of living in the car capital of the world, Women and Cars provides a new perspective on an old topic. Autobiographical narrative with photographic images" (the artist's website).
109. Lessons for our time. [Minneapolis: Minnesota Center for Book Arts, 2012].
$75
"Chapbook edition" limited to 300 copies (this, copy no. 173); there was also a "deluxe edition" of 26 copies in a binding by Jana Pullman; approx. 8½" x 5½", pp. [62]; illustrations by Anna Boyer; original mauve paper wrappers with blindstamped design; fine.
"Lessons for Our Time is a contemporary artist's book inspired by the medieval tradition of the Book of Hours. It becomes the twenty-second in MCBA's perennial series celebrating the handmade book. Produced in a unique collaboration with the vocal ensemble Cantus, the book includes texts by Elena Cisneros, Emily Dickinson, Saymoukda Vongsay, Walt Whitman, Louise Erdrich, James Baldwin, Tomas Tranströmer, Louis Jenkins, Joy Harjo, Thomas McGrath, Paul Gruchow and others, edited by Patricia Kirkpatrick." (MCBA).
110. Fine Print: a review for the arts of the book.. San Francisco: 1975-1990.
$950
A complete file of this influential journal, 64 issues in all. Folio, original pictorial wrappers, illustrated throughout; generally fine throughout. Volume I, no, 1 to volume XVI, no. 4 [all published]. Includes the last number, The Complete Index to Fine Print, 1975-1990, often missing.
111. Come and get it. A poem and three stories. [Minneapolis: Minnesota Center for Book Arts, 2011].
$75
Edition limited to 100 copies (this, copy no. 7); 8¾" x 7¼", pp. [32]; 6 wood-cut (?) illustrations; original linen-backed blue paper-covered boards, title in blind on upper cover; fine.
"Come and get it ... is the twenty-first in a series celebrating the handmade book" (colophon). Produced "under the direction of MCBA Executive Director Jeff Rathermel ... The Chapbook Edition (200 numbered copies) was bound by volunteers working under the direction of Erin Maurelli and Sara R. Parr. The Standard Edition (100 numbered copies, as here) was bound by Campbell-Logan Bindery Inc. The Deluxe Edition (26 lettered copies) was bound by master binder Jana Pullman. All illustrations included in the work are by Michael Sommers. Zerkall Nideggen, Johannot and Hahnemühle Bugra papers are used in all editions, with titles and text set in Filosophia. The Standard and Deluxe editions also include linen and rayon bookcloth as well as Zerkall Frankfurt, Rives BFK, French marble, and Fabriano Tiziano and Murano papers" (colophon).
7 in OCLC, all in Minnesota except Whitman College and University of Washington.
112. Typings (1974-1977). New York: Vehicle Editions, 1979.
$350
Edition limited to 1500 copies (this, one of 500 hardbound), square 4to, pp. [108]; illustrated throughout with various typescripts, some in color; spine a little sunned, but generally a fine copy in original pictorial red cloth stamped in silver. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
Christopher Knowles is an American poet and painter. In 1976, his poetry was used by Robert Wilson for the avant-garde minimalist Phillip Glass opera, Einstein on the Beach. This volume is divided into two chapters, the first being "Poems" containing material mostly used as lyrics for Einstein on the Beach. The second chapter is "Other Typings," consisting of concrete poetry printed in multiple colors.
113. Toothpaste 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7. Iowa City, Iowa: Toothpaste Press, 1971-72.
$225
6 volumes in all, including the variant cover on no. 6; 11" x 8½", printed from typescript on rectos only in nos. 3, 4, and 5; side-stapled original pictorial wrappers. Contributions by a host of writers, including Alice Notley, Maureen Owen, Ed Dorn, Pablo Neruda, Steve Toth, Tom Veitch, Andrei Codrescu, Ted Berrigan, Clark Coolidge, Curtis Faville, Tom Raworth, Paul Violi, Anselm Hollo, Dave Morice, Gerard Malanga, and many others. Cover art by Allan Kornblum, Colin Andre, Jim Fink, Dave Morice, and others. A very good to fine set, lacking nos. 1 and 2.
114. Sketchbook. [Lincoln, Nebraska: Blue Heron Press, August, 1990].
$500
Edition limited to 18 copies (this, no. 13), signed by the artist; 5" x 7", pp. [22] including covers; stitching becoming a little loose, else fine. Laid in is a 10-line note about the photoengravings, the paper, watermarks, and her woodblock prints.
"Watermarking handmade paper; superimposed overlays of woodblock printing; actual-scale drawings from letterpress engravings; hand embellishments and binding; pages of new history from old prints - a stream of order - entangled, surprising, incongruous - a source book" (colophon).
From Kunc's Wikipedia page: Karen Kunc is a printmaker and book artist whose artwork utilizes, augments, and distorts symbols of nature. She attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and received her BFA in 1975.Her work examines the colors, shapes, and forms of both the natural and artificial landscapes present within our society. She is the Cather Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
Six in OCLC: LC, National Gallery, Nebraska, Ohio, Swarthmore, and Utah.
115. Selected fruits & nuts. New York: Birth Press, [1959].
$45
First edition, 8vo, pp. [48]; original pictorial wrappers, slightly soiled. Drawings by Kupferberg throughout, with captions, often wry and profane. Although not stated, this is from the library of Israel "Izzy" Young, former owner of the Folklore Center in Greenwich Village, New York.
116. Everything speaks in its own way. Iowa City: Naughty Dog Press, 2000.
$250
Edition limited to 20 copies (this, no. 19), 5½" x 3½", 8 leaves (including covers) on stiff card. "The pages of this book are blotters whose day has finally arrived, printed from polymer and linoleum on a Vandercook 2.1.9, and assembled in a drum leaf binding ... The benevolent watertower can be found at the intersection of Ford and Snelling in Saint Paul, MN."
Walker Art Center and Utah only in OCLC.
117. Wandering stars. [Iowa City, Iowa: Sara Langworthy, 2019].
$150
Edition limited to 33 copies (this, no. 26), approx. 7" x 4½"; text is letterpress printed; images printed from multiple layers of collagraph blocks and pressure print templates; the paper is Okawara Handmade; size and shape of papers varies; handsewn into black paper cover with printed label. This book is made from remnants of the artist's work, Sidereal, also printed in 2019 and for which Langworthy won the 2020 MCBA Prize. Wandering Stars sold out immediately at CODEX and never even made it to Langworthy's website. A prospectus for Sidereal is laid in.
Three in OCLC: Reno, RISD, and LC, to which we add Iowa.
118. Without question [case title]. Iowa City, Iowa: 2001.
$175
Edition limited to 75 signed copies (this, no.15), approx. 6" x 4¼", accordion-fold extending to approx. 38" and contained in a tri-fold gray cloth case with inset illustration on the front; colophon is pasted inside the case. "The paper that endured repeated printing, rubbing, Sumi ink baths, scratching, and washing, is Domestic Etch. Printed from polymer ... at the Type Kitchen in Iowa City. Monoprint and Sumi ink techniques were also employed. During the long, warm, sad fall of 2001, 75 books were made by Sara Langworthy" (colophon).
OCLC locates 3 institutions with holdings: U Cal-Irvine, Iowa, and Colorado College.
119. Lukewarm. Minneapolis: Kaila Larson, 2017.
$150
Edition limited to 5 copies (this, no. 1), pp. [24]; 5½" x 4¼", illustrated throughout by Larson in blue and black; original blue handmade paper over boards, illustrated label on upper cover; fine.
Lamenting the loss of a dog and the comfort of a hot (not lukewarm) bath. Larson was the winner of the Hearst Senior Illustration Merit Scholarship at Minnesota College of Art & Design in 2021. Sweet book.
120. The office politics alphabet. A story in 26 parts. [Pendleton, Or.]: Mission Creek Press, 2004.
$150
Second edition limited to 36 copies (this, no. 7), laser-printed with variable cover material and designs; oblong 16mo, 3½" x 5", 28 leaves printed on rectos only, consisting of a title leaf, a colophon leaf, and a leaf for each letter of the alphabet; front cover tab labeled "2nd Edition" in manual typewriter font; back cover tab labeled "ABC" in same font. Front cover collaged with ledger paper cut-out printed with title in red: "office politics alphabet". Below title is paper and plastic in/out indicator with red slider. Text leaves are commercially-printed place-holding "out cards". Cover and leaves cut to size with rounded corners. Back cover illustrated with rubber-stamped adding machine image in red ink. Black comb binding. Fine.
Denver and University of Washington only in OCLC, with no notice of an earlier edition.
121. The jumblies. [Canton, N.Y.: Caliban Press, 2007].
$125
Edition limited to 200 copies (this, no. 54) printed by Mark McMurray and signed by him; 5¼" x 4½", accordion-fold, 8 panels extending to 36", 1 hand-colored volvelle tipped in; fine in original red printed wrappers. Contained in a printed blue hand-made paper envelope.
122. Weather report. [Minneapolis: Minneapolis College of Art & Design, 2010].
$100
Edition limited to 30 copies (this, no. 3), signed by the artist; 3" x 4½", 10 leaves bound accordion-style, extending to 52"; illustrated by Leikvold throughout; original handmade green paper-covered boards, printed label, on upper cover; fine.
"This report was compiled in 2010 and was printed on an Epson 4800. The font is STSong. Some of the images are modified from the font Sun n Moon" (colophon).
"Mary Leikvold practices printmaking, book arts, and painting in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. She teaches printmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Leikvold is active in the printmaking community where she has been involved in organizing, jurying and curating exhibitions. Leikvold has worked with community groups facilitating workshops and retreats on the topics or art and writing. Her first passion is printmaking; her second is teaching it. Her work has been shown locally and nationally and is in several private collections" (MCAD).
Not found in OCLC.
123. Calisthenics of the heart [cover title]. [New York]: Vehicle Editions, 1976].
$250
Edition limited to 24 copies (per OCLC - this copy designated "commercial 12"); square 16mo (5¼" x 5¼"); printing, binding, and marbling by the author; lightly rubbed, else fine. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
Apparently, this is Levitt's and Vehicle Editions' first book. From the Vehicle Editions website: "Vehicle Editions was founded in 1976 by Annabel Levitt. Annabel Lee (she married the Lee in 1988) brings diverse experience to her role as publisher. A printer (letterpress and offset), hand bookbinder, teacher of book crafts, bookkeeper, phototypesetter, monotype typesetter, hand typesetter and writer, Annabel has worked for many other publishers (including responsibilities as Managing Editor and as Production Manager) and she has worked extensively with art book publishers on behalf of European printers." She was also formerly Secretary/Treasurer on the Board of Center for Book Arts, New York.
Arizona only in OCLC.
124. The final results of psychoanalytic treatment. Hornell, NY: [self-published], [1991].
$100
12mo, pp. 124, [4] ads; fine copy in original decorative wrappers.
Artist's book comprising altered texts on the theme of psychoanalysis. The artist collages passages of text from various sources onto each page. Variety of languages are utilized. "This project was funded by the New York State Council on the Arts. Special thanks to the Pyramid Arts Center."
125. Artists' books: a critical anthology and sourcebook. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith Publishers, 1985.
$45
First edition, 8vo, pp. 269, [1]; monochrome photographic text illustrations; fine in original brown faux-leather, in fine pictorial dust jacket. Essays by Richard Kostelanetz, Lucy Lippard, Clive Phillpot, et al.
126. Life with atropos. Poems: Sam Magavern. Prints: Monica Angle. [Minneapolis]: 82 St. Books [Out of Hand Press / Minneapolis College of Art & Design, 1995].
$350
Edition limited to 20 copies (this, no. 18) signed by Monica Angle, 7¼" x 5¾", pp. [6], 9-29, [1]; 9 monoprints by Angle "reworked in Adobe Photoshop, and printed from photolithography plates," pictorial gray hand-made paper over boards; fine. Printed and bound by Angle.
"Monica Angle is a painter, printmaker, bookmaker, and collage artist living and working in Buffalo, New York with her husband Sam Magavern and her two daughters. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and attended Harvard College, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1984. She majored in folklore and mythology while also studying painting. Angle completed a master's degree in geography from Pennsylvania State University in 1987, and her continued interest in art led Monica to pursue advanced courses in printmaking and bookmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1994."
Not found in OCLC.
127. A checklist of the first sixty books published by Russell Maret. [New York]: Russell Maret, [2022]..
$75
Edition limited to 125 copies, large 8vo (approx. 11¼" x 7¾"), pp. [12]; handset in Univers, Orlando, and Thorne Shaded types, printed on handmade Khadi paper and sewn into vintage Barcham Green wrappers; the cover features the disemvoweled* title printed from wood type and a spray-painted LX monogram. Publisher's printed announcement and note laid in. As new, at the published price.
"Erratum: 'Sixty' on the title page should read 'sixty-two.'"
128. A pattern book of Cadiz ornaments. [New York: 2021].
$500
Edition limited to "roughly 90 copies" signed by Maret; oblong 8vo (approx. 6¼" x 9¼"), 5 leaves interspersed with 14 smaller slips (some overlapping) bearing a title, a colophon and a plethora of decorative ornaments, printed from two pieces of ornament only, and designed by Russell Maret and printed by him and Sarah Moody during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ornaments engraved and cast by Ed Rayher at Swamp Press. Printed in red, maroon, orange, green, silver, blue, brown, yellow, and pink. Enclosed in a plexiglass slipcase. Out of print as of 11/29/21.
Includes a brief appendix of patterns printed on paper handmade at the Whatman Mill in 1950. "After drying the prints it became apparent that the translucency of the paper was interfering with the visual integrity of the patterns. Rather than discard the sheets, they are included here, at a small remove from the rest of the book, to provide what joy they may."
129. [Maret, Russell.] Colored objects. Translated by Charles Lock Eastlake. Interpreted by Russell Maret in multichromatic letterpress, set in his new 'Rapid' type, and printed by him and Sarah Moody on a variety of papers, during the fourth Covid winter. [New York]: 2022-2023.
$2,250
Edition limited to 75 copies (this, no. 66), oblong 8vo, 18 leaves, printed on Rives BFK and a variety of other papers, with a number of laser-cut parts (some of them moveable), and 2 pairs of paper glasses with tinted lenses; designed by Rusell Maret and printed and bound by him and Sarah Moody in blue cloth-covered boards, and house in an acrylic slipcase. Prospectus laid in. Sold out on publication and now out of print.
From Maret's website: "In his 'Introduction' to the 1970 edition of Goethe's Theory of Colors, Deane B. Judd humorously stated that In view of the fact that Goethe's explanation of color makes no physical sense at all, one might wonder why it is considered appropriate to reissue this English translation." The same might be asked of my current printing of 'Colored Objects,' a chapter from Goethe's larger Theory. The answer to both conundra is the same. Even if Goethe's scientific conclusions lacked substantive merit, the chromatic phenomena he describes in Theory of Colors are observably true. Goethe was able to accurately describe the way in which color is experienced and the ways in which colors interact with and elicit one another. It was only the scientific explanation as to why these phenomena occur that he could not quite knit together. Goethe's continued relevance as a color theorist, then, is for artistic and poetic, rather than scientific, pursuits. It is not likely that Goethe would have appreciated this assessment. As he wrote to J. P. Eckermann in 1827, 'I never observed the natural world for poetic reasons.' Whether this assertion was an example of bombast or a failing of self-knowledge is irrelevant. We can all benefit from Goethe's poetic approach to science.
"When considering how to illustrate Colored Objects, it seemed dubious to use diagrammatic or scientific imagery. Rather than illustrating the disproven science, why not make a book in which the phenomena Goethe describes are able to be experienced by readers as they page through the book? In order for this to work, though, the pace of the reading needed to be slowed down, as each experiment requires time to produce the desired results. This is an important point that Goethe never fully clarifies: for a red disk to elicit a green one, as in the first experiment, the red disk must be viewed in focus for at least twenty seconds before turning the page. Then, after a few seconds, a green disk will appear in its place on the white page. To help slow the reading down, the text is set in my Rapid Stencil typeface, an alphabet of capital letters that conveys a sense of Goethe's declarative style and marries well with the highly graphic illustrations, while taking slightly longer to read than a traditional upper- and lowercase typeface. In this slowing down of the text the reader is further able to appreciate the beauty of Goethe's scientific 'method.'"
130. Hungry bibliophiles. An experiment in utilitarian bookmaking. [New York]: Russell Maret, 2015 [i.e.2017].
$50
Facsimile edition limited to 250 copies of the original edition of 75 copies; small folio, pp. [6], 7-55, [5]; paper sample of the original on which the edition of 75 was printed laid in; original decorative wrappers; fine.
Designed by Maret and printed by him in two new typefaces of his design. The text consists of numerous recipes by the so-called "hungry bibliophiles," among whom many friends and acquaintances, including Maret, Barrett, and Fredericks; also the DeSimones, Gaylord, Esslemont, Liv and Ken, Ian and Suzanne, Susan and Peter, and many others. In this facsimile edition the participants have colored, annotated, drawn, smudged, spilled, and otherwise abused theirs and others' recipes - a must-have companion to the original, and a for all its additions and augmentations a stand-alone publication in its own right with many unusual artistic embellishments.
131. Hungry bibliophiles. An experiment in utilitarian bookmaking. [New York]: Russell Maret, 2015.
$3,500
Edition limited to 75 copies (this being no. 49) signed by Maret; small folio, pp. [2], 7-55, [5]; tipped-in leaf on unsized paper at the back; original decorative paper wrappers; fine.
Designed by Maret and printed by him in two new typefaces of his design. The paper was made by Tim Barrett and student co-workers at the University of Iowa. The book was printed on unsized paper, which was then sized by Barrett, Maret, and the students. The binding structure was designed by Maria Fredericks.
The text consists of numerous recipes by the so-called "hungry bibliophiles," among whom many friends and acquaintances, including Maret, Barrett, and Fredericks; also the DeSimones, Gaylord, Esslemont, Liv and Ken, Ian and Suzanne, Susan and Peter, and many others.
132. [Maret, Russell.] Dispatches from the lizard brain. A descriptive bibliography of the Ninja Press ... Foreword by Harry Reese. Afterword by Russell Maret. Photography by Annie Schlecter. New York: Russell Maret, 2022.
$4,200
Edition limited to 102 copies, this, no. 34 and one of 77 with numerous tip-ins of original material; folio, pp. [6], 11-129, [3]; tipped-in frontispiece portrait, title page in brown, gilt, and black; 20 illustrations and tip-ins (7 folding), 38 color photographic illustrations in one 4-leaf gathering; 61 color photographic illustrations in one 2-leaf gathering; illustrations in the text; signed by all 7 "authors and craftspeople involved in making the book." Original green goat-backed pastepaper boards, lettered in gilt on spine, by Amy Borezo. Laid in, as issued, is "An Argument for Lying Fallow / The Habit of Risk," two essays by Carolee Campbell, narrow folio, pp. 8, original printed wrappers. The whole in a copper Japanese cloth chemise, printed paper label on spine.
A detailed bibliography of the works produced by Carolee Campbell at the Ninja Press, including books, broadsides, commissions and collaborations, ephemera, as well as writing, reviews, and criticism. The annotations include commentary by Campbell on the making of each book or broadside; a section on the Ninja Press type collection; and, a comprehensive index.
133. Three Constitutions. [New York: Russell Maret, 2021].
$5,250
"Over the past five years, the content of my printing has steadily changed. Despite my past aversion to overtly political artists' books, the social and political upheavals that have riven this country into splinters have slowly seeped into my work. The outrage that has been building inside of me for decades has attained a level of urgency that I can no longer ignore - from the criminal policies of Bush's war on terror, to Obama's enthusiastic embrace of drone assassinations, to the Republican Party's use of Congress for minority rule..."
Edition limited to 90 copies numbered 1-87 and 3 unnumbered proofs; 3 volumes (1 folio, 2 octavos) in a gray cloth clamshell box.
"The book was inspired by the increasingly contentious conflict between 'originalists,' those who view the Constitution as a prescriptive cultural artifact delineating American 'civilization,' and those who view the Constitution as a flexible instrument conceived to adapt to the evolving political, social, and racial realities of American 'nationhood'."
1) Folio: The full text of the Constitution and its 27 Amendments, "set in a typeface that, though difficult to read, is legible once one becomes accustomed to its forms ... It is housed in a vitrine as if it were an immutable relic, rather than a living adaptable document."
Designed by Russell Maret and printed by him and Sarah Moody between November 2020 and February 2021. All of the typefaces were designed by Russell Maret. The papers are Zerkall Book and Twinrocker Homemade. Amy Borezo designed and executed the binding at Shelter Bookworks.
2) Octavo 1: Constitution United States. The full text of the Constitution arrived at "by feeding the Constitution and its amendments through Google Translate ... first translated from English into Esperanto, then from Esperanto into Russian, Russian into Chinese, and Chinese back into English. Esperanto was chosen to represent the Utopian ideals of America's founders; Russian and Chinese to reference two of the primary disseminators of the internet-borne disinformation which has taken such firm root among Trump loyalists ... This process mimics the subtle but meaningful content-skewing that proliferates on the Internet and is subsequently echoed on certain more traditional media platforms."
"These things, and so many more, have gradually changed my understanding of what I want to make and why I want to make it."
3) Octavo 2: Constitution. This volume is set in metal type and subsequently redacted by physically turning key words and phrases over and printing the underside of the type. The resulting text is not the hopeful re-write I would conceive; it is intended to reflect the cynical, ineffectual state of political discourse in the United States."
"Three Constitutions is my response to these events and the culture that bred them."
134. Crime and romance. A book in parts. Iowa City, Iowa: Naughty Dog Press, 2000.
$75
"Open edition," (but out-of-print), signed on the colophon by Emily Martin; oblong 8vo, bound calendar style on white card stock; black comb binding, the text photocopied black and white with pages divided in thirds for multiple viewing possibilities and multiple images. The artist refers to this as a "slice book."
135. How can I love you? A romance in pieces. Iowa City: Naughty Dog Press, 2000.
$40
"Open edition," 4½" x 5½", title page plus 10 trifurcated leaves, a color photocopied slice book of images from the It Isn’t Always Funny series, with pages divided in thirds for multiple viewing possibilities. Card stock with a green plastic comb binding; fine.
136. Juror #13. [Iowa City: Emily Martin and the Naughty Dog Press, 2001].
$50
Edition limited to 150 copies (this, no. 12) signed by Emily Martin, 4½" x 6", pp. [12]; green wrappers with printed mauve dust jacket; fine.
"Archival inkjet printed on Cresent and Canson papers." The text reads from back to front, and front to back and draws two different conclusions about the law and its interpretation.
137. The anxiety alphabet. Iowa City: Naughty Dog Press, 1998.
$325
Standard edition limited to 25 numbered copies (this, no. 14) signed by Martin; oblong 12mo (approx. 4" x 7"), pp. [20]; fine in original blue printed paper-covered boards; fine. "A Coptic bound alphabet book with text relating to anxiety and its resolution." Sewing needles and dressmakers' pins are attached to the covers by piercing in and out of the paper. There was also a deluxe edition of ten copies.
138. A memory of 33. N.p.: Steven McCarthy, 1992.
$200
Edition limited to 100 copies (this, no. 29) signed by McCarthy; 11" x 8½", 5 leaves, spiral bound in tabular format, illustrations from photographs; text is collaged with additional words and imagery in blue, tan, red, and black ink. Blue paper cover, semi-transparent paper flyleaf, cream-colored paper contents.
"Stream of autobiographical narrative, includes pacing device which alludes to divisions of time in our lives. Layered photographic imagery is evocative of memory, both complex and transparent" (printedmatter.org/catalog/6278/). "The following passage was written within a thirty-three minutes and thirty-three seconds timeframe, with every minute noted by a carriage return and every thirty-three seconds punctuated by the numerals 33" (colophon).
9 copies in OCLC: MOMA, Michigan, Stanford, Minnesota, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Washington, Walker ArtCenter, and Newark Public Library.
139. Night breezes and the next tomorrow. [Madison: Peridot Press, 1984].
$250
First edition limited to 75 copies; 8vo, accordion-fold, extending 38"; pp. [12]; original printed blue wrappers and pictorial dust jacket by Julio Granda; spine lightly sunned, else a fine copy. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
"The book was printed on a single length of Japanese paper. I did not want to have to cut the Japanese paper to print it, but the Vandercook SP15 Proof Press's bed would not accommodate a single lengthwise sheet. To solve this dilemma I prefolded the paper into the French door accordion structure before printing on it. This proved to be a bit tricky in terms of registration and required several extra press runs to pull it off, but I was able to accomplish my goal. Also, I printed the illustrations in 4 subtly different shades of blue (as per the artist's instructions) in addition to the other ink colors. The original instructions I gave to the artist were that I wanted her illustration to work off my French door binding structure concept so that people could turn the pages in any order and still get a complete visual experience. Also, I wanted the book to work visually fully extended" (artist's statement per Vamp & Tramp Booksellers, 2017).
"[H]andset in Optima and printed on Japanese Kozo. The paper wrapper was made by the printer with assistance from Penny McElroy in adhering the glassy embellishments. Katherine Kuehn's shattered crystals and hearts shower down and around this small accordion book" (colophon). Letterpress printed dry. Illustrations printed from zinc plates in five colors. The sheet is sewn into the cover with silver thread.
140. Flora ... Drawings by Jack Beal. Being a recollection of four friends' excursion from Umbria through various French and Italian places with digressive reflections upon matters of gourmandise, botany, beloved works of art & amourous play.... Mt. Horeb, [Wisconsin]: Perishable Press, 1990.
$850
Edition limited to 125 copies (this, no. 111) signed by the author and illustrator; oblong folio, [6] blank leaves on variously colored paper, 24 leaves, [6] blank leaves on variously colored paper; binding by Kent Kasuboske, consisting of translucent vellum spine attached to flexible three-ply plywood boards, with exposed sewing structure; publisher's green cloth clamshell box stamped in blind; fine. From the Library of Kim Merker.
Printed by Walter Hamady. "Twenty-one original poems handset in Sabon Antiqua and twenty-three evocative line-drawings printed on/into handmade papers in several greens, browns, greys and maroon, black and blind in fifty-two pressruns."
141. Climb. Rosendale, N.Y.: Women's Studio Workshop, 1997.
$125
Edition limited to 100 signed and numbered copies (this, copy no. 2); single sheet approx. 33" x 6½ folded to 12" x 6½", with the poem "Climb" printed and illustrated in the form of a ladder covered with brambles; sheet printed on one side and folded horizontally in a portfolio 12" x 6½", the two flaps of the portfolio folding into the others, and held together by a metal bar. "Screenprinted with water-based inks on Strathmore 500 Bristol 2-ply vellum" (colophon). Prospectus laid in.
Text and imagery explore the conflict, challenge, and comfort embodied in this ancient and modern symbol.
142. Artist's Proof: brief history, type specimen and checklist of the Meadow Press. San Francisco: Meadow Press, 1990.
$850
Edition limited to 100 copies (this, no. 15) signed by McLellan; consisting of 24 broadsides contained in a folding portfolio tied with a cord-and-button fastener, and with a printed paper label on the front; fine copy, from the library of Kim Merker
Original prospectus and invoice to Kim Merker laid in, the latter with a note to Merker: "Kim, the press is sold, Meadow Press is done, and I am content. New horizons, ho! Hope all is well with you. Leigh."
This is the last Meadow Press publication. Contains a title page, introduction & disclaimer, a history of the Meadow Press, various type specimens, a Meadow Press checklist, colophon, and errata.
143. Walking to San Miniato. [Minneapolis: Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Spring, 2000].
$100
Edition limited to 8 copies (this, no. 2) signed by the artist; approx. 4¼" x 6¼", pp. 14; 7 photoengraved etchings; original gray handmade paper over boards, small etched image on upper cover; fine.
Not found in OCLC.
144. Duodecimoes from Moby Dick; or, The whale. Lexington: The King Library Press, The Miniature Book Society, 2010.
$125
Edition size not stated, 3" x 2¼", pp. [20]; frontispiece and 3 illustrations of whales; single signature sewn into a black paper wrapper with slot-and-tab closure. Partial title stamped in gilt on cover. Letterpress printed on handmade paper with deckle edges. Fine.
"Set in Caslon on photopolymer plates in duodecimo format and printed by hand at the King Library Press on paper made by Thomas Balbo at the Morgan Conservatory and bound using a design by James Reid-Cunningham. This book was produced in conjunction with a workshop for members of the Miniature Book Society held at the King Library Press during the MBS Grand Conclave, 3-5 September 2010, Lexington, Kentucky"--Colophon.
145. Things don't matter as much as they seem to when they're happening. [Minneapolis: Minneapolis College of Arts & Design, 1998].
$125
Edition limited to 13 copies (this, no. 2); 4" x 2½", 22 leaves bound concertina-style and printed on hand-made Japanese paper;
A single line of text spanning 24 pages (including endpapers), "written, printed and designed by Adam Michaels 12-98." In a recent email Michael writes: "I made that book as a student project in Jody’s Artists’ Books class — likely was my first letterpress project, printed in a very small edition."
"Adam Michaels is Principal of IN-FO.CO, Publisher of Inventory Press, and was Founding Principal of Project Projects (2004–2017). As a designer, editor, and publisher, his work spans and synthesizes form and content. Project Projects received the 2015 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Communication Design. Inventory Press publishes books on topics in art, architecture, design, and music, with an emphasis on subcultures, minor histories, and the sociopolitical aspects of material culture" (linkedin). He currently lives in LA.
Not found in OCLC.
146. Into the night life. [Berkeley: Henry Miller and Bezalel Schatz, 1947].
$1,750
Edition limited to 800 copies, this copy no. 74 signed by Miller and Schatz (but Shifreen & Jackson suggest that the first issue was in fact less than 200 -- see below); 4to, pp. [86]; illustrated throughout in color and the text reproducing Miller's original manuscript; original blue silk-screened cloth lightly rubbed at spine ends, lettered in black on spine, and with a red felt patch glued to front board, as issued; publisher's matching blue cloth slipcase (with a few dings and rub marks); a very good copy, or better.
"This book is entirely a serigraph or silk screen production ... Sixteen months were required to bring it forth. With the exception of the text, which is originally from Henry Miller's Black Spring ... this book is the creation of Bezalel Schatz, a Palestinian artist..."
Shifreen & Jackson, A60a: "The copyright page notes that this edition was limited to 800 copies, however, this is in error. 800 sets of the sheets were printed in 1947 along with the silk screen blue cloth used for the binding. Somewhat less than 200 copies were bound, enclosed in slipcases and put on sale in April 1947, and with the remaining sheets stored in Miller's closet. In 1971 and 1977, additional binding of the first edition sheets would occur (see Shifreen & Jackson A60b and A60c). Numbered copies, with all of the First Edition points are known to exist at least through copy no. 164 ... Approximately 400 of the original 600 sets stored in Miller's closet were destroyed by 'worms' [also described by Miller as 'rats and fungus']."
147. My life in book art. New York: George Braziller, Inc, 2011.
$175
First edition, this one of 150 copies specially bound and signed (this, no. 73) with limitation label on rear pastedown, small 4to, pp. 134; color illustrations throughout; decorated and gilt blue cloth boards, fine in blue cloth slipcase.
This copy additionally inscribed with presentation inscriptions from Minsky and Betty Bright, who wrote the introduction, to the binder Gregor Campbell.
148. Rebel. [Minneapolis: Minnesota Center for Book Arts / Minneapolis College of Art & Design, 2012].
$50
Edition limited to 120 copies (this, no. 2), signed by the artist; approx. 5½" x 4¼", pp. [14]; double leaves; 5 illustrations; original printed black wrappers; near fine.
Not in OCLC.
149. Jnd-song of the golden gradrti and other fables of fhra. Poems by Dave Morice. Iowa City: The Happy Press, 1977.
$125
Side-stapled chapbook approx. 8¼" x 5½", pp. [20]; printed from typescript on rectos only; original pictorial wrappers by Morice; fine. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
Dedicated to his alter-ego Joyce Holland. This is Morice's fifth book of poetry.
Six in OCLC: Brown, Yale, Iowa, Temple, Penn., and NY Public.
150. The cutist anthology. Iowa City: The Happy Press, 1979.
$150
Side-stapled chapbook approx. 8¼" x 5½", pp. [46]; printed from typescript; 6 full-page illustrations by Roberta Periwinkleshoe; original pictorial wrappers; fine. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
In 1979, Morice created a school of poetry called Cutism. "His Cutist Anthology includes poems by Sally Lunchkins, Tommy Triped, and others, 'Have a nice day' artwork by Roberta Periwinkleshoe, and the requisite defensive polemic by Samuel F. Romular. Morice's send-ups attest to his connection to a school of poetry that began in Iowa City… called Actualism" (Jeff Weinstein, "Poetry in Motion," in The Village Voice, XXVI, 31, 1981).
Poetry by Sally Lunchkins, Samuel F. Romular, Susan Tummy, Tommy Triped, Roberta Periwinkleshoe, and Melvin Virility Anderson. Essay by Samuel F. Romular - all likely pseudonyms of Dave Morice.
Six in OCLC: Brown, Yale, Iowa, Temple, Penn., and NY Public.
151. Big expansive bobbing quiet. [Minneapolis: Minneapolis College of Art & Design, 1992].
$75
Edition limited to 22 copies signed by the artist (this, no. 3); 3½" x 2¾", accordion-fold, 6 panels extending to 20½" showing a single image of sunflowers; fine in unadorned marbled paper over boards; fine.
Maia Namtvedt Le Doux came to WSW from Minneapolis, MN to work as a studio intern. She earned her BFA from Minnesota College of Art and Design, where she studied a range of printmaking techniques, worked in library archives, and ran a small papermaking studio. She currently lives and works in Seattle, WA" (Women's Studio Workshop).
MCAD only in OCLC.
152. I have a concern. [Rosendale, New York: Women's Studio Workshop, 1993].
$100
Edition size not noted, but clearly very small; approx. 6" x 5"; pp. [22] including wrappers; near fine.
Inscribed inside the front wrapper "To Jody - much love" and signed and dated inside the back wrapper by Namtvedt. Jody Williams was a long-time instructor in the book arts at Minneapolis College of Art & Design.
"This book was designed and printed (offset, photocopy, and silkscreen) by Maia Namtvedt on paper made by the artist and Arches Rives Lightweight, Spring 1993. Thanks to everyone at the Women's Studio Workshop for the assistance and studio use. Thanks also to Rebecca Alm, Lee Anne Tankenoff, and Mary Ann Namtvedt" (colophon).
Maia Namtvedt Le Doux came to WSW from Minneapolis, MN to work as a studio intern. She earned her BFA from Minnesota College of Art and Design, where she studied a range of printmaking techniques, worked in library archives, and ran a small papermaking studio. She currently lives and works in Seattle, WA" (Women's Studio Workshop).
MCAD only in OCLC.
153. Jacob's ladder. Oakland: Rebis Press / Eucalyptus Press, 1977.
$325
Scroll, on 5 conjoined sheets, the whole measuring approx. 48" x 11½", edition limited to 150 copies on Honsho, designed by Betsy Davis and Jim Petrillo, hand-set in Spectrum and Libra at the Eucalyptus Press, Mills College, and printed by Betsy Davis on the Rebis Vandercook, with the help of members of the Bookmaking & Publishing class, Mills College; printed in black and green on Hosho paper within floral ladder border, and contained in the original tube with paper label also printed in green and black; generally fine.
From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
154. [Title and text in Japanese] = Water sky. Anana Breath, 2009.
$45
Edition limited to 100 copies (this, no. 76) signed and numbered by Nobuko, broadside poem printed in blue ink on glazed paper, approx. 6¼" x 8¼", folding down origami-style into a small decorative paper sleeve approx. 3" x 2 ", string-tied. Text in Japanese throughout.
Not found in OCLC.
155. Two way street. [Minneapolis]: Out of Hand Press [at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design], 1990.
$100
Edition limited to 120 copies, 10" x 7", consisting of 12 leaves of woodcuts, linocuts, intaglio, lithograph, screenprint, linotype, handset type, Chine-collé, monotypes on stonehenge paper (natural) with mostly Bookman type. Made by the printmaking class at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, marking the 5th anniversary of the Out of Hand Press (1985-1990), and under the tutelege of Jody Williams, lecturer, Shelley Thorstensen and Judy Stone Nunneley, assistant professors, and printmaking assistant, Barbara Gilhooly.
The participants included 21 other writers and artists: Gina Harris, Theodore Hirte, Veronica Daugherty, Monica Ochtrup, Beth Humphrey, Sternie Kissin-Rosen, Claudia Ramos, Rose Raucher, Virginia Plessel, Alessandra Pozzuolo, Ida Salper, Mary Schwarz, Louis Rosen, Sara B. Ryder, Michael Weber, Jodie Villeneuve, Florence Sher, Anthony White, Anissa Balassa, Damon Cuccia, and Ellen L. Coleman.
Not found in OCLC. There is a copy in the MCAD archives.
156. From a housewife's diary with eraser stamps by Jerome Kaplan. West Burke, VT: Janus Press, 1978.
$250
Edition limited to 250 copies (this, no. 188); 8vo, pp. [20]; stamp illustrations hand-colored "39 times by Victoria Fraser," original red-checked dishrag cloth over boards, printed paper label on spine. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
This copy inscribed on the colophon: "For Allan Kornblum with all good wishes Claire Van Vliet."
157. Here there. [Minneapolis: Minneapolis College of Art & Design, n.d., ca. 2007].
$45
Edition limited to 26 copies (this, no. 3), signed by the artist; 7" x 5", pp. [16]; illustrated by O'Bryan throughout; original printed cream wrappers, stapled; this copy closely trimmed in the fore-margin causing the loss of 2 letters; all else fine.
Karen O'Bryan of Karen O'Bryan Creative of Minneapolis, is a designer and illustrator specializing in product design and social media marketing.
158. The anti-Warhol museum: proposals for the socially responsible disposal of Warholia; an artist's book / by Bonnie O'Connell. Atlanta: Nexus Press, 1993.
$100
Multilevel accordion fold, approx. 6" square when collapsed, extends to over 4 feet when opened; illustrated, and with a separate leaf serving as a title page, with credits; an installation proposal conceived and designed by Bonnie O'Connell at the Penumbra Press, "dedicated to an alternative art censorship - suppress the emergence of art superstars and the Hollywoodization of art." In the original zip-loc bag.
159. [Olender-Papurt, Jeanette.] From the Revelations of Saint Birgitta of Sweden. Doom of the kings. Translation by Patrick O. Moore with illustrations by Jeanette Olender-Papurt. Toledo, Ohio: The Clarino Press, 1982.
$1,500
Edition limited to 40 copies (this being copy no. 1); folio, pp. [6], 26, [4]; printed in blue and black; 6 copperplate etchings by Olender-Papurt who has also designed and printed the book; text paper is Arches Cover with Barcham Greens Turner Grey as endsheets; typefaces are 16-point Centaur & Arrighi; printing of the text was done at the Logan Elm Press; original black cloth, green lettering on spine. Fine. From the library of Kim Merker.
"'Doom of the kings' is our title for this modern English version of a chapter (p. 63-87) of the fifteenth-century Middle English text published in The Revelations of Saint Birgitta, edited by William Patterson Cumming (London: Oxford University Press, 1929)" (Afterword). The work known as Revelationes Sanctae Birgittae was partly dictated by Birgitta, partly written by her in Swedish, to her confessors, who rendered her words into the Latin text from which the Middle English version, and all others, are derived.
160. A collection of objects. Montreal and New York: Tente, 2010.
$250
Edition limited to 100 copies (this, no. 72); square 12mo, approx. 6" x 6½", pp. [30]; 3 illustrations from photographs; fine in original white wrappers printed in black. From the library of Allan Kornblum, fine press printer, poet, and founder of the Coffee House Press.
Inscribed on the title page: "For A. K. - thank you, from A. O." A thank you for the Coffee House edition of A Toast in the House of Friends, most likely (see below).
The Poetry Foundation notes that Akilah Oliver "was born in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in Los Angeles, California. She was the author of two books of poetry: A Toast in the House of Friends [published by Coffee House Press in 2009] and the she said dialogues: flesh memory (1999), which received a PEN Beyond Margins award. Her chapbooks include A Collection of Objects (2010), a(A)ugust (2007), The Putterer’s Notebook (2006), and An Arriving Guard of Angels, Thusly Coming to Greet (2004). Oliver collaborated with a range of artists and musicians, such Tyler Burba, Anne Waldman, and Rasul Siddik; a notable performer, Oliver founded the feminist performance collective Sacred Naked Nature Girls in the 1990s. She was a member of the Belladonna* collaborative and a PhD candidate at the European Graduate School."
161. Mirror. [Minneapolis]: 2006.
$150
Edition limited to 35 signed and numbered copies (this, copy no.1), 16mo (5½" x 4¼"), 30 french-fold leaves; fore-edge a little curled, but on the whole, a fine copy.
"Includes excerpts and adaptations from Sylvia Plath's The Collected Poems, Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Each page is doubled and has the outline of a black rectangle, presumably the mirror, printed on the inner fold. The words, out of context, sometimes alone, sometimes with orphans from different works, appear on the white, translucent vellum along with words or phrases (printed sometimes on the surface, sometimes on the folded under sides) that show through from contiguous pages. It is like hearing, although in fact you are seeing, echoes or resonances. The effect is to present a multi-voiced, multi-layered meditation on the mirror, or is it mirrorness?" (From Vamp & Tramp website).
This copy inscribed by Parr to her teacher and mentor, the fellow book artist Jody Williams: "For Jody - Still my teacher, mentor and friend. Thank you so much for everything. Sara."
Denver only in OCLC.
162. [Poltroon Press.] A packet of ephemera. Berkeley: Poltroon Press, primarily 1970s and 80s.
$250
From folio size to business cards, including Poltroon catalogues, prospectuses, invitations, announcements, advertising material, etc., in broadside, broadsheet, bifoliate, and chapbook formats. Forty-one pieces in all, as collected by Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
163. Half off. Berkeley: Rebis Press, [1981].
$400
Edition limited to 115 copies, square 8vo, pp. [24]; printed in red, green, yellow, and blue; text and illustration by Mimi Pond, printed by Betsy Davids, the whole in a "half-shower-cap binding" consisting a limp transparent vinyl shower-curtain covers and a pink polka-dot shower-cap; generally fine. This is copy no. 65 signed by Pond and Davids. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
164. marking temporary. [Middletown, Conn.]: Robin Price, publisher, 2022 [i.e., 2024].
$1,500
Edition limited to 50 letterpress copies (this, no. 24) by Robin Price (with an addition 5 AP copies), in collaboration with Jolene Leuchten, press intern; accordion-fold in, folio, approx. 16" x 6", in a folding box by Lisa Hersey; absolutely fine. "Offered as a vessel for silence."
From the artist's website: "A quiet meditation on the momentary experience of time and its illusory nature, marking temporary offers a minimalist approach for contemplating states of being, and how they can expand and contract as we refocus our attention. The book invites a playful openness for the viewer to make meaning from the vast open spaces, large fields of color gradations, and sparse text ... In collaboration with Jolene Leuchten, marking temporary emerged from spontaneous exploratory practices together, often in long periods of silence, and is informed by Buddhism, kundalini yoga, and living in the shadow of environmental collapse." Offered at the published price.
165. [Price, Robin.] Kap's expoems 1968-1974. Los Angeles: Pippo Press, 1993.
$400
Edition limited to 100 copies, 8vo, pp. [38]; original printed wrappers; fine. Designed and printed by Robin Price.
166. [Public Art.] Streetfare journal. Volume V, VI, and VII, each in 6 numbers. San Francisco: 1988-1990.
$750
18 illustrated placards in all, each 11" x 28" on stiff card, including excerpted poetry from (volume V): Bob Kaufman, Cid Corman, Octavio Paz, Lucille Clifton, Genny Lim, and Charles Bukowski; illustrated by: Joe Sam, Sam Francis, George McNeil, Miriam Schapiro, Kenneth Nolan and Roy De Forest; (volume VI): George Evans, Linda Hogan, Nanao Sakaki, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Jimmy Santiago Baca, and Rosario Castellanos; illustrated by Hon Sum Kwok, Jake Berthot, Sachio Yamashita, Larry Poons, and Li Hua; (volume VII): Jack Marshall, Jayne Cortez, Diane Di Prima, Michael Smith, Gary De Soto, and Elizabeth Bishop; illustrated by: James Rosenquist, Frank Stella, James Cobb, Maria Baca, and Robert Goodnough.
The Streetfare Journal, produced in New York and Mill Valley, California by Winston Network, Inc. and Transportation Displays from 1984 to 1997, with grants from the Lannan Foundation (Los Angeles), the National Endowment for the Arts (Washington, D.C.), the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund (New York), (internationally) the Australia Council for the Arts, and other agencies. It was not a printed journal, as such, but rather a series of bus and street car placards bearing poetic excerpts from notable poets, coupled with distinguished illustrators. Eventually, the total count ran to 102 placards. It was "arguably the largest and most successful public art program in U.S. history, delivering striking combinations of literature and visual art to an estimated 15 million riders daily in 16 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, San Francisco, Phoenix, New Orleans, Fort Worth and Fort Lauderdale" (Wikipedia). T
Together with: Streetfare Journal: The Magazine of the Rider, a 11" x 14" poster on stiff card printed in gray and red, and dated 1985. "Streetfare Journal is produced and distributed for the benefit and entertainment of you and your fellow passengers on busses throughout the United States. Each month our various departments will bring you the best of modern American poetry, painting and photography, practical health hints, timely quotations, cartoons, and a wide range of generally useful information."
167. Getting to 13. [Minneapolis: Jeff Rathermel, 2001].
$50
Edition limited to 100 copies (this, no. 32), signed and numbered by Rathermel; approx. 2½ x 5½", 13 leaves on various papers, printed letterpress on rectos only, screw-bound at one corner, 3-dimensional label on upper cover; fine.
"It all started when I noticed the pattern of 13 in my bathroom - two repeating squares of tiles, one segmented into four, the other into nine..." Rathermel was for many years the Executive Director at Minnesota Center for Book Arts.
Utah only in OCLC.
168. Submarine bells. A selection of nine poems...with etchings by David Rathman. Minneapolis: Red Egypt Press, [1994].
$4,200
Edition limited to 20 copies plus 3 artist's proofs (this, copy no. 19), signed by David Rathman; 4to; 13 double leaves, illustrated with 9 three-color "intaglios printed from relief plates and lift-ground etchings with aquatint created and printed by Rathman; typography and letterpress printing by Philip Gallo at the Hermetic Press; the text is set in Studio and printed on Rives BFK; bound in grey cloth boards in exposed wire-binding by Jill Jevne after the wire-binding structure devised by Daniel Kelm; mounted color illustration on the upper cover; grey cloth clam shell box with printed paper label on spine. Fine.
This is a remarkable collaboration between two of the Twin Cities' greatest book artists at work during the last quarter of the 20th century, and into the 21st: the printmaker David Rathman and the letterpress printer, Philip Gallo. The book was sold out immediately and even though these guys are my friends, this is the first time I've been able to offer a copy for sale in 25 years.
169. Adventures in the burning bush adapted from Amos Tutuola's The palm-wine drunkard. Minneapolis: Vermillion Editions, 1987.
$3,000
Edition limited to 40 copies consisting of 5 printer's proofs and 35 in the edition (this, copy no. 11); 4to, [10] unbound sheets printed on rectos only, and contained in a black cloth-covered portfolio with printed paper label on spine and pictorial pastedown on upper cover; fine.
Rathman's first book printed at Vermillion Editions under the guidance of Steve Anderson. Gerald Lange of the Bieler Press and Norman Fritzberg of the Hansestadt Letterfoundry were responsible for the typographic design and composition. The portfolios were constructed by the Campbell-Logan Bindery.
"Mythological in conception and Nigerian in origin...the linocut illumination that accompanies the text exhibits such regimented verve that it almost seems as if a scourge has been placed upon each page. The jags, curves, and swirls of the elemental, naturalistic borders take on pantheistic qualities as they move organically into the inner sanctum ... harbors dangerous, disorderly creatures, alongside humans with their primitive and fantastic accoutrements. Gesture, posture, and facial expressions of beasts, trees, and humans...exhibit a stunning force of feeling and an atavistic quality that illuminates meaning and emotion..." (Pamela Sund, in Artscape, Volume 2, no. 4).
170. Enchanted assassin ... based on Kenneth Patchen's "The Journal of Albion Moonlight". Minneapolis: Vermillion Editions, [1991].
$5,000
Edition limited to 30 copies, plus 7 artist's/printer's proofs, and 6 "unfolded deluxe copies" for a total edition of 43; this is printer's proof no. 3 (of 4) signed by David Rathman; oblong 4to; 9 double-page spreads, each approx. 14" x 34½", "hand-printed in lithography and silkscreen by Steve Andersen, Philip Barber, and Todd Norsten on BFK Rives paper," and contained in the original hinged wooden box with a branded title burned into the cover over acid stains, as issued; fine.
This copy obtained directly from Rathman himself. Most of the edition was not boxed. Rathman tells me only "ten or so" boxes were ever made, and not more than a dozen of the edition were ever sold. What wasn't sold was lost in a bankruptcy case, and the sheets are now ostensibly resting in a warehouse in Milwaukee where they have been for nearly 30 years.
OCLC locates 4 copies only: Minnesota Historical, Phoenix Public Library, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the Getty, to which we add the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and Columbia.
171. Woodcut prints from Mother Goose. St. Joseph, Michigan: A. & R. Roe, printers, n.d., [ca. 1964].
$125
Six color wood engravings (Jack Spratt and His Wife; Rub-a-dub-dub, Three Men in a Tub; The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe; Cock-a-doodle-doo!; Barber, Barber, Shave a Pig; and, For Want of a Nail the Shoe Was Lost), each on a sheet 11½" x 8½", and all contained in a tri-fold portfolio 12½" x 9½" with a color wood engraving on the front of Mother Goose herself. Tiny ink spot at the bottom on the front cover, else fine throughout.
These illustrations appeared in Mother Goose and Nursery Rhymes, published by Athenaeum in New York, 1964.
OCLC locates the Northwestern University, University of Southern Maine, and Indianapolis Public only.
172. Now for sale! at 133 North Jefferson Street, Chicago 6, Illinois. It is only recently that patrons of Philip Reed, printer, have been able to use his design effectively in both letterpress printing and offset lithography ... Plain and fancy designs made to order. [Chicago: Philip Reed, n.d., [ca. 1954].
$425
Broadside, approx. 20" x 9", with large colored woodcut at the top from Reed's edition of Sindbad the Sailor; previous folds in thirds, else fine.
OCLC locates the New York Historical, Northwestern, and Virginia copies only.
173. Aug um Ohr. Bietigheim-Bissingen: Verlag Galerie im Unteren Tor Bietigheim, 1990.
$175
Edition limited to 500 copies, folio, pp. [16]; 3 tipped-in color linocuts, each signed in pencil by Reichert; original decorative wrappers printed in red and blue; fine copy. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
Josua Reichert (1937-2020) was a German postwar and contemporary artist
OCLC locates 8 copies, all in either Germany or Switzerland.
174. Homage [cover title]. [Minneapolis: Minneapolis College of Art & Design, 2012].
$50
Edition limited to 5 copies (this, no. 1), 6" x 3½", accordion-fold, 14 panels extending to 48", incorporating text of a poem by Sam Richards and photographic images; fine in original black cloth stamped in silver.
Designed and constructed by Jared Jensen who has signed this copy with initials and with a brief presentation "For Jody." Jody Williams was for a long time instructor at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design.
175. Gematria 27. Milwaukee: Membrane Press, 1977.
$200
32 cards, each approx. 2½" x 3¾" in a box 3" x 4" x 1", printed paper label on the cover; laid in is a "Summary of Gematria 27" by Karl Young, and a definition of Gematria, each on a sheet approx. 4¾" x 7¼". The cards with illustrations on verso form a jigsaw puzzles.
"Gematria is the general term for a variety of traditional Jewish coding practices used to establish correspondences between words or series of words based on the numerical equivalencies of the sums of their letters or the interchange of letters according to a set system."
This was Rothenberg's first published gematria. The cards could be "read in different orders by one or more people. A collage by Eleanor Antin and an anonymous medieval diagram were printed on the backs of the cards, which could be put together as two puzzles" (thing.net).
176. Convergence. Minneapolis: 2008.
$250
Edition limited to 20 signed and numbered copies (this, no. 2); oblong 8vo, (approx. 5" x 8½"), pp. [16] on conjoined leaves; fine in original paper-covered boards with applied illustration on the front; contained in the original cloth-covered clamshell box.
"Through dual narratives and visual abstractions paired with altered photographs, this book speaks to the deep and elusive connections between past and present and how this can shape our sense of time and place.
"Letterpress text and images, ink jet printed photographs on Lana Aquarelle, drum leaf binding; cover is Hahnemuhle Ingres over bookboard, Japanese bookcloth wrapped spine; modified clamshell box, Japanese bookcloth over bookboard" (artist's website).
177. A troubled heart & other waka. Translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill. [Philadelphia: Pointed Press, 1999].
$250
Edition limited to 100 copies hand printed and bound by Tricia Treacy and signed by Hamill; oblong 8vo, pp. [42]; Hiragana printed in brown; printer's slip laid in at colophon; original maroon cloth, stab-sewn, black paper label on upper cover printed in blind; fine copy. From the library of Kim Merker.
"These poems originally appeared in Only Companion: Japanese Poems of Love and Longing, by Sam Hamill, Shambhala Publications, 1997, and in the Virginia Quarterly Review ... The Japanese version was handwritten from Romaji into Hiragana by Eriko Takahashi, and printed on a Vandercook press just as the type, composed by Michael and Winifred Bixler in Monotype Van Dijck. Calligraphic images were printed in relief from ink drawings. The paper is Kozuke, Japanese Mulberry and the cover paper is hand-dyed Fabriano."
Saigyō Hosho (1118-1190) took Buddhist vows and became "one of Japan's most renown[sic] mountain hermits and a predominate figure in establishing Japan's long tradition of Buddhist nature poetry, a model and inspiration for Basho, Issa, Ryokan, and many others. These poems are translated from his 'waka,' short poems, in lines of 5-7-5-7-7, precursor to the Japanese tanka" (p. 7).
178. Chicago [cover title]. . Minneapolis: Svenja Rau [at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design], 1998.
$65
Edition size not stated, accordion-fold artist's book approx. 4" square, extending to approx. 30½", ribbon-tied with washer and pin. fine.
A linoleum cut in blue, red, white, and brown. Excerpted from "Skyscraper" by Carl Sandburg, 1916.
Not found in OCLC.
179. The poem beginning ...A poem by Sappho. [West Branch, Iowa]: Toothpaste Press for Bookslinger Editions, 1983.
$150
Letterpress broadside, edition limited to 90 numbered copies (this, marked 'os'), approx. 13" x 10", printed in red and black; printed on the occasion of the author's reading at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, February 3, 1983. This copy signed by Sanders. Greek phrase in red letters below title information. Calligraphy by Glen Epstein.
Only 2 in OCLC: Connecticut and Chapel Hill. Also included in the Bookslinger Twenty-one Broadsides portfolio, 1982-83.
180. Rent-free in the East-Village. New York: Beatrice Schafroth, [1985].
$250
First edition, 8vo, pp. [20]; illustrated throughout with tip-ins, found objects, drawings, etc., including a plastic zip-lock envelope attached to p. [3] with a piece of black insulating tape, containing metal bottle top and cigarette butt, and half a matchstick attached by a strip of insulating tape, p. [19]; generally fine in die-cut wrappers.
This mixed-media book contrasts a real estate description with the harsh reality of homelessness in the East Village of New York City. From the library of Allan Kornblum, poet, fine press printer, and publisher who founded Coffee House Press.
181. Emerson G. Wulling printer for pleasure. [Stockholm: Midnight Paper Sales, 2000].
$1,750
First edition limited to 166 copies, this one of 26 lettered copies signed by Schanilec on the limitation page [letter C] and specially bound in quarter leather, spine gilt, in a clamshell box along with a portfolio containing 45 additional ephemeral pieces printed by Mr. Wulling; folio, pp. 71, [4]; illustrated throughout with 24 facsimiles, woodcuts, ink-jet reproductions, ephemera, and 7 color wood-engravings by the artist-printer, Gaylord Schanilec.
Introduction by Rob Rulon-Miller and with a check-list by him of better than 270 books, chapbooks, broadsides, etc. printed by Emerson Wulling at his Sumac Press in both Minneapolis and La Crosse, Wisconsin. The text proper consists of a 2-part interview conducted by Schanilec and Rulon-Miller with Emerson Wulling in 1995 and 1999. Wulling, who began printing in 1916 and continued to print into the 21st century, printed longer than any printer before him - 87 years in all - a record, of sorts, which quite probably will never be broken.
Quarter to Midnight A.199.a.
182. My mighty journey: a waterfall's story. Words by John Coy and pictures by Gaylord Schanilec. Saint Paul: Midnight Paper Sales, 2018.
$12,500
Edition limited to 40 copies (actually 41), large oblong folio, 36 leaves, 16 color illustrations mounted on handmade paper, with text printed on verso, and interleaved with protective translucent blank sheets; printed colophon sheet mounted to final leaf of handmade paper; bound in suminagashi paper over boards, sewn on 10 cords, with uncovered spine, revealing sewing structure. The images were printed using blocks made from material collected along the banks of the Mississippi River where the waterfall traveled up the river gorge. The blocks also include wood cuts, wood engravings, and the occasional photo polymer plate. Images were printed on Mohawk Superfine paper, and text on handmade Cave paper from handset ATF Bernhard Gothic foundry type. The suminagashi cover art was created by Amanda Degener. Issued in a cloth-covered clamshell box (61 x 71 x 6 cm).
A text for children, but not a children's book, about the 12,000-year journey of Saint Anthony Falls, the only major waterfall on the entire Mississippi River, from Saint Paul to its current home in Minneapolis.
183. Farmers. Wood engravings - Interviews. Stockholm: Midnight Paper Sales Press, [1989].
$4,000
Edition limited to 200 copies, this one of 26 lettered copies (letter 'U') signed by Schanilec on the colophon with his chop mark; 8vo, pp. [3]-56, [4]; vignette wood engraving on title page, 4 double-page colored wood engravings, plus an extra suite of the engravings in a tan paper chemise with a printed paper label on the front; full natural goatskin by the Campbell-Logan Bindery, embossed in the lower outer corner with Schanilec's chop mark; beige cloth clamshell box, leather label on spine. The whole designed and hand-printed by Schanilec.
The text is derived from recorded interviews with farmers in the wake of the farm crisis in the mid-1980s, conducted by Schanilec near his home in Stockholm, Wisconsin, and edited by his brother, Clayton.
Quarter to Midnight A.90.a.
184. [Schanilec, Gaylord.] A dog's tale. [Stockholm, Wisconsin]: Midnight Paper Sales & Flaming Cat Press, 2004.
$45
Edition limited to 120 copies, pp. [10] frenchfold; Printed by Gaylord Schanilec and his child Nick Schanilec in Centaur on a single strip of Zerkall paper which was accordion folded into 1⅞" x 1⅝" book, stitched into a paper wrap, which, in turn, is covered by blue Hahnemuhle Burga wrappers printed with printer's ornaments.
This is the only miniature book produced by Schanilec.
Quarter to Midnight A.233.
185. A little book of birds. [Saint Paul]: Midnight Paper Sales, 2017.
$650
Edition limited to 100 copies numbered and signed by Schanilec, 8vo, pp. [48]; uncut and unopened, as issued; 9 three- and four-color wood engravings by Schanilec, and a final one by Thomas Bewick, all printed from the original blocks; text sewn into original Degener Black and O'Malley Crackle papers, in tribute to the Ladies of the Cave, printed wraparound paper label on spine, publisher's slipcase by Craig Jensen; fine.
Emblematic of two years in the life of Mr. Schanilec, this is a single haiku punctuated with muted engravings of birds trapped by the bolts. For the record these blocks were mostly cut in my kitchen many early mornings 2015-16.
186. [Schanilec, Gaylord.] Five short stories...The state of grace; The dwarf; Rue de l'Évangile; Legend of Poldevia; The seven-league boots. Wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec. Newtown: Bird & Bull Press, 1994.
$500
Edition limited to 150 copies (this, no. 39), small 4to, pp. 100; 10 two-color wood engravings by Schanilec, with an extra suite of engravings, each mounted in a printed dye-cut wrapper, and together with "A Companion to Five Short Stories by Marcel Aymé: Creating the Illustrations," a bifolium with an essay by Henry Morris and a "Final Note" incorporating a letter to Henry Morris by Schanilec; housed in red cloth clam-shell box, maroon gilt-lettered spine label.
Unlike others in the edition, this copy is signed by Schanilec on the colophon.
Quarter to Midnight A.126. Forty-Four A.56
187. Bokeh. Progressive proofs. [Saint Paul & Stockholm]: Midnight Paper Sales, 2020.
$1,200
Edition limited to 5 copies only (plus 2 artist's proofs not for sale), folio (approx. 14" x 9"), 8 leaves onto which 5 sequential proofs have been tipped; errata also tipped onto the first leaf; errata and title page printed in green and black; original olive-brown wrappers, printed paper label on upper cover printed in green and black, the whole in a gray cloth clamshell also with a printed label.
Progressive proofs for the signature wood engraving in Schanilec's Little Book of Flowers (Midnight Paper Sales, 2020), one of the most intricate wood engravings Schanilec has ever made.
188. Buffaloed. Five woodcuts and a few words. Saint Paul: Midnight Paper Sales Press, [April, 1983.]
$250
Edition limited to 100 copies, this no. 58, signed by Schanilec; slim 8vo, pp. [16]; printed on Mohawk Superfine, and with 5 tipped-in woodcuts by Schanilec; fine. This is the second of two bindings, beige paper-covered boards backed in black cloth, printed paper label on spine.
Schanilec cut the type from cherry boards. Many of the copies in the later binding were neither numbered or signed, but not in this instance.
Quarter to Midnight A.51.b.
189. [Schanilec, Gaylord.] It's come to this. Saint Paul, Minnesota and Stockholm, Wisconsin: 2023.
$1,500
Edition limited to 70 signed and numbered copies (with an additional 5 hors commerce), 4to (9" x 11"), pp. 36; the text was composition-cast in Monotype Menhart designed by Oldrich Menhart in Prague in 1933, and printed on vintage handmade paper at the Velké Losiny mill in the Czech Republic in the mid-20th century; bound by Matthew Zimmerman at Studio Alcyon.
"In 1982, while wearing the hat of a 'small press illustrator' I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to illustrate a long prose poem by Patricia Hampl, who had recently become famous with the publication of her memoir A Romantic Education (Houghton Mifflin, 1981). The resulting book, Resort (Bookslinger Editions, 1982) was pivotal for me, and I began angling for a manuscript from Patricia I might publish myself. It only took 40 years for one to materialize." It’s Come to This ... a bookend [of sorts] for Resort ... contains drawings by Gaylord Schanilec of a wild rose and a stark sunrise over Lake Superior, [and] color wood engravings by him of a blooming Amaryllis and a panoramic sunset over the riverfront of Saint Paul, along with a cover lithograph drawn on and printed from the stone by Lila Shull. In the text Hampl contemplates her mortality as she walks her dog along the Saint Paul riverfront through that first dark year of the pandemic.
190. [Schanilec, Gaylord.] The first & last annual six towns area old timers' baseball game. Wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec. Minneapolis: Espresso Editions, Coffee House Press, 1991.
$275
Edition limited to 150 copies signed by Kinsella and Schanilec, tall 8vo, pp. [2], 31, [3]; five multicolor wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec, designed by Allan Kornblum and printed by Jill MacKenzie and Julia Druskin at Coffee House Press on a Vandercook 219 proof press; "cast in Walbaum type with P.T. Barnum and Vaudeville display by M & H Type," printed on Rives Heavyweight paper, mouldmade in France at the Arjomari mill; brown morocco-backed boards by Jill Jevne, publisher's slipcase, with the extra suite of Schanilec's 5 engravings, as called for in the colophon.
Quarter to Midnight A-107.
191. Lac des Pleurs. Report from Lake Pepin. [Stockholm, WI]: Midnight Paper Sales, 2015.
$8,000
Edition limited to 119 copies, this being one of 100 bound in quarter leather over marbled paper-covered boards (19 copies remain in sheets); folio (approx. 15½" x 10¼"), pp. [6], 9-11, [1], 15-25, [1], 29-31, [1], 35-37, [1], 41-43, [1], 47-66, [5]; large folding wood-engraved map and 8 multi-color wood engravings on 7 sheets (5 folding, depicting pelicans, fish, and river scenes) inserted; 31 other zinc engravings of fish in the text; introduction by Patrick Coleman; title page and box label printed from specially made wood type based on tracings by Russell Maret from Aldus Manutius's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili; the binding is by Craig Jensen, Book Lab II, using hand-made marbled paper by Jemma Lewis based on photographs of wet stones along the shores of Lake Pepin. As new, at the published price, in the original leather-backed clamshell box with pelican label on the spine.
Seven years in the making, this homage to Schanilec's second home, Lake Pepin - that great widening of the Mississippi River between St. Paul, Minnesota and La Crosse, Wisconsin - was his most ambitious project to date.
192. Man before a mirror. Saint Paul, Minnesota & Stockholm, Wisconsin: 2022.
$18,000
Edition limited to 13 copies, only 10 of which are for sale*. This composite and multi-faceted artwork, printed in blue, red, yellow, and black, consists of three scrolls, the first (approx. 18 inches by 8 feet) consisting of Schanilec's poem, "Man Before a Mirror," with extracts from Pablo Picasso, Wilder Bentley, Alice B. Tolkas, and Emerson Wulling, with other elements, and printed on Toro Gampi. The second and third scrolls (approx. 6 feet by 38 inches) are a pair of reduction-cut specimen prints printed on Gampi, printed directly from the eastern red cedar pulled from the ground during COVID, in the spring of 2020.
"I pulled a dead cedar tree from the earth. It leaned against a post for a year or so. Consider the tree turned upside down, roots to the sky, trunk to the ground. It was about my height, about my weight, and the more I thought about it, the more it became ... me.
"I sliced the cedar tree in two. I received a printmaking fellowship, giving me access to a large etching press, and printed the cedar tree. When I did there was no 28-gram Gampi paper available, so I went with 20-gram Gampi. Registration of two colors on a single sheet was clearly impossible. It was like printing on clouds. The two colors were printed on separate sheets: one layer, the color of skin, and behind it a second layer, the color of blood. Because of the translucency of the paper, the image read equally well from front and back, so the reflection was simply the print viewed from the other side of the two sheets.
'Man Before a Mirror was printed in an edition of 13. It became clear that without a text, the edition would be exiled to a cardboard box. So I printed a textual scroll to go along with the image. Besides my own writing I indulged, as I often do, in appropriated text:
'From this evening, I am giving up painting, sculpture, engraving, and poetry so as to consecrate myself entirely to singing'. Pablo Picasso to Paul Sabartes, April 26, 1936.
'The trouble with Picasso was that he allowed himself to be flattered into believing he was a poet too'. Alice B. Tolkas, 1949.
'You will never be T. S. Eliot'. Robert Rulon-Miller to Gaylord Schanilec, 2022" (from Schanilec's talk at the Grolier Club, November 4, 2002)."
All three scrolls contained in a hand-made wooden casket by Schanilec, with sides of black walnut, a hinged lid of white oak, and hard maple handles; the finials are of Eastern red cedar and the dowels of hard maple. All the wood comes from Schanilec's Woods in Stockholm. Casket measurements are 56 inches in length (plus 3" for each of the handles), by 5 inches. The hardware for the casket comes from Casket Builders' Supply in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.
*The entire edition is sold exclusively by Rulon-Miller Books.
193. [Schanilec, Gaylord.] Excerpts from a Wisconsin childhood. [Stockholm, Wisconsin]: Midnight Paper Sales, 1997.
$225
First edition, one of 120 copies signed by the author and the illustrator of which this is no. 30, 12mo, pp. [4], 17, [2]; color wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec; printed and bound in quarter cloth and marbled boards by Ruth Raich and Schanilec, printed paper spine label, slipcase; fine.
Quarter to Midnight A.163.
194. My colorful career. Newtown: Bird & Bull Press, 1996.
$425
First edition limited to 160 copies, this, no. 41; 4to, pp. 79, [2]; vignette wood engraving on title page, 20 wood engravings in the text, a sequence of 9 progressive proofs, 2 linoleum cuts of the carp (one color, the other black and white), plus one tipped-in facsimile and facsimile title page for A House in the Country; black niger-backed red cloth, red gilt-lettered leather spine label, matching red cloth slipcase. Fine.
Quarter to Midnight, A.145. Bird & Bull Forty-Four A59.
195. On returning. [Saint Paul]: Midnight Paper Sales, 1981.
$125
First edition limited to 70 copies of which this is no. 64, 12mo (approx. 6" x 4¾"), pp. [12];; blue pictorial wrappers, grey endsheets; magnesium plate made from a reduced image of a woodcut by Schanilec on title page; fine.
This copy without the small laser-printed broadside, beginning "The ninth section..." which was laid into all copies that were sold and/or distributed after 1991.
This was Schanilec's first attempt at poetry since his college days at the University of North Dakota.
Quarter to Midnight A.43: "I was sixteen when the moon stuck in my pocket. Thomas McGrath visited our school ... [and] strode into the room. I was changed before he uttered a single word. Poetry became my passion. Two years later I went off to the University of North Dakota to become a poet, but before long I realized I lacked the courage. I finished my college days hiding in the art department ...
“One day, however, I thought I might give poetry another try, and I wrote a poem about it called "On Returning" in which I claim to have learned to recognize Thomas McGrath’s tracks. I printed the poem into a little book and sent him a copy. He replied with a polite note thanking me for the “mysterious” little book, and that was that.
“Years later, after he had died, I was reading through his last book of poems (Death Song, Copper Canyon Press, 1991), and I found this:
WARNING
So-
You recognize my footprint…
But don’t think that you know
Which way I’ve gone.”
In a letter dated December 22, 1998, Schanilec writes: “During his lifetime I had one opportunity to do a drawing for the cover of one of his books, and he rejected it. But, when Copper Canyon asked me to do the cover of the complete Letter to an Imaginary Friend, he was no longer around to object. I think the image of the footprints [on the Copper Canyon edition] completes the story!”
196. Restricted. N.p. [Iowa City, Iowa?]: 1978.
$375
Edition limited to 29 copies (this, no. 22), broadside (approx. 12¾" x 20"), the poem Restricted printed letterpress within a colored lithograph 11" x 10"; a few small wrinkles at the extremities else near fine. Signed, titled, numbered and dated in pencil by Sexauer at the lower margin.
"Roxanne Sexauer was born in the Bronx, New York. She has both BFA and MFA degrees in Printmaking. The former was granted by The University of Iowa, where she studied with Mauricio Lasansky and the latter from The State University of New York at Purchase, where she worked with Antonio Frasconi. She has been awarded residencies at The Plains Museum of Art, Fargo, North Dakota; Palenville Interarts, Palenville, New York; The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, Rabun Gap, GA; and Dorland Mountain, Temecula, CA" (Woman's Studio Workshop). She illustrated the Windhover Press edition of Robert the Devil (1981), as well as works by Charles Olsen (1978), Robert Dana (1987), and Mark Van Tilberg (1976).
197. Take the A train ... from It Has Not Always Been This Way. [West Branch, Iowa]: Toothpaste Press for Bookslinger Editions, 1982.
$250
Letterpress broadside, edition limited to 90 numbered copies (this, marked 'os'), 10½" x 14¼", printed in blue and black; printed on the occasion of the author's reading at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, February 17, 1982. This copy boldly signed by Shange.
Only 5 in OCLC: Cornell, Delaware, Lafayette, University of South Carolina, and Washington University. Also included in the Bookslinger Twenty Broadsides portfolio, 1981-82.
198. Sketches in watercolors. [Elgin, IL: 1888-91.]
$850
Oblong 8vo, consisting of 17 leaves, including a decorative watercolor title-p., 15 finished watercolors (4 incorporating circular or rectangular vignettes) and one other not quite finished. One is captioned "Crystal Lake Opera House, July 25, 1891." The title-p. is signed "Slade," and the others are unsigned.
Laid in is a cabinet-size photograph of the artist (1870-1894) with a brief bio on the back in pencil indicating that he worked for Marshall Fields as a window trimmer at the time of his death, and that he "had charge of the Spanish exhibit at the Colomb. Exp. - Chicago - 1893."
199. Interlude. [Minneapolis: POOF, a division of CS Productions, Inc., 1998].
$150
Edition size not stated, approx. 5¾" x 4½", approx. 50 leaves, illustrated with photographs throughout; fine in original black cloth stamped in silver on upper cover.
"He came to me in a dream which I often dreamt, and swept away the darkness of night..."
200. Date book 1982. [New York]: Faust & Smith / Purgatory Pie Press, 1981.
$250
Edition limited to 100 copies numbered and signed by the principals (this, no. 26); 16mo, pp. [128]; printed throughout in red, green, black, and orange, and designed to resemble a annual calendar, with typographic elements; business card of designer Esther K. Smith laid in; typography and letterpress by Dikka Faust. Original blue cloth with a half dozen pastedowns resembling collage. Fine copy.
Washington only in OCLC.