Frog Themed Rhyming Shape Book

Little Froggie Green.
Akron and New York: Saalfield Publishing Co, 1917.

No. 48. Part of the series: Salsfield's Cut Out Picture Books. A charming shape book featuring a frog playing a cabbage banjo on the wrappers. The book is filled with verses about froggie going to school, growing up from being a tadpole, and more.

Bound in stiff side-stapled full color wrappers with red title to front wrap. Dampstain to bottom portion of front wrap, creasing, and rubbing to wrappers. Split to wrapper along foot of spine to first staple. Red coloring to spine edge. Dampstain to top of first page, foxing throughout, toning, and occasional small spots of soiling. Partially disbound, but all pages are present. Each page is printed in color. Size: 10.75 x 5.75 inches. [16 pages.] Very Good. (#37342)

Price: $40 

Oppression / Salvation - told through lasercuts
Egyptian Book Artist

Aly, Islam.
Unleash.
Cedar Falls IA: Islam Aly, 2017.

Number 29 of 30 copies, signed and numbered by the artist. Unleash is bound in a late Coptic style with laser engraved wooden boards and leather wrapping bands capped with engraved wooden pieces in the shapes of an angel and human head. The interior pages are laser cut with words about being confined, imprisoned, and restrained. All of the words fill the reader with a negative connotation suggestive of oppression, and then an angel appears. With each turn of the page, the angel makes a path through the words and breaks them apart until it is able to free itself from the book. The resulting negative space left behind forms the shape of a human face. A powerful statement about how restraint and confinement can be broken apart to restore humanity - or perhaps to force the reader to think compassionately of people who are currently held as prisoners (both literally and through societal, political, or religious decrees). Size: 3 x 6 x 2 inches.

Islam Aly is an Egyptian book artist. His books explore the possibilities of historical bindings in contemporary book art practice. They have appeared in international exhibitions in the United States and abroad, and in private and public collections. In his artist’s statement he writes: “When I make a historical book structure, I go through a learning process. I learn the history as well as the different physical aspects of the binding such as how a book form is constructed in a specific sequence. I learn about the use of different materials such as paper, wood, leather and dyes. I learn to make choices in selecting and replacing traditional materials that I don’t have access to. I use these different experiences to enhance my work in making artists’ books and to use historical and cultural references from these structures in the actual content. In essence, I wish to explore new ways to use the rich structures of historical books in contemporary artists’ book practice and incorporate contemporary content into strictly historical structures.” (#37302)

Price: $850

Homage to Thelonius Monk
Letterpress Printed

[Caliban Press]
Williams, Martin; Mark McMurray, printer; Guy Berard, artist
Monk at the Five Spot
Canton, New York: Caliban Press, 2014.

Number 77 of 125 copies. Signed and numbered by the printer (Mark McMurray) and artist (Guy Berard). "The Five Spot Cafe was one of New York City's most legendary Jazz Clubs ... with repeated extended stays by Thelonious Monk and his various quartets ... The club also became a destination for New York's avante-garde of the period. Abstract expressionist painters as well as poets Frank O'Hara and Amri Baraka were frequently in the audience. Other writers, critics, and journalists came too, including Martin T. Williams (1924 - 1992) a noted jazz critic and contributor to The New York Times and Harpers Magazine" (artist statement).

Bound in Celtic grey handmade paper covers with black cloth spine and circular yellow paper title label "5" visible through a large circular cut out to front cover. The text first appeared in Down Beat magazine on February 13, 1964 and has been edited. Illustrated with a revolving map and a striking double page multi-colored centerpiece collage by Guy Berard. The collage is based on a photograph from 1958 of the Thelonious Monk Quartet playing at The Five Spot Cafe. Accompanied by a one page sheet explaning the source of the book's text and printing and binding details. In fine condition. Measures 7.25 x 10.50 inches. Ten numbered pages.  (#37261)

Price: $275 

Papercut Artists' Book on Dining
Limited to 3 Copies

Coron, Beatrice, book artist.
A la carte.
New York: Beatrice Coron, 1999.

Number 3 of 3 copies. Beatrice is particularly renowned for her skills and creativity with paper cutting. She writes: "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."

This charming work displays Beatrice's skill in creating papercut scenes that capture the variety of human activities. In this case, her four panel papercut depicts a restaurant outing, with diners arriving at a restaurant, having their meal and wine, and happily departing after their dinner. The black papercuts are laid over white gauze paper that showcases the images. There is a title overlay preceding the panels. Bound in black paper covers with a delighful tiny place setting of silverware that is visible through a cut-out to the cover of the box in which it is housed. Covers are in black paper with a gray paper spine. In fine condition. Measures 5 x 7.75 inches closed and 5 x 32 inches open. (#37324)

Price: $700 

Artists' Book on Climate Change
Rising Sea Levels in Florida

Covell, Anne.
Sea Change with Catastrophe Map Building Set.
San Diego: Anne Covell, 2023.

Number 2 of 25 Variable Copies. Includes Number 2 of 15 Catastrophe Map Building Set. "Sea Change is a letterpress printed artist book and companion print series that uses catastrophe modeling to map the projected impact of sea level rise on the Florida Peninsula if action is not taken to combat climate change. In this book, state and regional maps of the Florida Peninsula repeat page by page with hand-cut paper corrections that reflect projections for coastal impacts for up to ten feet in sea level rise. The corresponding text on the verso of each repeating image of the Florida Peninsula rises on the page in tandem with index tabs that visually mark predictions in two foot increments. Each map correction is letterpress printed, hand-cut, and pasted on the page directly over the previous correction. As projections increase, the layers of corrections overlap and fill the page, physically marking an evolving landscape with permanent adhesion.

The system of mapping used in this book was inspired by research and study of the print holdings of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Florida in the Map & Imagery Library, most notably Miami, vol. 1, 1921 containing a record of 28 paper corrections dating from 1928 - 1950. Originally created to allow fire insurance companies to assess risk and liability to urbanized areas within the United States, these maps were published in volumes that were bound and corrected by “pasters” who were employed to cut and glue over outdated maps until a new volume was produced.

Sea Change is bound using Benjamin Elbel’s Onion Skin Binding technique. The spine of each page is glued and layered to the previous page and trimmed on a guillotine so that the cross-section cut resembles an onion, or in this case, a topographical map or the ripples of moving water. The book is housed in a partial slipcase with a printed image of the present day Florida Peninsula on front. When the book is removed from the slipcase, a remnant image of the Florida Peninsula as it would appear under ten feet of sea level rise is revealed.

The companion print series to the artist book, titled, “Sea Change: Catastrophe Map Building Set” presents an alternate way of experiencing the project. In this set, three letterpress printed base maps are included with un-cut maps for each layer of corrections. Instructions are included for how to cut and paste each layer by hand with the idea in mind that physically doing the labor to correct the maps with each new prediction will foster a deeper understanding of what is at stake in Florida if action is not taken to combat climate change. However, sea level rise projections can also be viewed without cutting and pasting for those who wish to keep the set intact. Each base map can simply be placed on a light box and the layers added one at a time to reveal the changes. The source material for the map images in this book were drawn from worst case scenario predictions from the NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer (https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/). The text is written from research collated from several key sources including most notably the Fourth National Climate Assessment (https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/) and the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming (https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/)" (artist's statement).

Sea Change was letterpress printed from photopolymer plates by Boxcar Press on an SP-15 Vandercook Proof Press in the UF School of Art + Art History Type Shop on Somerset Velvet and Masa papers. The map layers were cut by hand and attached with wheat paste in the Sanborn “pasters” tradition. The book is housed in a grey archival case, and the maps are housed in a paper folder within a protective plastic pocket. Book Size: 9.5 x 12.5 inches. Map Size: 9.5 x 12.5 inches.

Sea Change is the 2019 artist’s book edition from the Marjorie S. Coffey Library Endowment Residency at the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. Designed and printed by Anne Covell during a semester long residency in the fall of 2019.  Fine. (#37310)

Price: $2,000 

A Grim Commentary on the War Mongering History of Mankind
Letterpress Printed

[Editions Koch]
Koch, Peter and numerous other authors and sources.
Speculum Mundi. Ur-text volume ii.
Berkeley: Peter Koch Printers, 2022.

Number 20 of 50 copies numbered 1-50 and bound at the Koch studio by Jonathan Gerken in wrappers simulating a second waste-sheet from Atalanta fugiens and printed on Magnolis Renaissance paper. Signed and numbered by Peter Koch. Thee were five copies lettered i - v bound in full leather and board de-constructed [cutaway] binding by Jeffrey Altepeter, with some pages containing original sources. There were another five copies lettered vi - x bound in a hand-colored simulated waste-sheet from Atalanta fugiens that include an extra signature with supplementary ur-prints and images bound in.

Robert Bringhurst writes of Peter: “Letterpress was once a useful craft, like carpentry or thatching. This did not prevent determined and talented people from raising it to an art and enriching the lives of humans for centuries after. In the present world, the vital craft of letterpress has surrendered nearly all its practical functions – but art still runs uphill, as it always has. So letterpress printers continue to sort themselves, inescapably, into the artists and the others. It’s in the nature of the craft. Peter Koch is an artist among printers. He knows the tradition, all the way back. He also knows it as far forward as anyone can. As a master practitioner of an ancient art, he has joined forces repeatedly with those who are chipping away at the technological frontier, and with others who persevere in the most demanding manual crafts. He engages, as great printers always have, in collaborations with master papermakers, printmakers, wood engravers, punchcutters, binders, and others who make the book what it is: a rich and varied but private and portable theater that nourishes and unifies the body and the mind.”

This work is an astonishingly complex and compelling production from Editions Koch. Its inception was in 1994 along with Ur-text volumes one and three. Peter writes: "Those volumes were completed and published in 1994, but this volume was an entirely different matter. While also begun in 1994, it was abandoned in favor of Speculum Mundi in 2017. All three volumes are composed from poems, personal writings, and speculations accompanied by quotes, appropriated texts, and images. All have been transformed to suit the concept of a twenty-first century Liber Chronicarum spanning the totality, from Genesis to the Apocalypse. The majority of my personal observations were written and annotated as I composed each bi-folium, revising and editing at each stage along the way right up to and including the final press run. The texts include the entire Book of Genesis (Jerome’s Latin translation), select fragments from Ecclesiastes, The Apocalypse of St. John, William Temple Horniday’s The Extermination of the American Bison (Washington D.C. 1889) and The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (Washington, D.C., 1957) together with additional marginalia, commentary, and the entire text of my long poem Magnus Annus, first published by The Aldebaran Review (1968), and L’Alchimie du Verbe published as Bone Black & Vermillion by The Real Lead Saloon (2021.)

The biblical texts (especially Genesis) are what I have posited as the core-texts of our perception, the lenses through which we interpret our culture and our nature. The sub-text (appropriated from The Effects of Nuclear Weapons) is, in its altered format, not so much a lens through which we perceive as the swamp in which we are mired—an ever-present, existential, war-riven, and increasingly poisoned world. The images were collected from divers sources, including: Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum; I Modi by Pietro Aretino (Venice, 1527); Heinrich Khunrath’s Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (Hamburg, 1595); Uranometria by Johann Bayer (Augsberg, 1603); Robert Fludd’s Utriusque Cosmi ... metaphysica, physica atque technica Historia, &c. (Oppenheim and Frankfurt, 1617–24); with additional images from the United States Department of Defense, Library of Congress, Montana Historical Society Photographic Archives, my personal collection, etc. All are reconfigured, altered, and collaged to varying degrees to suit my project of a re-envisioned creation story and atrocity exhibition of some of mankind’s more questionable accomplishments." Housed in a gray cloth covered slipcase. Accompanied by a 10 page illustrated announcement for the book. This remarkable work is in fine condition. Measures 11.5 x 17.5 inches. 128 pages. (#37337)

Price: $3,500

Letterpress Printed with Stunning Mezzotint Illustrations

[Editions Verdigris]
Sybil ( pseudonym of Elsa Koberlé), poet; Judith Rothchild, book artist; Mark Lintott, typographer and printer.
Je Feuillette Les Estampes.
Octon, France: Editions Verdigris, 2022.

Number 8 of 25 standard copies. There were also 5 deluxe copies and one copy reserved for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Signed and numbered by artist Judith Rothchild and Mark Lintott, the printer and typographer. From the press website describing this prolific and important private press: "With their well equipped workshop in the south of France enabling them to be completely independent, Judith Rothchild and Mark Lintott imagine and produce artist’s books from start to finish. Concerned by the rhythm between text and image, the visual and literary relationship between the blocks of print, the mezzotints and the white page, the artist’s book becomes a spatial adventure. The book as art, a singular typographical, visual, boxed object. At the helm of this creative process, Mark Lintott, is passionate about letterpress on antique presses, paper and serigraphy. Each project taken on by Verdigris is a new technical and visual challenge. The ideas often start with Judith’s mezzotints or with a text of a contemporary author they wish to work with such as Marie Rouanet, Claude Ber, Ruth Fainlight, James Sacré, Frédéric Jacques Temple… or a classical author they feel a connection to: Charles Baudelaire, Pablo Neruda, Paul Valéry. The first surprise, the wide variety of formats (nothing is forbidden, everything is possible), the mezzotints by Judith, the centre of this sensual ritual and not simple illustration, the precision letterpress of Mark and finally the boxed object."

This exquisite book contains three poems in French by Elsa Koberlé, using the pseudonym of Sybil. The poems were written in her youth in Alsace before she settled at the Abbaye Saint André at Villeneuve les Avignon. Elsa Koeberlé was a French poet, born in Strasbourg (Alsace) in 1881. She died in 1950. She discovered l'Abbaye Saint André in 1915 and lived there from 1916 until her death. The abbaye was renowned for its beautiful and romantic Italian style gardens . A copy of her bookplate is affixed to the front pastedown of the book. The poems are accompanied by four lovely mezzotints by master engraver Rothchild, done from drawings that she sketched at the abbey. The book's structure is a leporello - a style of parallel folding with the folds alternating between front and back; concertina fold. that can also be opened as a codex. The linocuts on the cover were printed by the artist. The letterpress text was set in Garamond 16pt and printed by Mark Lintott. He also created the slipcase. Housed in a green paper covered slipcase decorated with linocut designs similar to that used on the book's green cover. Titling in black on front cover and spine. In fine condition. Measures 7 x 9.5 inches. Unpaginated [About 8 pages].  (#37189)

Price: $1,000 

Thomas Paine's Inspirational Thoughts on Democracy
Calligraphic Illustrations by Thomas Ingmire

[Foolscap Press]
Paine, Thomas; Thomas Ingmire, calligrapher.
Thomas Paine: in his own words.
Santa Cruz, CA: Foolscap Press, 2024.

Number 38 of 90 copies, signed and numbered by the calligrapher. There were also 15 copies done for the participants in making the book. It is a handsome and timely book from the Foolscap Press of Peggy Gotthold and Lawrence G. Van Velzer. They write in the prospectus: "In The Documents and the many writings of Thomas Paine (1737-1809), one can hear the arguments laid out for an egalitarian and just society that influenced the birth of the United States, English law, and the French Revolution. His words continue to inspire those who search, even now, for a just government and a more civilized society... Most important for our times is that Thomas Paine reminds us that the fight for democracy, once achieved, is never incontrovertibly won, and how fitting is his belief that to take away voting is to reduce a man to slavery."

This letterpress printed book includes five multicolored full-pages of calligraphy and one single color page by award winning calligrapher, Thomas Ingmire. He was elected to the Society of Scribes and Illuminators in London, the first American to be elected to this status. For this book Ingmire extracted quotes from Paine's wise writings to bring the words alive on the page.

Bound in gray textured cloth with a red bordered label with a facsimile of Paine's signature and red bordered title label to spine. The binding is sewn onto carbon fiber rods which allows the book to lay flat when opened. The handmade paper used for the binding is from Cave Paper and the text paper is Hahnemühle paper. Set in Caslon type, the typeface used in the first printing of the Declaration of Independence as well as a favorite house face in Benjamin Franklin's print shop. Accompanied by the prospectus. In fine condition. Measures 10 x 15.25 inches. 68 pages. (#37355)

Price: $950 

Homage to Moss, Lichen, and 4 Early Women Bryologists
Includes Sample Vials, Maps, Handmade Paper, Letterpress Printing, and More

[Gazelle and Goat]
Alpers, Rhiannon, book artist
Lichen: Rambles in the Colorado Front Range
Denver: Gazelle and Goat Press, 2024.

Number 17 of 20 copies signed by the book artist. An exploration of "the minuscule and often overlooked world of moss and lichen. The book artist writes: This project began with my own fascination with the textures, colors, and dynamic forms of these tiny species, and to delve into the microscopic wonders that typically escape casual observation. Through extensive field exploration and herbarium research, I became captivated by the seemingly simple exteriors of lichens and mosses, which fiercely guard their vascular intricacies and the minute details that differentiate each species.

The book is structured around three species: two lichens and a moss, each presented as a chapter. Each species chapter is documented through a series of nine pages featuring various perspectives and research methods. These pages include topographical maps, handmade paper, textural monoprints of scientific names, watercolor swatches, paper collage elements, and narratives about my journeys and research along the way. Each chapter begins with visual and tactile representations of the species and the specific environment within the Colorado Front Range where it can be found. Documenting these findings in a creative and meaningful way became both a narrative challenge and a discovery process for me. Utilizing letterpress, papermaking, and watercolor as my visual tools, I aimed to represent my findings in an engaging and scientifically accurate manner. The scientific names of the species are integrated into the story, highlighting their physical characteristics as well as their botanical significance.

The box includes small samples of lichen and moss preserved in glass vials and a magnification loupe for the viewer. The accompanying smaller book, entitled Ladies of Lichenology, chronicles four early women bryologists and their stories. The four women featured in the narrative are Mary Farnham Miller, Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton, Matilda Knowles, and Elizabeth C. Wright. The front side of the swing-panel accordion gives a brief poetic biography, and the back panels are layered letterpress imagery of the species the women researched and published work relating to.

Along the way, the contributions of contemporary and early women biologists and bryologists added new layers of narrative and connection to my environment in Colorado. As with many obscure projects of this nature, it was the intertwining of scientists' backstories and the species themselves that also became a new and fascinating component of the artist's book. The women who have and continue to research these fascinating species within the community also bring a groundbreaking dimension to the field—one that is continually evolving.

This project has deepened my understanding of lichens' interconnectedness to their surroundings, particularly within the Colorado Front Range landscape. It has revealed the complex ways in which these lichens interact chemically, biologically, and environmentally with their hosts. As an artist's book, the medium allows for multidimensional stories to take shape and be accessible to the viewer in both a sequential and spatial form. The process of going through this book should be a journey for the reader, engaging with the story visually, tactically, and creatively, interpreting the intertwining of my artistic explorations and the scientific discoveries of female naturalists. It is through the unfolding, unearthing, and untangling that we all come to discovery, which challenges and propels me to create these types of books." (artist's statement).

Bound in green cloth boards with five inlays to front board. Created using a combination of wood type, polymer plates, monoprinting, hand coloring, and laser cutting. Includes multiple hand made paper inclusions. Housed in a deluxe multi-level clamshell box that includes an additional book: "Fieldwork Ladies of Lichenology" (12 pages) along with a 10x magnification loop and 5 vials containing lichen / moss specimens. To ensure conservation, the tubes containing the specimens were collected and preserved according to current herbarium standards. Book Size: 6 x 10 inches. Unpaginated [with 76 pages].

Rhiannon Alpers is a well-known and highly regarded book artist, papermaker, and letterpress printer. She has exhibited internationally, and her edition and one-of-a-kind artist books are produced under the Gazelle and Goat Press imprint. Rhiannon has taught academic courses at San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts (San Francisco), University of San Francisco, and Columbia College Chicago, Dominican University. She has also taught workshops for adult centers such as San Francisco Center for the Book, Penland School of Crafts, Guild of Bookworks, Book Arts LA, Focus on Book Arts, San Diego Book Arts, Center for Book and Paper in Chicago, and at her own studio in Denver. In 2015 and 2017 she received the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts Jurors' Recognition of Merit for her editioned artist books. Fine. (#37327)

Price: $2,500 

Edgar Allan Poe Story - "The Cask of Amontillado"
Wood Engraved Illustrations

[George Walker]
Poe, Edgar Allan; George Walker printer and book artist; Dr. Eva Seidner, foreword and afterword.
The Cask of Amontillado
Toronto: George Walker, 2024.

One of 25 copies signed by the printer George Walker and Eva Seidner, the author of the foreword and afterword. This is handsome and exciting production of Poe's classic story. "The Cask of Amontillado" is a chilling story that follows the narrator, Montresor, as he seeks revenge on his acquaintance, Fortunato by luring him into the catacombs. The masterful storytelling by Poe explores themes of betrayal, revenge, and darkness that lie within the human psyche. The story first appeared in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book. The text in this edition follow exactly that of the original printing.

Hand bound with brown wood covers sewn with wine colored linen thread. it is a unique non-adhesive stitch that incorporates a wood spine into the structure. The text and the engravings are printed on 100% archival paper. Six of the engravings are printed on unpaginated sheets of Moriki Kozo paper. The endpapers are done with hand marbled paper donated by the Porcupine's Quill. The book is housed in a wooden box reminiscent of those used to present fine wines, with the wood evoking the casks where the wine is aged. All the wood for this project was hand stained and sealed. Accompanied by a prospectus with descriptions and images of the process of the book's production and of some of the engravings. In fine condition. Size 6 x 9 inches. 39 pages. (#37391)

Price: $750 

Biography of Grant and Sherman

Headley, Hon J.T.
Grant and Sherman; Their Campaigns and Generals. Comprising an authentic account of battles and sieges, adventures and incidents, including biographies of the prominent generals who brought to a triumphant close the Great Rebellion of 1861 - 1865
New York: E.B. Treat & Co, 1866.

A biography of Grant and Sherman as well as detailed descriptions of their military campaigns and their top generals. Includes numerous fine steel portraits, battle scenes, and maps. According to the publisher's note: "Mr. Headley's reputation and his facilities for obtaining facts and information, his personal acquaintance with many of the officers and soldiers of Grant's and Sherman's armies, and his access to the official documents, place the authenticity of this work beyond a doubt, and we offer it to the public as a standard and reliable addition to American literature. The great and peculiar value of this work consists in the fact that, in a comparatively small compass, the author has given a complete biography of the illustrious men whose deeds he celebrates, and , at the same time, correct pictures of the grand historical events in which they performed such important parts."

Bound in the original light brown pebbled cloth boards with oxidized gilt title and eagle to spine. Embossed geometric borders to both boards. Heavy wear and bumping to corners, wear to edges of boards, and wear to spine ends. Minor soiling to boards and spine. Penciled previous ownership marking to front free endpaper dated 1866 from Jacob Schildknecht of Myersville, Maryland. It appears that Jacob (1841 - 1903) was listed on the Civil War Draft Registration Records, so this book must have held much personal significance for him. Spots of foxing throughout, but clean overall. All plates are present. One front free endpaper and two rear free endpapers have been removed and stubs remain. Paper was scarce at the time of publication, and it was common for blank endpapers to be removed and repurposed for letter writing and note taking. 608 pages with four pages of publisher's ads to the front. Very Good. (#37294)

Price: $145

Unique Artists' Book - Playing Cards

Krause, Dorothy Simpson
Playing Around
Fort Lauderdale: Dorothy Simpson Krause, 2004.

This book is from noted book artist, Dorothy Simpson Krause. This book is one of two variants of the original, which was in Krause's Book+Art and is with the archive of the works in that book residing at the University of Miami special collections library. 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 Krause 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.

She describes the book's title of Playing Around as suggesting a double entendre, which is amplified by the two somewhat risqué playing card images. They portray a jack and a king engaging in a visual exchange, and are supported by metal tabs which enable the images to stand facing, as a bit of wry humor. The book does not fold and only stands. With black covers with a red title on the cover and Krause's signature and date on the rear cover. The front cover also has a silver shield ornament above the title. The card images are multi-colored. Their borders are slightly discolored but still bright. Accompanied by two black paper envelopes. Very good + condition. The work measures 7 x 9.5 inches and has two pages. (#37248)

Price: $450

Collective Crisis of Climate Change, Covid, Racial Injustice, etc.
Includes a "making of" book and film

[Moving Parts Press]
Rice, Felicia, book artist and printer; Theresa Whitehill, poet; Inge Bruggeman, preface to The Heavy Lifting Companion.
Heavy Lifting
Mendocino CA: Moving Parts Press, 2022.

Number 37 of 60 copies, signed by the book artist, the poet, and the binder, Craig Jensen. There were 48 copies of the standard edition and 12 copies of the deluxe edition. The books are accompanied by a digitally produced book The Heavy Lifting Companion, and the film On Heavy Lifting, all housed in a clamshell book box. Every book in the two editions is accompanied by the film, "On Heavy Lifting" on an SD card, but the deluxe edition also includes a second clamshell box that holds a laser cut printing plate and a digital viewer loaded with the film and eight other shorts.

This magnificent bookwork from Felicia Rice and Theresa Whitehill is a complex production that conveys the important messages that the artist and poet created from their collaboration. From the press website: "Heavy Lifting is a fierce work that names the darkness in the belief that the first stage of recovery from grief is acknowledgment, and that the precursor to action can be anger. It is a response to a call sounded by artist/educator Paul Soulellis in 2021: 'Publishing has always been political, but has it ever felt as urgent as it does right now in the global distress and intersecting crises of the past year? There’s a desperate need for new language to express publishing’s renewed urgency and importance. …let’s turn away from old, legacy publishing models towards something new: an ethics, craft, and politics of urgent making.”'

The genesis for this project sadly was a devastating megafire in August 2020 that destroyed almost one thousand structures in Santa Cruz, where Rice had lived and worked for fifty years. The fire took her home, her letterpress shop and an entire inventory of artists' books. She and her husband were able to relocate to her family home in Mendocino to try to start over. She fought back by starting work on a new book project that addressed the personal crisis of losing her home and shop to fire, but also what she termed the collective crises experienced during this time - Covid, climate change, racial injustice, the threat of totalitarianism, and immigration among them. Her collaboration with her friend and colleague Whitehill began after the poet sent her a poem that Rice knew she could use as the driving force for the new book. Whitehill subsequently composed fourteen deeply emotional poems for their now joint project. Ultimately this project grew into much more than an edition of sixty artist's books. Rice and Whitehall developed a commercially printed companion book, an experimental video, and a listening tour throughout northern California. (Rice and Whitehill were interviewed and wrote in detail about their collaboration and its broad influence and effects in the Mendocino Real Estate Magazine issued in January 2023. It is available on the website: https://realestatemendocino.com).

This is an accordion-fold book and clamshell book box covered in Brillianta book cloth by Craig Jensen of BookLab II. Typeset in Stempel Garamond and Faster One types and printed from lasercut and photopolymer plates on Arches Watercolor paper. Images created by Rice and printed from lasercut wood plates made by Rice and photopolymer plates made by The Artichoke Press. Letterpress and relief printing by Rice using a Vandercook proof press. The book is comprised of two nested accordion-fold panels: Panel 1 “Birds”: 10 x 14.5 x 80 and Panel 2 “Crises”: 10 x 12.5 x 100 ; Panels extended: 15 end-to-end. Book: 10 x 14.5 x .75 Clamshell Case: 11 x 15.625 x 1.625 . In fine condition.  (#37238)

Price: $2,700

Two Original Photographs from Hans Richter's film "8 x 8"

[Philippe Halsman, photographer; Hans Richter, film maker].
Two original black and white photographs from the making of Hans Richter's film "8 x 8"

Two striking original photographs taken during the filming of Hans Richter's "8 x 8". One of the two photographs is signed in red ink by Philippe Halsman, the photographer of both. A note on the back of the signed photo notes that Halsman signed this picture and that the film's cinematographer Arnold Eagle is visible in the background. The photos are mounted on discolored pieces of cardboard. In his original script for the film's prologue, Richter wrote: "...my film 8 x 8 is a bizarre comedy-drama, signs and sounds not only out of this world probably not even in the next. 8 x 8 mixes equal parts of Freud and Lewis Carroll, with Venice, Venus, and Old Vienna, Cocteau and Bullfights, surrealism, magic, dreams, girls and practically anything else that may currently be in your minds." Hans Richter undertook [8 x 8] at the suggestion of Marcel Duchamp, a chess enthusiast, after The Minotaur, a planned sequel to the 'Narcissus' episode of Dreams That Money Can Buy, failed to secure funding, although 8 x 8 engaged similar concerns... 'Chess is so universal,' wrote Richter to Jean Cocteau about this new project, 'that practically every human situation has its corresponding move among the countless possibilities of chess...' The filmmaker further recognized a kinship between the work, which took its title from the layout of a chessboard, and Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. Some of the artists who appeared in this film included Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Alexander Calder. The photographs are accompanied by a reprint of an article that was written by Lewis Carroll collectors, August and Clare Imholtz, for the Fall 2019 issue of "Knight Letter" about the film and its participants, along with a discussion of each of the photos. The photos are in very good condition. They measure 10.5 x 13.5 inches.  (#37323)

Price: $3,000

Palmistry Book (new edition)

Schwartzott, Carol, book artist
Cheiromancy (Chiromancy / Palmistry) The Language of the Hand
Freeville, NY: Carol Schwartzott, 2024.

Number 8 of 10 copies, new edition. Signed and numbered by the artist. Carol Schwartzott has been creating artists' books for over twenty-five years. Her work appears in many museums, libraries, and private collections including the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This engaging new edition of Carol's popular Palmistry book is bound in an accordion structure with hand colored, collaged elements including palmistry diagrams on each page. Includes three pages of text, nine illustrations, and colophon. The intriguing cover for the book has a colorful design of the palm of two hands with the images of an eye looking out. The title is on a blue label affixed to the cover. Housed in a altered Altoid box that has been collaged with a map on the cover and other designs on both interior and exterior. The book and box both come in a handmade black felt carrying case with blue ribbon pull ties. In fine condition. Size: book is about 3.5 x 2 inches; box is about 3.75 x 2.25 inches. Unpaginated. [18 pages.]  (#37277)

Price: $150 

Unique Artists' Book on Music
Includes an Original Musical Score

Williams, Thomas Parker, book artist
Beats and Solos 12/2023
Philadelphia: Thomas Parker Williams, 2023.

A unique artist's book by noted book artist and composer Thomas Parker Williams, signed and dated by him. Williams began creating artists' books in 1998 while also painting. As of 2009 he has limited his art practice exclusively to artists' books. He often creates videos and composes music to accompany his books that may be found on his website (www.thomasparkerwilliams.com). Books by Williams or the Luminice Press imprint under which he and his wife Mary Agnes Williams issue books, may be found in 88 public collections around the country including the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art.

This complex and inventive work is a visual transcription of a composition composed and recorded by Williams in December 2023. All artwork, music composition, drum programming, recording and performance (all instruments) by Thomas Parker Williams. It features music created like a DJ performance with jazz inspired solos on saxophones and an electronic wind instrument (a video of the book with music performance is available on the artist's website). The triangular book opens to a double-sided hexagram.The first side of the work is an accurate visual transcription through time of the composition, assigning colors and shapes to the various instruments. Colors were assigned as follows: Dark blue, browns, orange and grays - drums and rhythm instruments; Green, lighter blue, red, violet and yellows - keyboard instruments; Ocher and yellow - electronic wind instrument; Gold and copper - saxophones. The drawing is divided into 41 sections arranged in a clockwise rotation. Each division is 21.6 seconds long and illustrateds the time period of eighteen 6/8 measures at 150 beats per minute. This is the rhythmic base for the entire composition, and the shapes mark the accurate time and duration of instruments in the work. The second side is an abstract representation of possible moods suggested by the music as it progresses through the five sections. The artist's notes and working papers are available with the purchase of this striking work.

The book is comprised of 6 double sided triangular panels hinged to open to a hexagon. The first side is done in Acrylic ink, markers, and colored pencil. The second side is done in dry pigments in alkyd medium and acrylic inks. Printed on Strathmore 400 series acrylic paper. In a slipcase painted in the same colors as the book and protected by a black paper folder. In fine condition. Measures 10 x 12 x .25 inches closed and 21 x 21 inches open.  (#37226)

Price: $1,800 

Australian Chain Gangs - a novel from the late 1800s

Hornung, E.W.
The Rogue's March.
London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1896.

Ernest William Hornung (1866-1921) was an English author and poet best known for writing the A.J. Raffles series about a gentleman thief in Victorian England. The Raffles series has been the subject of film and television adaptations. Hornung was married to the sister of his friend, Arthur Conan Doyle, and was also a friend of Oscar Wilde. For health reasons, he spent two years in Australia as a teen, and this influenced much of his writing. The Rogue's March is about the Australian convict transport system. The title of this book was taken from a convict's letter in which he writes: As for the chain-gangs, you oft-times hear them jingling half-a-mile away and 'tis nigh all the music we get, a kind of Rogue's March, to remind us where we are and why we came."

First edition of a scarce early Hornung title. Bound in original tan-yellow cloth with gilt title to spine. Title, author, and flower design in black on front cover. Minor rubbing to boards and small dark stain to spine. A few spots of foxing to first and last few pages, browning to a few interior pages and to fore-edge, else very clean. 431 pages plus several pages of ads. Very Good. (#4090)

Price: $90, but now 20% off - $72

First Edition
Criticism of Carlyle's Views on the Impending Russo-Turkish War of 1877

Swinburne, Algernon Charles.
Note of an English Republican on the Muscovite Crusade.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1876.

First edition of this monograph. Swinburne, who had strong political views, writes here a strong and hostile piece about Thomas Carlyle's views on the war between Turkey and Russia.

Bound in the original grey wrappers. Some fading and aging but very good. Interior pages are clean and bright. Housed in a handsome green cloth box with gilt title and date to spine. Bookplate of previous owner, Mark Samuels Lasner, on inside front panel of box. 24 pages. Very Good. (#4103)

Price: $100, but now 20% off - $80

Presentation Copy Inscribed to the Author's Sister
Love Story That Explores Ethical and Political Dilemmas of the late 1800s

Ward, Mrs. Humphry (Mary Augusta Arnold).
Sir George Tressady.
London: Smith, Elder, 1896.

Mary Augusta Ward, née Arnold, (1851-1920) was a preeminent Victorian and Edwardian novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward. Her uncle was the poet Matthew Arnold. Ward's novels contained strong religious subject matter relevant to Victorian values. She was popular in the United States as well as Britain. Her book Lady Rose's Daughter was the best-selling novel in the United States in 1903, as was The Marriage of William Ashe in 1905. Ward's most popular novel was the religious "novel with a purpose" Robert Elsmere. Sir George Tressady was her 7th novel. It was originally published as a serial from 1895 to 1896.

This is the first trade edition and is a presentation copy inscribed to the author's younger sister "E.M. Arnold with the writer's love." Ethel Margaret Arnold planned a stage career and had literary ambitions, later becoming known as a "New Woman Journalist." Her relationship with Ward was difficult, but she served as the model for Alice, the heroine's mentally unstable 'manic sister', in Eleanor (1900). This novel is somewhat of a sequel to Marcella as its heroine is a central character in this novel as the married Lady Maxwell. Tressady, the title character is a married baronet who falls in love with Marcella.

Octavo. Original green cloth boards with gilt title to spine and black title to front board. Joints are tender, spine is rubbed and worn, and corners are bumped. There are a few small dark spots to the rear board. There is minor browning to the endpapers, else the interior is clean. 571 pages plus ads. Very Good. (#17406)

Price: $150, but now 20% off - $120

Essays & Travelogues from late 1800s

Zangwill, Israel.
Without Prejudice.
London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896.

FIRST EDITION. Jewish author and political activist, Israel Zangwill (1864 - 1926), was passionate about campaigning for the oppressed. Many of his works address women's suffrage, pacifism, Zionism, and Jewish emancipation. He was a strong believer of assimilation and is best known for his influential novel "Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People" (1892) which was later released as a play titled "The Melting Pot" (1908). Zangwill is credited with coining the term "melting pot" to describe the fusion of various cultures and ethnicities (OCEL 1097).

This is a rare volume of literary essays and travel accounts. Most of the selections were originally printed in "Pall Mall Magazine." This "book covers a wide range of topics, including politics, social issues, literature, and culture. Zangwill's writing is characterized by his sharp wit, incisive commentary, and progressive views on issues such as women's rights, immigration, and racial equality. The essays in 'Without Prejudice' are both thought-provoking and entertaining, offering a glimpse into the intellectual climate of the time and the challenges facing society as it grappled with the rapid changes of the modern era. Zangwill's work remains relevant today as a testament to the power of critical thinking and the importance of speaking out against injustice" (online review).

In original blue cloth boards with gilt title to spine and front board. A few spots of foxing to interior, most notably on the endpapers. Bookplate of book collector, Mark Samuels Lasner, to front pastedown. An attractive copy of this scarce book. 384 pages. (#21515)

Price: $125, but now 20% off - $100