Wight, Gail .
San Francisco, California:, 2022.
San Francisco, California:: Salt Point Press,, 2022.. Edition of 20. 5.5 x 7" closed, extends to 10 meter (64"); 80 pages. Accordion structure. Letterpress printed in Cochin. With illustrated paper wrapper. Archival pigment prints are on Canson Infinity Aquarelle. Letterpress pages at the beginning and end of the book are printed on Rives BFK with mulberry hinges. Housed in 8 x 8.25 x 3.25" clamshell box constructed of archival book board covered with pigment prints on Moenkopi kozo. Signed and numbered by the artist. Each box contains a unique piece of seaweed from the Pacific coastline in northern California. Salt Point Press: "'Copepodilia Collectanea' presents an imaginary menagerie of copepods - minuscule aquatic crustaceans - created using seaweed pressings. High resolution pigment prints of the pressings retain the textures and dimensionality of the original pressings. "Text by Melanie Stiassny, ichthyologist at the American Museum of Natural History, introduces the fundamentals of copepod life." Gail Wight: "While reading Melanie Stiassny's gorgeous book Opulent Oceans, I came to the chapter titled ' The Golden age of Copepodology' and my mind was set ablaze. … With just a few facts in hand - they have little swimmy appendages for movement, sometimes egg sacs, and often tiny antennae - I decided to draw my own imaginary menagerie of copepods, using seaweed as my medium.
[Dry-Inc] Richard Kegler.
Rochester , New York:, 2020.
Rochester , New York:: P22 Publications,, 2020.. Folio Edition of 20. Book Edition: Slightly oversized Quarto 9.5 × 12.5"; 56 pages. 26 wood type specimens. Printed on 100lb Arjowiggins Utopia 2 Ivory Matte text paper. 82 hand-press runs in six different print shops. Case sewn and hand-bound in Asahi cloth (red or orange). Foil-stamped cover (gold on red or black on orange). Signed and numbered by Richard Kegler. Folio Edition: Same as Book Edition except specimens and descriptions unbound as individual one-sided plates. Laid in a box hand-bound in blue Asahi cloth with gold foil and spine label. Press Statement: "A tour de force of typographic design and a celebration of American printing innovation,' A Specimen of Wood Type' is a hand-bound, hardcover letterpress printed book by Richard Kegler. It features 26 wood type specimens hand-printed between January 2017 and October 2020 using the original wood types referenced to digitize the Hamilton Wood Type Collection (HWT) from P22 Type Foundry. Multicolor innovative layouts highlight the type designs printed with the actual wood type used to make these revivals are paired up with accompanying descriptive text that was set and cast in metal type by the celebrated Press & Letterfoundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler of Skaneateles, NY. "Richard Kegler printed the specimens using vintage wood type collections at six locations across the USA. These include the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum (Two Rivers, WI); Wells Book Arts Center (Aurora, NY); RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection (Rochester, NY); the Western New York Book Arts Center (Buffalo, NY); Flower City Arts Center (Rochester, NY); and P22 Press (Rochester, NY). The typographic showings vary from one to three colors each for a total of 82 press runs.
[Dry-Inc] Richard Kegler.
Rochester , New York:, 2022.
Rochester , New York:: Dry Inc ,, 2022.. Edition of 50. 6.25 x 9.25". Type: Kennerley Pro by Lanston Type Company. Paper: Mohawk Via 700# Laid Natural White. Hardback case binding in Japanese Marine Blue cloth. Tipped-on spine label. Custom marbled endpapers by Stephen Pittelkow. Hand bound by Richard Kegler at Wells College Press. Signed and numbered by Richard Kegler. Press Statement: "The digital version of Frederic Goudy's Aries typeface, was released by P22 Type Foundry in 2003-and the result of Richard Kegler's ongoing research into the history of this type and the Aries Press are collected into this book. Co-published by RIT Press, 'The Aries Press of Eden New York' tells the story of a curious chapter in a long history of printing and independent publishing. There are many connections to renowned figures in the art, printing, and typographic worlds of the 1920s. The book is a complete bibliography and brief history of Aries Press. "Spencer Kellogg Jr., a businessman and book designer, founded the Aries Press in Eden, N.Y., during the 1920s with a vision to produce high-quality book designs. Kellogg hired talented workers with a passion for printing, including a craftsman connected to the nearby Roycroft campus. He also commissioned type designer Frederic Goudy to create a typeface for Aries Press. While the press was only open for four years, it produced many fine standard-setting examples of printing. "In 1926, the first book printed at the Aries Press, 'The Ghost Ship', by Richard Middleton, was named one of the 50 best-designed books by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. To uphold the high-quality printing values of a private press, no more than 300 copies of a book were printed. "The Aries Press was also known for its connections to William Morris, Rockwell Kent and Bruce Rogers. Kellogg purchased his printing press from Frederic Goudy. It was later known as the Kelmscott/Goudy Albion Press and was acquired by the Cary Graphic Arts Collection in 2013. "Printers, print historians and typographers will enjoy the Aries Press story as will anyone with an interest in Western New York history. The colorful examples highlighted in Kegler's book provide inspiration for today's contemporary designers. "This book was nominated for a bibliographic prize and is now offered in 3 formats: Deluxe, Regular, and for the intrepid book binder, Unbound press signatures." Deluxe edition: " A collaboration between P22 Type Foundry, RIT Press, and Wells College Press; Additional letterpress printed pages, including a frontispiece printed on the Kelmscott-Goudy Albion Press at Rochester Institute of Technology; " A specimen of Dard Hunter's Roycroft alphabet printed from wood type; Re-strikes from original Aries Press blocks; An original leaf from 'The Ghost Ship' printed at the Aries Press.
[Dry-Inc].
Aurora, New York / Rochester, New York:, 2022.
Aurora, New York / Rochester, New York:: Dry Inc / Wells College Press,, 2022.. Edition of 50. 6.5" x 6.5"; 40 pages. Letterpress and pigment prints. Photographs printed in black and grey pigment with an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 on 196g Hahnemühle Photo Rag Duo. Additional page paper is Hahnemühle 180g cotton. Metal type specimens are printed on tipped-in Kozuke White paper. The specimen header type is the same hand-set metal Spiral type used by Victor Hammer at Wells College, Aurora, NY. The running text is set in digital Emerson by Jerry Kelly. Additional specimens and running text are printed from photopolymer plates produced at Boxcar Press, Syracuse, NY. Marbled endpapers were made by Susan Doran specifically for this book. Case bound in rust colored Asahi cloth with inset "VH" title label. Design, printing, and binding by Richard Kegler. Signed and numbered by Kegler. Foreword by Dan Reynolds. Press statement: "The finest examples of any of Victor Hammer's typefaces in use are found in his own limited-edition books that feature elegant compositions with generous leading and understated simplicity. Hammer's dedication to and focus on the uncial form occupied many years of his prolific and varied artistic life. The archives of the Wells College Book Arts Center in Aurora, New York, hold the majority of the extant materials related to the making of his typefaces. Various punches, matrices, and trial castings found in this archive have inspired the typefaces presented in this book. 'The Faces of Victor Hammer' features an intimate look at the man through a series of seven black and white photographs taken at Wells College in the 1940s by his friend, fellow Austrian expatriate Robert Haas. These portraits are paired with printed specimens of his typefaces. Materials were sourced from the Wells College Archives and reproductions were made where original materials could not be found. Specimens included feature the typefaces: Hammer Unziale (Hammerschrift), Ratdolt, Samson, Pindar, Aurora Uncial, American Uncial (3 sizes), Andromaque, Underwood Typewriter, plus Greek variants and test plate proofs.
[never mind the press] Alisa Golden.
Berkeley, California:, 2019.
Berkeley, California:: never mind the press ,, 2019.. Edition of 18. 6 x 7.5" closed, extends to 66"; two accordions extending from each interior back panel. Letterpress printed from handset type and linocuts. Materials: black Stonehenge paper, acrylic ink-dyed muslin, paste paper, book cloth. Bound in cloth boards. Signed and numbered by the artist Alisa Golden: "The Bearded Vulture is a fascinating Old World bird; we don't have them in North America, but they did have them in Palestine/Israel as far back as biblical times, and as recently as 1982, the last time a pair raised a family there. I was fascinated that the majority of their diet is bones, and they wait for other scavengers to finish before they swoop in. In captivity their body feathers remain white. By creating a doubled cover and two one-sheet accordion structures I wanted to capture the feeling of unfolding out into their seven-to-nine-foot wingspan. "Peres. Bearded Vulture is a bird that is unclean to eat. In Genesis, Abraham beats away vultures from a sacrifice he offers, but it is not likely it was the Bearded Vulture. Bearded Vultures eat only bones and marrow; they clean up when the last bone has been picked clean by other animals. Bearded Vultures also preen with iron-rich dirt, so I printed linoleum cuts first, then hand painted the earth tones into the feathers.
Wight, Gail .
San Francisco, California:, 2022.
San Francisco, California:: Salt Point Press,, 2022.. Edition of 1000. 10 x 8.25 "; 120 pages. Offset printing. Smyth bound, headbands, gilding. Debossed cloth hardcover. In illustrated paper wrapper. Press statement: "What might houseflies, who evolved 65 million years ago, look like 65 million years in the future? Wight created a series of prints in 2014 in which flies have evolved to mimic familiar flowers: daisies, calla lilies, tulips and astors. "Now, all sixty-four original prints have been gathered together in this gorgeous herbarium designed by Michelle Frey. With essays by Iain Boal and Meredith Tromble, this herbarium contains many additional photos, a conversation between Lawrence Weschler and Gail Wight, a Latin dictionary of flower names, and four full-bleed spreads of Wight's work Land of the Flies. "Filled with beautiful and detailed floral specimens, 'Hexapodarium' echoes the great botanical collections of previous centuries. Yet these flowers are otherworldly, constructed entirely from wings of ordinary house flies. They were created using composite photography of high resolution microscopic images of flies that expired in the artist's studio during a particularly hot summer. Each flower alludes to a true plant species, reflected in its Latin binomial: part flower, part fly. In turn, Hexapodarium's flowers become the palette for 'Land of the Flies'. These frieze-like futuristic landscapes are built from hundreds of composited layers of flowers, flies, and other interloping flora and fauna. "Three authors weigh in on 'Hexapodarium'. Lawrence Weschler, New Yorker columnist and author of 'Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees' and 'True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney', engages Wight in a conversation traversing Darwin's voyages on the Beagle, Dutch vanitas paintings, and the making of Hexapodarium. "Iain Boal, social historian of technics and the commons and co-author of 'Resisting the Virtual Life and Afflicted Powers', sees 'Hexapodarium' as an art for the anthropocene, where we relinquish our hold on the future and engage in celebrating those creatures surrounding us who have survived multiple epochs and hold the promise of evolutionary wiles. "Meredith Tromble ties it all together, placing Hexapodarium in the larger scope of Wight's works of art. For decades, Wight has focused on life forms other than our own. Evolution, cognition, the animal-state-of-being, and deep time have been a source of biological allegory for Wight's playful and provocative creations.".
Wight, Gail .
San Francisco, California:, 2010.
San Francisco, California:: San Francisco Center for the Book,, 2010.. Edition of 100. 6 x 4" a set of 4 postcards and sheet of stamps. Postcards separated by perforation. Letterpress and pigments prints. Signed and numbered by the artist. In cellophane envelope. Gail Wight: "'Restless Dust Postcards' is the accompanying trade edition of 'Restless Dust'. It includes an accordion-fold set of four postcards separated by perforation. The postcards are letterpress and the sheet of stamps are archival pigment prints. Text and images come from the 'Restless Dust' book. The text of the book invites Charles Darwin's ghost to sail to present day San Francisco and wander with me through the greater Bay Area. The focus of the journey is three-fold: to celebrate Northern California's unique species; to examine Darwin's legacy and its impact on the Bay Area; and to acknowledge the fragile and endangered state of local flora and fauna, beleaguered by environmental degradation during Darwin's time and my own. Created while in residence with the Imprint at the San Francisco Center for the Book. "The title is a remix of a quote from Mary Wollstonecraft: 'It appears to me impossible that I should cease to exist, or that this active, restless spirit, equally alive to joy and sorrow, should be only organized dust.'
Kokin, Lisa.
El Sobrante, California:, 1993.
El Sobrante, California:: Lisa Kokin,, 1993.. One-of-a-Kind. 7.5 x 9.5 x 4"; 16 pads making 32 pages. Materials: rubber; latex-coated mini-pads; leather; photo transfers; found objects. Mixed media collage. Bound with leather run through two holes in each leaf sewn to rubber glove. Covers made of rubber glove, rubber balloons and top of rubber hot water bottle. Includes cloth pathology bag. Lisa Kokin, Mixed Media Books: "My definition of 'book' is open-ended, a freedom which is in many ways attributable to my lack of formal book art training. I am blissfully unaware of all the rules I am breaking as I go about my routine of sewing, stapling, riveting and otherwise reassembling objects to transform them into something readable. My books address themes which have preoccupied me for many years -- loss, the rescuing of memory, cultural and sexual identity, and a critique of the prevailing social values." In this mixed media book Kokin uses text from a Scientology pamphlet on latex-coated mini-pad pages. The first two leaves start with the instruction "Your happy task is to /separate your real nature / from the false nature / that has temporarily taken over your life." An interesting pairing of Scientology instruction and doctrine with the natural function of a woman's body.
Deschamps, Francois.
New Patlz, New York:, 2023.
New Patlz, New York:: Francois Deschamps,, 2023.. Edition of 100. 9 x 12" tin box containing 3 books and 3 unassembled die cut cubes. Title label on box lid. Signed by the artist. Model Theory, Artist Statement: "The book project 'Model Theory', 2023, is a work of visual philosophy that examines the presentation of reality as a digital model. The project was inspired by a half year Fulbright residency in Prague in 2018. As Deschamps oscillated between looking at the 3D Google earth modeling of the city and photographing the actual city, he began to see the Prague as a model of itself. "The components of the project include three books and three die cut cubes based on souvenirs of Prague, all housed in a 9x12" tin box. These disparate elements are intended to bounce off of each other to create an atmosphere imbued with content. "The book Dark Curtains (10x8.5", 60pp) presents the city in a series of photographs juxtaposed with the surrealistic account of a Kafka scholar's visit to Prague. " The slim volume The Book of Models (8x4", 42pp) comprises 10 short stories based on various forms of modeling. " The die cut cubes (2.5 x 2.5x 2.5") can be easily assembled and disassembled for storage in the tin. " The 'Model Theory' project explores how models, physical and conceptual organize society, culture, and behavior.
Kokin, Lisa.
El Sobrante, California:, 2005.
El Sobrante, California:: Lisa Kokin,, 2005.. One-of-a-Kind. 11.75 x 9.5 x .25" altered book. Mixed media book collage including sewing. Signed and dated by the artist. Lisa Kokin: "Using an early 20th century book for children called 'Around the World' as a substrate, I abraded parts of the text and added found photos of children's faces which I sanded down to remove the features, as well as part of a page from a Hebrew school notebook similar to the ones I used as a child. Holes drilled into the book recall bullet holes. "I was taught that no one lived in Israel/Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948." Lisa Kokin, Book Collages: "In my never-ending quest to find different ways to eviscerate books, I stumbled upon the book collage. First I find a book which interests me, either for some element of text, image or marginalia, or for the look of the book itself. Sometimes I remove some of the pages and glue and/or sew the book open to the particular page of interest. Other times I remove all the pages and use the inside covers as the collage surface. I build upon what initially interests me by layering images and text from the same or other books, found photos, and other small objects, using a variety of collage and transfer techniques." Lisa Kokin, interview with Meg Hitchcock: "My imagery can vary a lot, but there are certain elements that unify my work. There's the presence of sewing in one form or another, which I use as a means of attachment and embellishment. In the past I've made books, sculpture, and installations that have a social justice or historical component, and I've expressed my various experiences of being Jewish, being in a same-sex relationship, and my affinity with the underdog and marginalized. There's also an ongoing investigation into Jewish history in a way that makes sense to me as an adult, as opposed to how it was taught to me as a child. So there's a consistency of looking critically at the outer world and commenting on it, not heavy-handedly or didactically but often with humor. … "I grew up in a Jewish family, very secular, but I went to Hebrew school which was an indoctrination into a certain way of thinking about being a Jew. I accepted it all until I became an adult and started thinking for myself, and eventually realized that I couldn't accept the whole package.
Viroqua, Wisconsin:: Heavy Duty Press,, 2022.. Edition of 88. 11 x 7 cm; 28 pages. Printed in 4 colors. The handset type is primarily genuine ATF Century Expanded, Oldstyle, and Schoolbook, but also includes every last font of the type inventory held by The Heavy Duty Press as of January 2022. Printed silently with Spiffy the Vandercook SP 15 on Kitakata paper and bound by hand with a pamphlet stitch, tucked into Bugra covers, and slipped into muslin tea bags screen printed by The Factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Signed and numbered by Koppa. Michael Koppa: "Eight quotations from eight tea bags amidst eighty Bags set in eighty fonts,annotated for reference in the title 'Just my type: Specimens from the Type Store at Der Klubhaus'." "One morning, while steeping my tea and reading an inspirational quotation, it occurred to me that it would be a sweet relief to create a simple a book comprised of a few tea bag quotes on a single sheet of paper. Lovely, another book in the queue. From that point on, I started saving the quotes, until I had enough to decide upon a theme. Easy: Nature.
El Sobrante, California:: Lisa Kokin,, 2005.. One-of-a-Kind. 11.75 x 9.5 x .25" altered book. Mixed media book collage including sewing. Signed and dated by the artist. Lisa Kokin: "Using an early 20th century book for children called 'Around the World' as a substrate, I abraded parts of the text and added found photos of children's faces which I sanded down to remove the features, as well as part of a page from a Hebrew school notebook similar to the ones I used as a child. Holes drilled into the book recall bullet holes. "I was taught that no one lived in Israel/Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948." Lisa Kokin, Book Collages: "In my never-ending quest to find different ways to eviscerate books, I stumbled upon the book collage. First I find a book which interests me, either for some element of text, image or marginalia, or for the look of the book itself. Sometimes I remove some of the pages and glue and/or sew the book open to the particular page of interest. Other times I remove all the pages and use the inside covers as the collage surface. I build upon what initially interests me by layering images and text from the same or other books, found photos, and other small objects, using a variety of collage and transfer techniques." Lisa Kokin, interview with Meg Hitchcock: "My imagery can vary a lot, but there are certain elements that unify my work. There's the presence of sewing in one form or another, which I use as a means of attachment and embellishment. In the past I've made books, sculpture, and installations that have a social justice or historical component, and I've expressed my various experiences of being Jewish, being in a same-sex relationship, and my affinity with the underdog and marginalized. There's also an ongoing investigation into Jewish history in a way that makes sense to me as an adult, as opposed to how it was taught to me as a child. So there's a consistency of looking critically at the outer world and commenting on it, not heavy-handedly or didactically but often with humor. … "I grew up in a Jewish family, very secular, but I went to Hebrew school which was an indoctrination into a certain way of thinking about being a Jew. I accepted it all until I became an adult and started thinking for myself, and eventually realized that I couldn't accept the whole package.
Berkeley, Califonira:: never mind the press ,, 2019.. Edition of 18. 5.75 x 7.5"closed, extends to 44 x 7.5"; 14 pages. Accordion and signature combination book. Letterpress printed from handset English and Hebrew metal type and linocuts on hand marbled (Suminagashi) mulberry paper. Signatures sewn with sashiko thread. Walnut Paperwood endpapers. Black cloth covered boards in matching black cloth slipcase. Signed and numbered by the artist. Alisa Golden: "After learning that the raven was the first bird Noah sent out of the ark, preceding the dove, I had questions. If ravens mate for life, what happened to the mate? What did the raven do besides return and fly 'to and fro?' I wrote my own interpretation from the point of view of the raven. "The center mountain fold is letterpress printed in both English and Hebrew in rainbow colors with part of the Jewish prayer said upon seeing a rainbow. I machine stitched the lightweight paper to heavier paper with rainbow thread in a leaf pattern, signifying dry land. "I marbled mulberry paper with the Japanese Suminagashi technique where inks are floated on water and stirred to get organic waves, the Flood waters. "In present day, occasionally ravens stop in at the Osprey nest that I watch online, generally when the Ospreys are away and the ravens scavenge for scraps of fish. I was alerted to a raven camera in Iceland by one of my fellow Osprey watchers, and was able to observe them as the young grew and eventually fledged and disappeared. The reduction cut at the end of the book was based on a screen shot from that Icelandic nest." "Orev. Raven was sent out first into an unrecognizable landscape, then returned to find Noah somewhat disengaged from life as he turned to his vineyard, perhaps for solace from the disaster that was the Flood.
Viroqua, Wisconsin:: Heavy Duty Press,, 2023.. Edition of 18. 28 x 23 cm, 20 pages. All sorts of antique Franklin Gothics printed in four colors with Spiffy the Vandercook on Hahnemuhle Biblio, Ingres, and Bugra (jacket) paper. Bound by hand with a simple pamphlet stitch into a Hahnemuhle Photo Rag cover, giclee printed with photographs documenting the process, tucked into a rigid Bugra jacket. Signed and numbered by the artist. Michael Koppa: "When all my drawers of Franklin Gothic type needed to be cleaned, the mundane but necessary shop maintenance task turned into a book about the process. The result is a 20-page book featuring every last sort from nine California job cases of genuine ATF Franklin Gothic typefaces-maybe not older than the hills, but definitely older than me-in varying stages of wear, arranged according to a variety of strategies only likely to occur when composing individual metal types by hand. "The final product of this very spontaneous and time-crunched project is a bold book conveying the frantic experience of creating it, while celebrating Franklin Gothic in a typographically jazzy manner..
Viroqua, Wisconsin:: Heavy Duty Press.. Edition of 26. 1102 full color collaborative collages, laser printed on acid free 70 lb Accent Text, in five 36-page books, measuring 178 x 127 mm, pamphlet stitched, with letterpress printed jackets of Stonehenge paper in five colors, in a one-of-kind archival slipcase, wrapped with a letterpress printed cover, proofs of pages from the booklets, and a reproduction of fine art selected from "World Famous Paintings", edited by Rockwell Kent. Numbered. Heavy Duty Press: "Cocoborpo is an acronymish word derived from an abbreviation of the phrase 'collaborative collage book project,' of which there are five, with seven collaging colleagues in North America and Europe. "Each booklet includes 20 collages (with the exception of No. 4, which includes 22), collaboratively created through six exchanges of a package of ten 2-sided cards through the postal service, over the course of a year or two. The artists were invited to add or subtract from the collages, and return them in a suggested sequence, as if the cards would become pages in a book. "These collaborations included no verbal or written communication. The artists were forced to relinquish control with each exchange, and respond to whatever came back from the hands and mind of another artist. The books are evidence of conversations with image selection, placement, and technique. "Sans text, these books reveal the story of a creative process, and express ideas, emotions, and perspectives through the arrangement of cut and torn pieces of the printed ephemera we find in all corners of our lives. As collagists, we use printed (or not) found paper, and sometimes other media, to create subtly balanced compositions, expressing ourselves with apparent chaos. Or, perhaps, in the spirit of the Dadaists, we find beauty in the chaos resulting from random arrangements of the printed matter that clutters our world. "At long last, five years after the project began, all of the cards have become book pages, and together they create this collection of five independently orchestrated collaborative collage book projects. As a suite, unified by their common format and structure, housed in an archival slipcase, 'Les Cocobopros' is one cohesive work of art, by eight artists who speak collage.
[Saint Paul, Minnesota]:: Hot Tomato Press,, 2023.. Variable series, each unique. Mixed media with handmade paper (cotton, ink, nickel-plated steel, and Warren'sclay-covered overalls). Typewritten text. Punched and strung. Erica Spitzer Rasmussen: "'Thoughts About Pots' is an artists' book series that features quotes by my late stepfather, Warren MacKenzie. The series is a tribute to Warren, who taught ceramics at the University of Minnesota for thirty-seven years. Some quotes are humorous. Others are solemn. The handmade paper contains Warren's clay-covered overalls that were salvaged from his pottery after his death. The text includes references regarding Warren's first wife, Alix MacKenzie, and his mentors, Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada. Like Warren's pots, no two books are the same."
