The Prototype Press. Mark Sarigianis, 3835 Tranquility Place, Indian Head, MD 20640, USA. Tel: +17036154868. Website: https://www.theprototypepress.com.
Rudyard Kipling. Rikki-tikki-tavi. 2023. 29 pages. 380 x 250 mm. Handset 18pt Italian Old Style on handmade paper from Papeterie St. Armand, Montreal, 5 photopolymer illustrations by Chuck Jones. Printed on Vandercook 32-28. 28 copies half-bound in black goat leather with handmade yellow paper, spine title gold stamped, and housed in a slipcase covered in handmade paper with a gold flash-drive containing the 1975 animated cartoon by Chuck Jones. Price: $1,500.
Starshaped Press. Jen Farrell, 4636 N. Ravenswood #103, Chicago, IL 60640, USA. Tel: +17737286359. Website: https://www.starshaped.com.
Jennifer Farrell, with contributions from the community-at-large. Tummy Ache. 2023. 1 page (poster). 14 x 20 in. Various typefaces on Fabriano Tiziano and French paper. Printed on Vandercook SP15. 50 copies: 25 folded to fit within hardboard, French paper wrapped covers that are also printed, the poster portion being printed on both sides for this edition only, price: $250; 25 without binding, poster only, price: $85.
For the second in a series of poster books addressing an uncomfortable connection with the American healthcare system, I reached out to the public to share comments they received from the medical establishment in regards to intense GI issues. The interior features comments made by medical professionals. The cover shows comments made by family/friends/strangers who don’t understand the complexities of GI issues. All of it is set with a selection of metal type from the Starshaped Press collection.
Peter and Donna Thomas. Peter Thomas, 260 15th Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, USA. Tel: +18315152757.
Peter Thomas, Donna Thomas and Guy Van Cleve. Goodbye Bonita Lagoon, A Papermaker’s Elegy. 2023. 80 pages. 300 x 225 mm. Neuland and wood type on cotton rag paper handmade by Peter Thomas, 10 linocut illustrations by Donna Thomas, 8 folios variously handmade using pampas grass, Kahili ginger, New Zealand flax, wild radish, century plant, bird of paradise, tule, blackberry, and a single sheet made from lawn clippings, each folio with a single cotton-rag insert. Printed on Vandercook Universal 1, Pearl Golding, Ganes Brother Gooseneck hot stamp press. 30 copies bound by Peter and Donna Thomas in a tri-fold binding with 2 leather spines and sewn accordion binding structure, cloth over boards, light green linen cloth letterpress printed with three color linocut print on front cover, and title blind stamped on spine in brown foil. Price: $975.
In each of the 8 plant-paper folios, the single sheet insert has a linocut of the plant, and name of the corresponding plant printed in various sizes and styles with wood type. The binding design both protects the fore edge and accommodates its being thinner than the spine. An inside cover board gives the viewer a substantial page to hold as the accordion is extended, as a flag book, for reading the text or viewing all the plant papers at once. The binding is an original design by Peter and Donna Thomas, based on the case bound fold-out accordion and accordion pleat spine structures described in their More Making Books by Hand (Quarry Books, 2004).
Fox Ash Press. David Jury, 73 Hungerdown Lane, Lawford,, Essex Manningtree, UK. Tel: +447944809024. Website: https://www.davidjury.com.
Peter Kennedy. P D Kennedy is From Brunlea. 2022. 48 pages. 450mm x 380 mm. Monotype Grot 216 on Zerkal 145gsm, smooth, illustrations by Kennedy. Printed on Vandercook proofing press. 25 copies: bound by Patrick Auer (Flyleaf Book Binding), 48 leaves tabbed, glued, and concertina-folded and held within paper-covered boards with a cloth spine and then boxed. Price: £2,250.
Letterpress printed with 48 tipped-in photographs. When the concertina-folded sheets are fully open the text forms a chimney stack that is 33 feet tall. Kennedy’s father was a renowned steeplejack, and on the frontispiece Kennedy is seen with his father on a chimney exactly three times taller than the text of this book. The text concerns Kennedy’s great escape from Brunlea in 1971 and the following three years at college discovering girls, alcohol, art, and books – in that order.
Plain Wrapper Press Redux. Mark Fischer, 1008 Clinton Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. Tel: +12672506000. Website: https://www.plainwrapperpress.com.
Lisa Tetrault. Declaration of Sentiments. 2023. 24 pages. 290 x 200 mm. Diotima on Velke Losiny Prague, 2 letterpress-printed images by Susan Lowdermilk from original wood engravings and from polymer plates of printed wooden type. Printed on 219 Vandercook. 100 copies bound by Jace Graf at Cloverleaf Studio, quarter-bound in Medium Blue Harmatan Goatskin and blue Hahnemühle Bugra paste papers designed and produced by Sandy Tilcock, spine stamped in gold with the book title, hardboard slipcase covered in Cobalt Blue Colorplan paper and dry-stamped with the Plain Wrapper Press pressmark. Price: $390.
Old Fan Press. Frank Hamrick, 1302 E. Mississippi Avenue, Ruston, LA 71270, USA. Tel: +14787879932. Website: http://frankhamrick.com/home/.
Frank Hamrick. When the light becomes eternal. 2023. 16 pages. 8.625 x 8.5 in. Craw Modern on Double sided matte Red River Paper, 14 photographs by Frank Hamrick. Printed on Vandercook Universal. 59 copies: 9 proof; 50 pamphlet bound with handmade cotton rag covers and end sheet paper, sewn through cover, end sheet and text block with 18/3 Irish linen thread. Price: $100.
The title “When the light becomes eternal” is based on a toy drone’s poorly translated instructions. The book includes 14 prints from tintype photographs altered by moving subjects, shifting light, failing equipment, recycled materials, as well as contaminated, homemade, and exhausted chemistry conveying something more than had originally been intended.
Mnemonic Press. Harriet Bart, Studio #308, 250 Third Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55401, USA. Tel: +16123751598. Website: http://www.harrietbart.com/i-saw-it
Ilya Selvinsky, translated by Dr. Maxim D. Shrayer. I Saw It. 2023. 38 pages. 10 in x 6.5 in. Preissig Roman on Rives BFK 180 gsm, 7 cut paper illustrations, cut from black Strathmore text by Harriet Bart, printed from polymer plates by Philip Gallo. Printed on a Vandercook No. 4 by Philip Gallo at Hermetic Press. 37 copies: 35 and 2AP, bound by Sherelyn Ogden, fitted into Graphite-toned Plike Wrappers and enclosed in clamshell box fabricated by Cambell-Logan Bindery and covered in matte black Japanese book cloth, with the image of the “falling figure,” taken from the book, foil-stamped in black on the cover of the box. Price: $1200.
The book presents the poem of the same title written by the Jewish-Russian constructivist poet Ilya Selvinsky (1899-1968). In January 1942, while serving as a military journalist, Selvinsky witnessed the immediate aftermath of the massacre of thousands of Jews outside the Crimean city of Kerch and published this poem about it.
Incline Press. Graham Moss, 36 Bow Street, Oldham, Lancashire OL1 1SJ, UK. Tel: +441616271966, Website: https://www.inclinepress.com/
Peter S Smith. Near Thursbitch. 2023. 8 pages plus trifold single-sheet foldout. 180 x 130 mm. Fairbank and Baker on Zerkall 170 gsm, 1 wood engraving (black ink) by Smith. Printed on Autovic. 175 copies, trifold handsewn, handmade cover paper from Papeterie St. Armand, Montreal. Price: £36.
Peter S Smith RE, wood engraver, was drawn by the story of a curious memorial stone, and that stone is the subject of this booklet. Smith tells its story and shows his boxwood engraving of the stone, an oblique tale and an oblique engraving. It is shown as the centre of the trifold, the text from the two faces of the stone holding his engraving in their grip.
The story is set in Fairbank, issued in 1929; the cut lettering is represented by Russell Maret’s Baker type, issued in 2016.
Incline Press. Graham Moss, 36 Bow Street, Oldham, Lancashire OL1 1SJ, UK. Tel: +441616271966. Website: https://www.inclinepress.com/
Nancy Campbell. Songs of the small hours. 2023. 12 pages. 220 x 125 mm. Baskerville on Zerkall and handmade paper from Two Rivers Mill, Watchet, Somerset. Printed on Autovic. 160 copies: 80 on Zerkall, 80 on handmade paper, both editions in a non-adhesive binding sewn onto re-used Vellum strips and wrapped in blue Two Rivers handmade stiff wrapper paper. Price: £48.
Bonnefant Press. Hans van Eijk, Pastoor Pendersstraat 21, Banholt, (L) 6262 PB, Netherlands. Tel: +31 611057971.
Eleanor Hooker. Where Memory Lies. 2023. 46 pages. 260 x 175 mm. Bembo on handmade off-white Loshin, 5 portraits (inkjet) and various drawings (line-block) by Stephen Rhatigan. Printed on Korrex Nürnberg proof press. 55 copies: 42 in paper covers and dark green Richard de Bas handmade chiné paper wrappers by Philipp Janssen (Boekbinderij Phoenix), price: £95; 10 in quarter natural white vellum with dark green Richard de Bas handmade chiné paper boards, with paper chemise, price: £195; 3 in quarter dark green vellum with dark green Richard de Bas handmade chiné paper boards, with paper chemise, price: NFS.
A series of poems and short plays based on documents and official reports about five women who suffered violence, injustice and death during the Irish revolution in the early 1920s.
