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Monthly Archives: June 2016

Book of the week — Greed

27 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by scott beadles in Book of the Week

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accordion, banker, Claire Van Vliet, Eystein Hanche-Olsen, Gold Elephant Hide, Janus Press, Joe Public, letterpress, lithographs, lobbyist, Marriott Library, Olso, propaganda, University of Utah, Vermont, Zerkall Butten

N7433.4-V37-G74-2013

GREED
Vermont: Janus Press, 2013
N7433.4 V37 G74 2013

Printed on eight leaves connected laterally and folded accordion style to form a continuous strip which is affixed to the cover. Four of the leaves are illustrated with Claire Van Vliet’s black and white lithographs of distorted faces: a propagandist, a lobbyist, a banker and Joe Public. The four folded leaves feature text in various types and color. Handset and letterpress printed by Eystein Hanche-Olsen at SKHS in Oslo on Zerkall Butten paper. Bound and slipcased in Gold Elephant Hide paper. Edition of one hundred and fifty copies, according to the colophon. An accompanying note indicated an edition of one hundred and twenty copies. University of Utah copy is inscribed “for the Marriott Library, Claire Van Vliet.”

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Rare Books goes to Argentina!

22 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Argentina, artists' books, bookstores, bookworm, characterization, Comparative Literature/Cultural Studies, creative writing, creativity, English, Faulkner, fight, Fulbright Scholarship, Hemingway, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jonathan Safran Foer, La Lucha, language, Latin America, libraries, literary analysis, literature, Luise Poulton, Lydia Davis, Lyuba Basin, magical, materiality, rare books, Rare Books Classroom, Rare Books Curator, Rare Books Department, setting, short story, story, strikes, students, teachers, teaching assistant, text, textbooks, Universidad Nacional de la Pampa, University of Utah, UNLPam, whiteboard, Wolfe

“Rare Books helped me develop a different perspective on literary analysis.” – Lyuba Basin (Class of 2015 and graduate student in Comparative Literature/Cultural Studies, The University of Utah)

Lyuba Basin, former Rare Books Curator, writes from Argentina, where she is spending eight months on a Fulbright Scholarship.

“Today marks 12 weeks in Argentina. When I look back at it now, it seems like nothing. Yet, I can clearly remember the daily struggle of trying to adapt to this new culture, to adjust my ears and tongue to this new language, and to push aside the loneliness that often attached itself to my mind when I felt so far away from home. Despite the struggles and the cultural differences, I have relished my position as a teaching assistant at the Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Unlike the large campus back home, UNLPam is a small and simple building located in the very center of the small and simple city. Standing only five stories tall, it blends in with the other shops and apartments located around the plaza; but what makes it distinct is the colorful murals that decorate the entrance and the classrooms inside. On top of that, the students and teachers, with their weekly strikes, create a sense of theatrics, a performance we call La Lucha, the fight.

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I have come to realize that this fight, while manifesting in a variety of ways, is universal. The fight to grow up, to succeed, to get ahead, to make ends meet. I see the same look of desperation in the eyes of my students that I had just one year ago. It is the same look of fear as they sit and wonder “What I am going to do with my life?” I look back in silence, because I’m afraid to tell them that after graduation, you probably still won’t know. I look back with the same question in my mind. However, of all the things I don’t know, I do know this: there will always be a constant in my life, regardless of where I travel or how far.

My love of literature.

As an English language teaching assistant at UNLPam I have transformed into a self-proclaimed literary expert. Of course, expertise is relative when you are one of two native English speakers in a university of thousands. Nonetheless, I am proud of the insight I have been able to provide and glad to see my bookworm tendencies finally come to fruition. I have been lucky enough to teach my students short stories by some great classics, such as Faulkner, Hemingway and Wolfe.
PS3511-A86-T6-1957-coverPS3511-A86-I5-1948-coverPS3511-A86-H38-cover
PS3515-E37-F6-coverPS3515-E37-F37-coverPS3515-E37-O4-1952-cover
PS3573-O558-U5-1975-cover

But what makes the experience all the more fulfilling is being able to introduce new, contemporary literature into the classroom, with works by Lydia Davis and Jonathan Safran Foer, demonstrating to the students the diverse ways we can use and play with language.

As my lesson plans evolved I realized that the students did not have the same exposure to literature as I was fortunate to have back home. With only three small bookstores, two libraries, and no access to online orders, contact with literature outside of Latin America is quite difficult.

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In order to expand my students’ horizons I had to think creatively. Luckily, I still had an amazing team back home to help me out. The Rare Books Department at the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, was where I learned how to truly appreciate literature, and now I hope to share that with my students, and hopefully with the University of La Pampa as a whole.

In my most recent lecture, I decided to focus on my time as a Rare Books employee and remembered the presentations Luise Poulton gives on the ‘Materiality of the Book’. So I reached out and desperately asked Luise for help. I wanted to introduce the topic of Artists’ Books and explain why materiality could be as important to consider in the process of creative writing as characterization or setting. Using my own book arts project as an example and Luise’s notes from the Rare Books Classroom whiteboard, I was able to illustrate the magical thing that occurs when text becomes material. I was ecstatic to find the students wide-eyed with amazement, none of them having seen or even heard of such things before. Students excitedly came to me after class to discuss ideas, and even the professor encouraged them to develop their own creative interpretations for the short story assignment ahead.

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Working in Rare Books taught me that there is not just one way to tell a story; that creativity does not have to be stifled by what we learn in tedious textbooks. I was able to share what I have learned and bring it all the way to Argentina, changing the perspectives of fifteen students and one professor. While it seems like a small number now, I know that the experience I have passed down will continue to flow, from student to student, year to year, until the Universidad Nacional de La Pampa has a Rare Books department of its own.”

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Book of the week — Night Street

20 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by scott beadles in Book of the Week

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Tags

Barbara Luck, Claire Van Vliet, collage, concertina, Janus Press, lithographs, Lois Johnson, moire, non-adhesive concertina, plastic, poems, silkscreen, Vermont, West Burke

N7433.4-L83-N5-1993-spread

“Nothing doing.”

NIGHT STREET
Barbara Luck
West Burke, VT: Janus Press, 1993
N7433.4 L83 N5 1993

Ten poems concerning the dilemma of a young woman in the city faced with retaining her humanity without being victimized. On colored sheets of paper collaged on black silkscreened pages opposite highly colored offset lithographs by Lois Johnson. The binding is a non-adhesive concertina. Both the cover and the pages are shaped to resemble cityscapes and made of gold elephant hide paper. Slipcase is non-adhesive of blue moire plastic. Entire structure designed and executed by Claire Van Vliet. Edition of ninety copies signed by author and artist.

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Book of the week — Reports du Tres Erudite Edmund Saunders

13 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week, Donations

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attorney, Blackstone, Catherine Weller, Charles II, Edmund Saunders (d. 1683), John Adams (1735-1826), John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), London, Lord Chief Justice, marginalia, Massachusetts, Newburyport, Thomas Roscoe, Tony Weller, University of Utah, Weller Book Works

titlespread
“…my small stock of professional knowledge…”

REPORTS DU TRES ERUDITE EDMUND SAUNDERS…
Edmund Saunders (d. 1683)
London: W. Rawlins, S. Roycroft, and M. Flesher, 1686
First edition

Edmund Saunders grew up in poverty. He taught himself to read and write and eventually became Lord Chief Justice during the reign of Charles II. Thomas Roscoe in Westminster Hall, (1825) wrote that Saunders, “…by books that were lent to him, became an exquisite entering clerk; and, by the same course of improvements of himself, an able counsel…” His classic Reports was read by John Quincy Adams (1767-1848).

In a letter to his father, John Adams (1735-1826), written from Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1789, the younger Adams lists this book, along with Blackstone, as one of those that “contributed to my small stock of professional knowledge” while he apprenticed as an attorney. University of Utah copy has minimal marginalia in contemporary hand throughout. University of Utah copy gift of Tony and Catherine Weller, Weller Book Works.

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We recommend — Book Arts Program workshop, “Letterpress Printing: Text + Image”

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Workshop

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acrylic, artists' books, book arts, Book Arts Program, Book Arts Studio, bookbinder, collographs, Colorado State University, Crane Giamo, creative writing, Delete Press, design, edition, hand-painted, handbound, image, imprint, ink, iron oxide pigment, J. Willard Marriott Library, Japanese stab-stitch, letterpress, linoleum blocks, metal type, paper, papermaker, photopolymer plates, Pocalypstic Editions, poetry, pressure prints, printer, printing, prints, publishing, Red Butte Press, relief, text, Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama, University of Buffalo, University of Utah, Vandercook #4, wood type, zinc cuts

Letterpress Printing: Text + Image
Crane Giamo, Instructor

June 14—August 2
Tuesdays, 5:00—8:00
Book Arts Studio, J. Willard Marriott Library, Level 4
$340, register here.

Get a handle on what it takes to crank out an edition of gorgeous letterpress prints. This active, eight-week class introduces the fundamentals of letterpress, from paper selection and cutting to mixing ink and printing. Guided by Crane Giamo, participants design and produce several individual projects using a variety of relief techniques and tools including metal and wood type, zinc cuts, linoleum blocks, pressure prints, photopolymer plates, and collagraphs.
– – – – –
Crane Giamo is the studio manager and faculty instructor in the Book Arts Program at the University of Utah, and the lead printer for Red Butte Press. He is the co-founder of Delete Press, a poetry publishing outfit for which he works as letterpress printer, bookbinder, and papermaker. Crane’s own artists’ books can be located under the imprint Pocalypstic Editions. He holds an MFA in Book Arts from the University of Alabama, an MFA in Creative Writing from Colorado State University, and an MA in Poetics from the University at Buffalo.

N7433.4-G474-P73-2014-coverN7433.4-G474-P73-2014-image

Psalm 13-20
Crane Giamo
Tuscaloosa, AL: Pocalypstic Editions, 2014
N7433.4 G474 P73 2014

Text printed from photopolymer plates on a Vandercook #4 letterpress. Red paint slashing across the book is hand-painted using iron oxide pigment mixed with acrylic medium. Handbound in Japanese stab-stitch structure. Edition of twenty-five. University of Utah copy is no. 8.

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Journal of the week — Slovo

06 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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American Film Center, Andy Warhol, Antoine Perich, artists, avant-garde, concrete poetry, digital art, Dubrovnik, filmmakers, Francois Poyet, inkjet printer, Interview, Isidore Isou, Jean-Pierre Gillard, Joel Fremiot, letter, letter-forms, Lettrist, literary, Michel Jaffrennou, New York, Paris, poets, Romanian, Serbian

NX456.5-L4-S5-v.1-frontNX456.5-L4-S5-v.1-back
NX456.5-L4-S5-v.1-cover

Slovo
Paris: publisher not identified, 1967
NX456.5 L4 S5

This is the only issue of the Lettrist literary serial published under the direction of Antoine Perich. “Slovo” means “letter” in Serbian.

Perich, born in Dubrovnik, lived in Paris from 1965 to 1970. He became close to the Lettrist artists and poets there, as well as a group of underground filmmakers. He presented programs of avant-garde films at the American Film Center every week. In 1970 he moved to New York, where he became friends with Andy Warhol and was a contributing photographer to Interview. In 1977, he designed and built an electric painting machine, a prototype for the inkjet printer, making Perich a pioneer of digital art.

Lettrism was a multi-disciplinary creative movement formed in Paris in 1946 by Romanian ex-patriot, Isidore Isou. The idea was to incorporate all fields of knowledge, social and natural sciences, into artistic endeavors. Contributions in this journal came from Joel Fremiot, Jean-Pierre Gillard, Francois Poyet, and Michel Jaffrennou.

One sheet, printed recto and verso, folded into eight sections. Illustrated with stylized human figures suggesting letter-forms as well as concrete poetry.

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