Book of the Week — Lexicon Tetraglotton…

10 Monday Oct 2016

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alchemy, alphabet, anatomist, anatomy, architecture, Aristotle, Ben Jonson, Benjamin Franklin, cats, Charles, chemistry, clothing, dictionary, England, English, engraver, engraving, Europe, France, French, frontispiece, history, horsemanship, hunting, Italian, Italy, James Howell, Kenelm Digby, Kings, lexicography, lexicon, library, London, Machiavelli, Oxford, physician, political, Poor Richard's Almanac, proverbs, reference, Restoration, Samuel Thompson, Spain, Spanish, tracts, travel, trees, Wales, William Faithorne, William Harvey, women

“A catt may look on a king”

Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish…
James Howell (1594? – 1666)
London: Printed by J.G. for Samuel Thompson, 1660
First and only edition

James Howell, born in Wales and educated at Oxford, began his literary career in 1640 with the political allegory, Dendrologia: Dodona’s Grove, or, The Vocall Forest, an account representing the history of England and Europe through the framework of a typology of trees. He continued to write political tracts throughout the 1640s and 1650s, drawing material from Aristotle, Machiavelli, and others. Howell befriended many literary figures, including Ben Jonson and Kenelm Digby. In 1620, he became ill and was treated by physician and anatomist William Harvey.

Howell wrote Instructions for Forreine Travel in 1642, a book of useful information about safe travel in France, Spain, and Italy. Traveling in his own country proved to be hazardous, however. On a visit to London early in 1643, he was arrested in his chambers and imprisoned for the next eight years. He spent this time writing. He was released from prison at the Restoration of Charles to the throne and in 1661 was made Historiographer Royal.

Howell was a master of modern romance languages. Lexicon is a dictionary but also contains epistles and poems on lexicography; characterizations of most letters of the alphabet; and vocabulary lists organized in 52 sections, such as anatomy, chemistry, alchemy, women’s clothing, horsemanship, hunting, architecture, and a library. Howell collected proverbs in English, Italian, Spanish and French which are added in Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Savves & Adages. Benjamin Franklin used this book as a reference for his own Poor Richard’s Almanac.

In the frontispiece, engraved by William Faithorne (1616-1691), four female figures, emblematic of England, France, Spain and Italy, stand among trees with a helmeted figure to the right standing guard. This copy contains a later state of the engraving with initials identifying the countries represented. Half-title and title-page in red and black. Rare Books copy gift of Anonymous, for whose generosity and friendship we are ever grateful.

Banned! — Лолита

27 Tuesday Sep 2016

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American, banned, British Customs, British Isles, English, France, Gone With the Wind, Graham Greene, Lolita, London, Margaret Mitchell, Minister of the Interior, Modern Library, New York, novel, Paris, Phaedra, pornography, postscript, printing, publisher, Putnam, revolution, Russia, Russian, smuggled, Soviet Union, Sunday Times, translation, University of Utah, Vladimir Nabokov

«Лолита , свет моей жизни , огонь моих чресел . Грех mой , душа моя . Ло -ли –та…”

Лолита
Владимир Набоков (1899-1977)
New York: Phaedra, Inc., Publishers, 1967
First hardcover edition in Russian

First published in Paris in 1955, then in New York City in 1958 and London in 1959, Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, Lolita, is a controversial masterpiece of English literature.

Originally published as a paperback by a relatively unknown publisher, the first printing of 5,000 copies sold out before year’s end. Graham Greene wrote in London’s Sunday Times that it was one of the three best books of the year. Other early reviews were hardly so generous. Many considered it pornographic. British Customs was ordered to seize copies coming into the British Isles. A year later, France’s Minister of the Interior also banned it.

Times change. In 1998, Lolita was included by Modern Library in its list of 100 best novels of the 20th century.

This is the first edition in Russian, translated by Nabokov, whose mother-tongue was Russian. He added a postscript that appears only in this edition, describing his ambivalence toward his translation. Nabokov’s American publisher, Putnam, chose not to publish the Russian edition, concerned that it would not be a commercial success. Perhaps they were satisfied enough with the response to their American edition, which went into a third printing within days and sold one hundred thousand copies within three weeks. Up until that time, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (1936), was the only other American novel to have done so well.

All of Nabokov’s writings had been banned in the Soviet Union, although copies of his work were smuggled in. Nabokov was, after all, the son of aristocratic Russians who fled the country during the Revolution. The first printing in Russia was not until 1989. The work, by the once-outlawed, un-favored son of the Soviet state was a stunning success. The first edition in the Russian language was first issued in wrappers. This is “issue b,” in pink cloth, with gilt title stamp along spine and with dust jacket. University of Utah copy donated by Anonymous.

Book of the week — Dido and Aeneas

23 Tuesday Aug 2016

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accordion fold, Andrew Parrott, Bangor, Claire Van Vliet, collage, Dido and Aeneas, English, Henry Purcell, Janus Press, Maine, Nahum Tate, pamphlets, Taverner Choir, Taverner Players, Theodore Press, University of Utah, Vermont, West Burke, William and Mary

“In our deep Vaulted Cell, the Charm wee’l prepare,
Too dreadful a Practice for this open Air”

DIDO AND AENEAS
Nahum Tate (1662-1715)
West Burke, VT: Janus Press; Bangor, ME: Theodore Press, 1989
Z232 J36 T37 1989

Libretto by Nahum Tate to music by Henry Purcell. Compact disc of the opera inserted, performed by the Taverner Choir and Taverner Players, conducted by Andrew Parrott. Book structure and box designed by Claire Van Vliet. Three overlapping sections of accordion-fold paperwork landscape collage with five varying and irregular-sized text pamphlets sewn into each of five openings. The book can be stood in a line or in a star-circle. Housed in a black cloth tray case with paper spine label. Compact disc is in a chemise in a pocket at the front. A rear pocket contains an empty chemise for the owner’s own CD. Printed in honor of the 300th anniversary Nahum Tate’s libretto. The first publication of the libretto was probably distributed to the audience at the first performance of the piece, which celebrated the coming of William and Mary to the English throne in 1689. Edition of one hundred and fifty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 49.

Book of the week — Decalogus

15 Monday Aug 2016

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blindstamped, bookbinder, Bridwell Library, Case Western Reserve University, cross, Czech, Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, Decalogus, Dutch, English, French, German, handmade paper, inlays, Italian, Jan Sobota, Jarmila Sobota, Latin, Loket, morocco, Old Testament, Pilzen, Portuguese, Prague, Slovak, Spanish, Switzerland, ten commandments, United States, University of Utah

DECALOGUS
Loket, Czech Republic: Jan and Jarmila Sobota, 1999

The ten commandments of the Old Testament in Latin, Czech, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Slovak designed as a cross.

Master bookbinder Jan Bohuslav Sobota (1939-2012) was born in Czechoslovakia. He studied binding in Pilzen and Prague until 1957. In 1982 he defected to Switzerland. He took his family to the United States in 1984, where he worked as a conservator at Case Western Reserve University before going to Bridwell Library, where he was Director of the Conservation Laboratory from 1990 to 1997. He and his family returned to the Czech Republic in 1997

Handmade paper printed in gold. Bound in pale turquoise morocco with binder’s blindstamped monogram on rear cover, upper cover with colored morocco inlays, comprising a central square cross. Issued in gold pouch. Edition of one hundred copies, numbered and signed by the artists. University of Utah copy is no. 6.

We recommend — Evolution and Imagination in Victorian Children’s Literature

27 Wednesday Jul 2016

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderand, animals, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, Charles Darwin, Charles Kingsley, children, children's literature, elementary education, English, evolution, Francis Hodgson Burnett, Jessica Straley, Lewis Carroll, Margaret Gatty, On the Origin of Species, Rare Books Department, Rudyard Kipling, species, The University of Utah, Victorian, vivisection

Evolution and Imagination in Victorian Children’s Literature
Jessica Straley
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016

From the publisher: “Evolutionary theory sparked numerous speculations about human development, and one of the most ardently embraced was the idea that children are animals recapitulating the ascent of the species. After Darwin’s Origin of Species, scientific, pedagogical, and literary works featuring beastly babes and wild children interrogated how our ancestors evolved and what children must do in order to repeat this course to humanity. Exploring fictions by Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Frances Hodgson, Burnett, Charles Kingsley, and Margaret Gatty, Jessica Straley argues that Victorian children’s literature not only adopted this new taxonomy of the animal child, but also suggested ways to complete the child’s evolution. In the midst of debates about elementary education and the rising dominance of the sciences, children’s authors plotted miniaturized evolutions for their protagonists and readers and, more pointedly, proposed that the decisive evolutionary leap for both our ancestors and ourselves is the advent of the literary imagination.

Jessica Straley is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Utah. She has published articles on evolutionary theory, vivisection, and Victorian literature in Victorian Studies and Nineteenth-Century Literature and has contributed a chapter to Drawing on the Victorian: The Palimsest of Victorian and Non-Victorian Graphic Texts, edited by Anna Maria Jones and Rebecca N. Mitchell.”

The Rare Books Department is pleased to have contributed images to this book from its copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865).

: Straley, Evolution, p. 96

: Straley, Evolution, p. 103

: Straley, Evolution, p. 104

: Straley, Evolution, p. 112-113

Congratulations, Professor Straley!

Book of the week — The Next Word: Red Square

18 Monday Jul 2016

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Alan Loney, Albion press, Arthur C. Danto, Australia, Barcham Green India Office, Bill Stewart, Dante, Dutch, Electio Editions, English, Groningen, Harvard University Press, Hendrik Werkman, Holland, letterpress, Lewis Allen, Malvern East, philosopher, printer, Ruscombe India Office, typography, University of Utah, Vamp & Tramp, wood type

THE NEXT WORD: RED SQUARE
Alan Loney (b. 1940)
Malvern East VIC, Australia: Electio Editions, 2012
PR9639.3 L6 N49 2012

From the artist’s statement: “This book derives from putting two small obsessions together and seeing what happens. The first is with the typographical wonder of Hendrik Werkman (1882-1945), and his remarkable periodical ‘The Next Call,’ printed from 1923 to 1926. Each issue was 8 pages long, in approximately 40 copies, and designed and printed entirely from the materials of his print shop in Groningen, Holland…

My second obsession is the imaginary exhibition outlined by Arthur C Danto in his now famous book The Transfiguration of the Commonplace (Harvard University Press, 1981) where he poses the thorny set of intellectual problems around the question of the wording one attaches to paintings. Simply, Danto’s exhibition was a series of red rectangles, all looking the same, but all painted by different artists, and each with a different title. This apparently simple proposition created for Danto one of the knottiest philosophical speculations in contemporary criticism.

My book is designed to honor both these men, the material printer who said, ‘I produce designs during the course of printing,’ and the intellectual who wrote, “I am speaking as a philosopher, construing the gesture as a philosophical act.’ The pages for the ‘exhibition’ appear on the rectos only. The texts on the versos are constructed solely from all the Dutch words that in their spelling are also English words in Werkman’s texts through out the nine issues of ‘The Next Call.’”

Designed, printed, and bound by Alan Loney. Letterpress printed with Dante and wood types in red, blue, yellow, and gold on vintage Barcham Green India Office or Ruscombe India Office paper using a copy of Lewis Allen’s Albion press.* Bound with Ruscombe paper over boards. Issued in slipcase. Edition of forty-five copies, numbered, five copies hors de commerce. University of Utah copy is number 36, signed by the author.

*Thanks to Bill Stewart, Vamp & Tramp, for his knowledge, friendship and inspiration.

Rare Books goes to Argentina!

22 Wednesday Jun 2016

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

Looking Forward to Book Arts Program Workshop, “Up-cycled Stories: Books as Process”

20 Friday May 2016

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Arches Text Wove, artists' books, Big Caslon, binding, blind-embossed, Book Arts Program, Book Arts Studio, bookmaking, books, Boston College, Bugra, Center for Book Arts, collage, College Book Arts Association, color, Emily Tipps, English, Granary Books, handmade, Harvard, High5 Press, ink, J. Willard Marriott Library, Julianna Christie, letterpress, literature, Marnie Powers-Torrey, New York City, photograpy, photopolymer plates, pochoir, Red Butte Press, Salt Lake City, shape, Stonehenge, storytelling, text, texture, University of Alabama, University of Colorado, University of Utah, Utah, Vandercook SP-15, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University

Rare Books is proud to support the Book Arts Program with its collections. For more information about the Book Arts Program and future workshops, visit their website or like them on Facebook.

Up-cycled Stories: Books as Process
Julianna Christie, Marnie Powers-Torrey & Emily Tipps

May 28
Saturday, 10:00–6:00
Book Arts Studio, J. Willard Marriott Library, Level 4
Free spots are limited; please apply here. The application deadline is April 14.
Additional spots: $110, register here.
Registration is closed!

Bring a personally challenging story to retell in a new light or a daily routine to reconsider and reframe. With a focus on finding joy and beauty in the everyday, participants stamp out insecurities, recontextualize shortcomings, and re-imagine the self in book form. In this workshop, employ ink, brushes, stamps, mark-making tools, text, and re-collected common objects to produce process pages. Through a reimagining of the past, reinvent present perspective with an open heart, mind, and eyes toward gratitude and compassion. Instructors demonstrate a binding to be completed post-workshop from produced sheets. Come with a willingness to play with color, shape, narrative, and texture.
– – – – –

Julianna Christie graduated from Wellesley College and holds a BA in English Literature and Studio Art, with an emphasis in bookmaking. Upon graduating, she worked at the Center for Book Arts and Granary Books in New York City. She has been making books for over 20 years, with books held in Special Collections libraries at Wellesley College and Harvard. She incorporates collage, photography, sewing and love into her books. Julianna is also a life coach, specializing in personal growth and transformation. In her coaching, she invites clients to explore the art of storytelling, using words and imagery to examine and ultimately re-conceive a happy life.

Marnie Powers-Torrey holds an MFA in photography from the University of Utah and a BA in English and Philosophy from Boston College’s Honors Program. She is the Managing Director of the Book Arts Program and Red Butte Press, an Associate Librarian (Lecturer), and academic advisor for minor and certificate students in Book Arts. Marnie teaches letterpress printing, artists’ books, and other courses for the Book Arts Program and elsewhere. She is master printer for the Red Butte Press, harnessing the mighty printing power of a full staff of excellent printers. A founding member of the College Book Arts Association, she served as Awards Chair for three years and currently serves on the board of directors. Her work is exhibited and held in collections nationally.

Evidence
Marnie Powers-Torrey
Salt Lake City, UT: M. Powers-Torrey, 2000
N7433.4 P69 E8 2000

Edition of ten copies. University of Utah copy is no. 4, signed by the author.

Emily Tipps is the Binding Instructor, Program Manager, and an Assistant Librarian (Lecturer) at the Book Arts Program at the University of Utah, as well as the proprietor of High5 Press, which publishes innovative writing in the form of handmade artists’ books. She holds a BA in English from Wesleyan University, an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado, and an MFA in Book Arts from the University of Alabama. Emily’s work is exhibited and held in collections nationally.

Orders
Emily Tipps
Tuscaloosa, AL: High5 Press, 2007
N7433.4 T574 O73 2007

Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates on a Vandercook SP-15. Paper is Arches Text Wove and Stonehenge. Text type is Big Caslon. Pochoir illustrations. Endsheets are gray Bugra paper. Handsewn binding in black Stone Henge paper covers. Front cover blind-embossed. Edition of sixty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 42.

Indigenous Peoples — student response

03 Tuesday May 2016

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accordion fold, American, ancient, animal hide, Ann Wilcox, Antonio del Rincon, Antonio Peñafiel (1831-1922), archaeology, Austria, background, bark paper, Book of Mormon, books, border culture, Brisa Zavala, cactus, Catholicism, Cecilia Vicuña, Chanccani, codex, Codex Tulane, códices, collage, colonial, colonized, colonizer, comic books, context, demographics, dictionary, English, Enrique Chagoya, experience, facsimiles, feathers, Felicia Rice, form, genealogical, genealogy, geography, grammar, Granary Books, Graz, Guillermo Gomez Peña, gum wrappers, handwritten, Incan kipu, indigenous peoples, indigenous populations, interdisciplinary, Isabel Dulfano, Japanese, Joe D'Ambrosio, knots, language, Latin America, library, linguistics, literature, Luise Poulton, manga, manuscripts, Marriott Library, Mary Elizabeth Smith, Maya, Mayan epigraphy, Melissa Gutierrez, Mesoamerican, metallic, Mexican, Mexico, Middle American Research Institute, Miranda Best, Mixtec, Moving Parts Press, Nahuatl, New Orleans, New York, Oaxaca, Pedro Balli, performance artist, Phoenix, pictographs, poem, pop-culture, pop-up, pre-Hispanic, priest, quipu, rare book collections, Rare Books Department, resources, saguaro, Salt Lake City, Santa Cruz, Spanish, surreal, Tulane University, University of Utah, wool, words, writing

These commentaries are excerpts from an assigned project for Humanities4900/6900, “Indigenous Peoples: Social and Cultural Perspectives,” taught by Isabel Dulfano, Spring semester 2016. Students studied demographics, Mayan epigraphy, Incan kipu, archaeology, linguistics and other topics as an interdisciplinary approach to critically expanding their understanding of indigenous peoples, historically and in a contemporary setting.

Dr. Dulfano arranged for two class periods to be devoted to working with pieces ranging from Mesoamerican codex facsimiles to 16th through 19th century books to 20th and 21st century artist’s books from the rare book collections. The students looked at books which reflected the colonized and the colonizer, the perspective of Church and State, and self-referential texts depicting imposed visions of time and place.

From Brisa Zavala:

Nombres geograficos de Mexico…
Antonio Peñafiel (1831-1922)
Mexico: Oficina tip. De la Secretaria de foment, 1885
First edition
F1219 P39 1885

As part of a two-day class activity we visited the Marriott Library’s rare book collections and had the opportunity to interact with facsimiles and original copies of books pertaining to indigenous peoples of Latin America.

On the first day we interacted with pieces dating from the 8th century Common Era to 1899. One of the books that caught my eye was Nombres Geograficos de Mexico, 1885. This book contains names of various geographical places in Mexico, some of which still remain as the names of towns in present-day Mexico. The author, Antonio Peñafiel, was the Director General of the Census Department of Mexico. The book was bound and organized in a traditional western way, is about the size of a notebook, and written in Spanish. The first half contains detailed explanations of the meaning of each geographical name and the second half contains colored pictographs corresponding to each place name.

I particularly enjoyed looking at this piece. I have traveled in Mexico and noticed many names of smaller towns in Nahuatl, but never knew the meaning of the name. I am studying Nahuatl at the University of Utah and I have some knowledge on how place names are formed but it was fascinating to not only learn the meaning behind the names but also see corresponding pictographs.

On the second visit to the Rare Books Department we looked at “contemporary” books, also pertaining to indigenous peoples of Latin America. My favorite piece was Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol.

Codex espangliensis…
Guillermo Gomez-Peña
Santa Cruz, CA: Moving Parts Press, 1998
N7433.4 G652 C63 1998
Text in English and Spanish written by performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Peña, collage images by Enrique Chagoya and designed and printed by Felicia Rice.

This piece “confronts realities and surrealities of border culture, juxtaposing examples of graphic art from pre-Hispanic times to present-day Mexico with traditions of Western art and contemporary American pop-culture.” The book is structured as an accordion-fold similar to Mesoamerican codices. However, it is printed on one side only and thus can be read western-style. The print is black and red and the art style has a strong resemblance to Japanese manga and comic books. I plan to visit Rare Books soon and “read” this piece with more time to observe and pick up on the detail.

My experience with the rare book collections expanded my knowledge not only of what kinds of “books” exist, both in past and present times, but also how time periods effect contents and form.

As a student of the Nahuatl language it is very important to me to have access to codices and other material written in Nahuatl, from grammar to doctrines. It is also interesting to experience how the form of older texts, such as the accordion structure, has impacted contemporary texts and how these forms are used to make a statement. It is important to society to preserve these books in order to preserve knowledge and to allow for future studies of past societies. This opportunity was extremely enriching academically and all students should visit the rare book collections.

From Melissa Gutierrez:

At first I thought it was odd that we were going to the library to see old books, to be honest, at that moment I would rather have had a class discussion on the very many topics regarding the indigenous populations we had been learning about. However, going to see the rare book collections was a surreal experience. Having about 40 some books laid out on tables, waiting to be explored was an invitation to me. That invitation was to sit down and dive into history and discover. I found this experience to be powerful and enriching. The old books came to life, helping me picture and understand history on a whole new and different level. When I sat down with the books it gave me the opportunity to ask myself, “Do I value history?”

Arte mexicana
Antonio del Rincon (1556-1601)
En Mexico: en casa Pedro Balli, 1595
First edition
PM4063 R5

One of the books that I enjoyed analyzing was a book written in the 1500’s. This book was written by a Spanish priest who learned the language of Nahuatl. The book had grammar and a dictionary. The book was falling apart and not handwritten. While looking at this book I wondered what the Spanish priest thought as he was learning Nahuatl. Most Spanish priests believed that they were helping the indigenous peoples come to God by converting them to Catholicism. I wonder how it would have felt to be part of that project. Did the Spanish priest have indigenous people help him learn and understand Nahuatl? These are the kinds of questions I asked myself while analyzing the book.

From Ann Wilcox

Chanccani quipu
Cecilia Vicuña
New York: Granary Books, 2012
N7433.4 V536 C48 2012

The piece that impressed me the most was Chancanni Quipu. It was a modern quipu that had writing on the wool, rather than knots in the wool. The writing was of a Chancanni poem. I thought this piece was interesting because it had a mix of the ancient system of writing of the quipu and modern system of writing with words.

The writing was a mix of Spanish and the Chanccani language. Accompanying the quipu was a translation of the poem and a brief history and explanation of how quipu are made.

The important thing about this piece is that it takes ancient culture and practice and puts a modern spin on it. The author, using diverse cultural cues, was able to communicate in a way that people from diverse cultures could understand. I think that it also shows that there are many forms of quipu now and authors can be creative while still connecting with their culture. It is an important piece because it wasn’t a bound book or words or illustrations on paper. This was a new medium that the author found to communicate and still be effective.

The experience of seeing the rare books, especially in the context of indigenous work, opened my eyes to the amount of types of book and recording methods there exist in the world. It impressed me that there were so many perspectives shown through the pieces. I valued that I got to touch and read the book in person and not through pictures. It was a very special experience and I don’t think that it can be replicated. I will always appreciate this experience, especially when I am visiting museums and see works of art and literature that are behind glass. I will think of this experience, when I got to handle the books myself.

From Miranda Best:

Codex Tulane
Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u Verlaganstalt; New Orleans: Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, 1991
F1421 T95 no. 61
Facsimile with introduction by Mary Elizabeth Smith (b. 1932)

The first piece I would like to discuss is the Codex Tulane, ca. 16th century. The codex, originally made from overlapping animal hide, is an early Colonial manuscript from the Mixtec-speaking region of southern Mexico. The manuscript presents genealogical information with a list of native rulers of two Mixtec communities. Within this list are contained more than one hundred male and female figures, seated opposite of their spouses.

The piece is beautifully made. Although we were only able to see a facsimile, it is wonderful to experience these pieces in physical form. How amazing it would have been to touch and see the original piece!

Something interesting about the experience I had was that when I approached the codex, the way it was rolled up was in a way so that I would be unrolling it from the bottom and opening it up. When I began to see the figures, they were very simply drawn, but further up, as I unrolled the codex, the figures began to be a little more elaborate. What I observed is that it was the same figures, but something was added onto them as it went up each row. I did not quite understand what was going on until Luise [Poulton] explained that it could be like genealogy and it made a lot more sense to me. I felt like I could connect with what I was seeing. I loved being able to see the advancement of the figures. It made me wonder if it meant that there was a connection with those who seemed to be of higher power (higher up on the codex) and those who were further down (with less details and figures added).

The first day in the library, I had a hard time finding pieces that I could really connect to. All of the pieces were beautiful and I thought they were interesting, but I did not feel anything super exciting about them. I enjoyed this codex after I understood a little more about it and I liked learning about the resources we have available to us. I would love to take more advantage of this and utilize it to learn more about the history of these people. I thought it was very interesting that Luise pointed out the importance of looking at the “who, what, where, when, why and how.” Not because it is something new to me, but rather something that Professor Dulfano is always pointing out to us. We cannot read a piece of literature without understanding the context and its background. It makes for a much more fulfilling experience.

Ump’it u yeybilil ti’ u libroil Mormon: hahil t’an Yo’olal Cristo
Salt Lake City: Dza’an ohetbil tumen u Iglesia Jesucristo ti’ le Ma’alob Maco’obo’ tu Dzo’oc kino’oba’, 1983
BX8625 M39 1983

The second day in the library was a real treat. I felt a connection with a lot of the pieces and definitely enjoyed the experience more that day than the first day. Of all the pieces I saw, my two most favorite were the Book of Mormon, written in a Maya language and the 1997 piece by Joe D’Ambrosio, Oaxaca and the Saguaro. It is one of one hundred and twenty five copies made. The University of Utah copy is numbered 19.

Oaxaca (Wa-ha-ka) and the saguaro (sa-wah-row)…
Joe D’Ambrosio
Phoenix, AZ: D’Ambrosio, 1996
N7433.4 D34 O29 1996

This book was hand bound by the author in a brown cloth and Mexican bark paper. The front cover has a beautifully structured cactus with twisted material to give more structure to the cactus.

Throughout this book, you will find beautifully crafted pop-up images and real feathers, as well as other illustrations.

This piece made me very excited for numerous reasons. First, I love books made from raw hide/leather, or other natural materials. I find them so beautiful and real. The cactus made it even more exciting to see what was inside. As I flipped through the pages, I really enjoyed seeing the illustration because they reminded me a lot of my childhood. Pop-up books were my favorite as a child, so it was a nice moment to reminisce. Other illustrations in this book continued to remind me of my childhood and some of the art projects I did. There was one page in particular that was decorated with a metallic material. It almost seemed to me to be made from gum wrappers. I used to peel apart gum wrappers and use the silver part to make figures on another piece of paper. This particular page reminded me of that.

Generally speaking, it was a beautifully made book and very enjoyable to look at. But it was an even more delightful experience because it had a nostalgic feeling for me.

As I mentioned above, I had a better experience the second day than the first. I don’t know if it was because there were more pieces that caught my attention or if it was because we had more time to look at everything. But it really made me appreciate the resources we have and made me think how privileged we are to have access to such “rare objects.” Many of these books, codices, etc. are completely from “out of our world” and we have the opportunity to step inside the world of others and experience it. If we had had more time, I would have loved to look longer at all the books and discover what they were all about. As it was, I only got to observe a small portion of everything. I would love to be able to go back and see what more there is and learn more.

DOC/UNDOC — Part 5/6, “Open, Explore, Empty, Choose, Reimagine and Collaborate”

30 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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accommodations, actress, art, artifact, artwork, audience, borders, Chicano, codex, conflicts, conversation, cultural, debate, dichotomy, DOC/UNDOC Documendado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática, dressing room, emotions, English, essay, ethics, ethnicity, Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gomez Peña, Gustavo Vazquez, historical, identity, illegal immigration, images, immigration, interactions, interdisciplinary, interpret, interpretation, Isabel Dulfano, Jennifer González, Julia Menendez Jardon, language, lipstick, Luise Poulton, Marriott Library, Mexico, mirror, misconceptions, narcissism, opinions, paper, perceptions, performance, performer, reflection, scripts, self-identify, sound, Spanish, spectators, toolbox, United States, video, videos, viewer, visual, words, Zachary Watkins

During Fall Semester, 2015, University of Utah graduate students in SPAN6900-2 Analyzing Texts: Form and Content visited Rare Books. During the third and final session with Rare Books, the students were introduced to late 20th century/early 21st century fine press and artists’ books. The session ended with the premiere viewing of our copy of DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática , purchased in September. Student response was so strong that managing curator Luise Poulton, in her typical, over-enthusiastic way, exclaimed, “You should post your thoughts on Open Book!” Prof. Isabel Dulfano, in her own enthusiastic way, immediately took up the suggestion and made this a new assignment, right then and there. Bless the beleaguered grad students! Rare Books is pleased to present these responses, one post at a time.

From Julia Menendez Jardon

DOC/UNDOC photo courtesy of Moving Press Parts

The literary work “We are here because you were there” was written by the Chicano author Guillermo Gómez-Peña. Published in 2014, it addresses a debate which is frequently heard these days in the United States: illegal immigration and whether the US should entirely close borders with Mexico. The story presents two completely opposite points of view which correspond with the two main approaches towards the topic that the US population stands for. It also brings the issue of ethnicity, and how people self-identify through language – in this case, Spanish and English.

The use of one language or another is specially relevant in this work. One of the characters speaks in English but swaps to Spanish in certain occasions, while the other character speaks only English and rejects the Spanish language. Even though the author identifies himself as a Chicano, he writes his text in English, so that the English-speaking audience can understand it without needing any extra accommodations. It is addressed to the speakers of English in the US. The author uses the first person singular when referring to the immigrant persona, and the third person singular when referring to the US resident persona. This allows Gómez-Peña to create an “othering” effect, a dichotomy that confronts the group of people who stand with the immigrants, versus the group of people who stand against them. This story doesn’t allow for shades of gray. There are only two positions: for and against. By confronting the perspectives of two parts of the US population in their native language, this socially engaged work points at the audience, urges them to reflect on a current topic, and encourages them to take a stand about it.

Although “We are here because you were there” could be approached and analyzed as an only item, it has much more to offer. This text is a performance script that belongs to a bigger work called DOC/UNDOC Documendado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática. DOC/UNDOC is a combination of performance scripts by the aforementioned Gómez-Peña, their visual interpretations made by Felicia Rice, experimental videos by Gustavo Vazquez and Gómez-Peña, sound art by Zachary Watkins, and a historical and cultural essay made by Jennifer González. Each of these parts were created so that they could stand alone, but they are meant to be enjoyed together. By adding their different perspectives, these socially engaged creators made a compilation of opinions on hot topics such as ethics and decision-making, immigration, ethnicity, self-expression and self-exploration. This object carries an interdisciplinary component that is specially appealing to the audience because each of its parts were created while cognizant of the other ones’ existence.

But these are not the only interrelations that the spectators will perceive. DOC/UNDOC is heavily based on the cooperation between the audience and the artifact. From the very beginning, the instructions advise to “OPEN, EXPLORE, EMPTY, CHOOSE, REIMAGINE and COLLABORATE.”

And so we did. A little more than a week ago, my classmates and I explored this artifact thanks to our professor and two members of the Marriott library. OPEN. When we entered the room, the most noticeable part was the big metal box with the display of objects within, and the face mask that was standing on the same table.

We approached this discoverer toolbox, and I saw my reflection in the mirror. It was framed by the two vertical rows of lights and the pink fake fur that made me think I looked like an old time movie actress. I instantly thought that probably everybody else was watching me look at myself in the mirror, and I thought for a second on the degree of narcissism that being a performer must involve. I looked at myself again and I thought I was the actress. EXPLORE. The image of myself that was staring at me was trying to show different emotions. It was looking a little bit calmer than I actually was. It was looking at the sides of the box and at the pink fur, when I only wanted to look at the mirror again. I looked down at the objects and carefully examined the lipstick bar and the tin box that contained the deck of cards. I thought about the toolbox’s potential: it was a playground for grown-ups. If alone under those dressing room lights, one could adopt any identity. I was adopting a different identity already, fueled by my classmates’ ideas and assumptions. I saw my own perceptions been challenged, and I accepted. EMPTY. The image of an especially smooth piece of clay being kneaded came to my mind every now and then.

The most unsettling part of my experience began when the video started playing. I had to make a big effort to try to understand the message behind each of the clips. CHOOSE. I believed that I did not interpret the right message behind some of the videos and, after discussing with my classmates, I concluded that the important goal is to find an interpretation that convinces you as a viewer and to discuss with other watchers to keep the conversation that the creators wanted to develop.

After the videos, we walked again towards the table, and the sound clips started playing.

REIMAGINE. The characteristics of the sound reminded me of the videos I had just watched, but this time the experience was completely different. There was no image associated with it, and the visual input that I was receiving was the art that appeared in the codex. I flipped through the pages, not trying to direct my attention to any of the parts in particular. I was paying attention to the words, but also having different thoughts about each of the images I was seeing. I thought about the quality of the artwork, the thickness of the paper, and the interactions between the images and the performance scripts.

COLLABORATE. Then, we all started talking. Everybody in the room started to point at different things that they had thought about during the video, the meaning they had found to some parts of the codex, and even the possible relationships between the discoverer toolbox and the sound clips or the videos. None of us was imposing any interpretation or point of view, but we were all trying to find evidences to support each others opinions.

This is an object that targets all the five senses in multiple ways that the audience might like or might not like, but the experience will still be a remarkable one. Not only does DOC/UNDOC facilitate self-discovery and self-expression, but it also encourages the individuals to share their opinions and perceptions. In a world of conflicts and misconceptions, this piece advocates for a pause to work on each others’ understanding.

Gómez-Peña, Guillermo, et al. DOC/UNDOC: Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática. Santa Cruz, CA: Moving Parts Press, 2014.

Coming soon: Laura Denisse Zepeda

OPEN BOOK

~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

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