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Tag Archives: Jelaluddin Rumi

Book of the Week — Remember the Light

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Tags

8th century, acrylic, Arches BFK, bamboo, Barcham Green Mill, bas-relief, California, Coleman Barks, concertina guards, copper, Dante, debossing, earthquake, egg tempura, Egypt, etchings, Florence, gouache, Goudy Engraved, Italy, Japanese, Jelaluddin Rumi, laced-cords, laser print, Laura Wait, Leonard Cohen, letterpress, light, mantras, Mary Laird, Michael Burke, Murshid, Nefertiti, ostrich, polymer plates, Quelquefois Press, relief roll etching, religion, Rosicrucian Museum, San Jose, sepia, Somerset, Sufi, sumi, Tibet, Valley of the Kings, Wisconsin, wooden board binding, Xerox

Yellow
“Thus shall ye think of this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer’s cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.”
— Buddha Shakyamuni

REMEMBER THE LIGHT
Mary Risala Laird
Quelquefois Press, 2007

Artist’s statement in an email to the curator: “My best friend was diagnosed with non smokers lung cancer in 2005 and given 3 months to live. I asked myself what I would want to do if given the same. I had always wanted to make an artist book. So I spent two years letting an edition of 7 Remember the Lights come to fruition. I chopped up some etchings I made called Earthquake, the one of 1989 when I moved to California from Wisconsin.

Earthquake

And put another relief roll etching (when Murshid sings) in the back of the book, writing over it with acrylic matte or glossy, mantras of the world religions. The Mantras are written throughout the book. I incorporated 7 quotes on Light, and 6 poems I wrote when I went to Tibet with a Sufi group in 1986. The title page has a plate from the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose. Another one from them appears as the image of the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, which is printed twice in grey, right side up and upside down, doesn’t matter where we are in space. Little holes of light, like Leonard Cohen suggested, let in the light, in this case by using Japanese hole punches. I had always wanted to add color to my traditional book making. So I brushed gouache on the pages with cotton balls. I also loved using colored pencils and straight lines to connect the pages, as well as printing blocks of wood used in printing, making them type high so the wood grain would shine through. Lobsong’s Mother’s page has a sumi painting I did of Japanese ink, of bamboo; I had a polymer plate made and printed it pink, because it is a color I don’t often use and I wanted to experiment.

LobsongsMother

I had fun drawing ladders into my etchings, connecting things, like thoughts, of planes of consciousness.
And stringing along the trajectory of human experience, you know, birth, life, death birth, life, death.

Life

In the signature where I have iconized my mother, and also did Xerox of her and me, I used end signatures I had left over from an edition of poems from a Rumi book I printed for Coleman Barks.
I like using Xerox and commercial papers in conjunction with the hand made papers (blue green) I made in Wisconsin many years ago.

Faces

I had learned a blanket stitch from Michael Burke and used that around the hole I cut with the hand showing through (One Handed Basket Weaving/Jelaluddin Rumi. Versions by Coleman Barks.)

Stitch

On the colophon page I started each line with a cap, spelling out my name, vertically as you read down.

Colophon

And hiding at the end of book is another poem about being on retreat in a hut, with an etching printed relief rolled and worked into, based on a courtyard in Florence, Italy, from a sepia print I inherited from my Grandfather who got it there in 1896.

The stories go on. My friend lived 5 years longer.”

Colophon: “Resurrected and transmogrified etchings form the basis for this Infinitesimal edition, primarily printed letterpress. Actual copies: Seven, using Dante and Goudy Engraved. Text papers include Arches BFK, and Somerset. Endpapers & concertina guards: Nefertiti, Long ago made by hand at Barcham Green Mill, and hoarded by me Awaiting the right project! Overprinted relief-roll etchings When Murshid Sings and Earthquake, may include laser-print, egg tempura, Assorted colored pencils, polymer plates, Xerox, cut-outs, sewing & Reticulated energy patterns. The laced-cords wooden board binding You are holding, is based on an 8th c. model. Hand-planed covers, Laboriously covered with deer or goatskin, are fitted with brass Ornaments. Thanks to both Laura Wait & Michael Burke, models of Undying inspiration. Copies are hand numbered.” Rare Books copy is no. 2.”

Artist’s addendum to colophon: “Maple and cherry covers are not covered. Bas-relief of right and left hand, carved into the front and back covers.

Hand

Books come enclosed in drop spine boxes. Trays are black calf or goatskin lined with white deer or golden elk skin. Outer covers: there are two purple ostrich and two of teal ostrich; two more of lime green bovine; and one in lime green goatskin.

Cover

Leather straps match the outer covers, and attach to brass hand-filed knobs on the fore-edge. A copper disc is inlaid on the front cover, a debossed crescent moon at its base. My Opus.”

Photographs by Scott Beadles

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Join Us! – “Alphabets of Creation”

20 Tuesday Oct 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Events

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Albrecht Dürer, alphabets, American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Publishers Association, Arabic, Berkeley, Christian, creation, Gould Auditorium, Grolier Club, Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, Gyles Calvert, Harold Bloom, Hebrew, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jacob Behmen, Jakob Bohme (1575-1624), Jelaluddin Rumi, Jerusalem, libraries, London, M. Simmons, MacArthur Fellowship, Miryam Bartov, Muslim, mysticism, National Jewish Book Award, New Jersey, New York, Paterson, PEN Translation Prize, Peter Cole, poetics, poetry, Quelquefois Press, rare books, Rare Books Classroom, Seattle, Sefer Otiyot Shel Rabi Akiba, Sinai, Spain, Special Collections Gallery, Tabula Rasa Press, Tel-Aviv, The Nation, The University of Utah, Zohar

“Alphabets of Creation: Libraries, Mysticism, Poetics”

How might archives give rise to art? Is obsession with the letter a threat to spirit? When does the lamp shed light on life, and when does it simply make learning stink? In a playful and probing presentation, poet and translator Peter Cole will explore the role of language, libraries, and mystical linkage in the process of poetic creation.

Peter Cole has been called an “inspired writer” (The Nation) and “one of the most vital poets of his generation” (Harold Bloom). He is the author of four books of poetry. Cole’s translation from Hebrew and Arabic, The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, c. 950-1492, received the National Jewish Book Award and the American Publishers Association’s Award for Book of the Year. He has received numerous honors for his work, including a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and the PEN Translation Prize. In 2007 he was named a MacArthur fellow. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Cole now divides his time between Jerusalem and New Haven, where he tends small gardens that fill his poetry.

PeterCole2
Wednesday, October 21

Lecture
5:30-6:30PM
Gould Auditorium, Level 1
J. Willard Marriott Library
The University of Utah

Reception, book signing, and Rare Books presentation
6:30-8PM
Special Collections Gallery & Rare Books Classroom, Level 4
J. Willard Marriott Library
The University of Utah

Free and open to the public.

These pieces and others from our rare book collections helped inspire Peter. How will they inspire you?


THE EPISTLES OF JACOB BEHMEN
Jakob Böhme (1575-1624)
London: Printed by M. Simmons, for G. Calvert, 1649
BV5080 B6 1649


BM517-O8-1708-Title
SEFER OTIYOT SHEL RABI AKIBA
BM517 O8 1708




OF THE JUST SHAPING OF LETTERS
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
New York: Grolier Club, 1917
NK3615 D7313 1917


PZ90-H3-B323-1958
ALEF BET
Miryam Barṭov
Tel-Aviv: Sinai, 1958
PZ90 H3 B323 1958




THE ALPHABET OF CREATION: AN ANCIENT LEGEND FROM THE ZOHAR
Seattle: Tabula Rasa Press, 1993
N7433.3 A46 1993


PK6480-E5-C6-1993
ONE-HANDED BASKET WEAVING
Jelaluddin Rumi
Berkeley: Quelquefois Press, 1993
PK6480 A21 1993

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