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

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Tag Archives: papermaking

Boards: A-Book-Part-You-Never-Think-About-But-Is-Super-Important-Anyway

30 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by scott beadles in Uncategorized

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Antoine Augereau, barf board, Benjamin Eliot, boards, book, bookbinders, bookmaking, Boston, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Colonial America, conservators, Coptic, delaminate, Deseret News, exhibition, felts, fibers, fore-edge, Jim Croft, Jonathan Sandberg, medullary ray, Old Ways of Making Books, paper, paper mill, papermaking, Paris, pasteboard, rare book collections, Samuel Willard, scabbard, scaleboard, Scott Beadles, screen, Simon de Colines, vat, vellum, water, waterleaf, wood, wooden boards, workshop

Judge a book by it’s cover all you want. That cover just keeps on doing what it does best: protecting the book’s text. Covers allows a book to continue to convey information by taking the wear and tear of everyday use. Through the years different materials have been used to cover books.



Coptic Binding
Uncatalogued

Wood. Early books were most commonly covered with wooden boards. Rare Books has several manuscripts with Coptic bindings. These books are well-used, with uncovered wooden boards that are polished by handling, but they are often broken and then repaired with linen thread. The wood is sometimes cut similarly to modern lumber, in a straight line across the log. In the picture below you can see the curve of the tree’s growth rings. Wood is porous and expands and contracts as it takes on or loses moisture from the air. It will expand unevenly around that natural curve, warping and sometimes even cracking the board. The strongest wood boards are cut in a very different way.

Imagine you are looking down on the round end of a log. If you cut this log radially from the center as if it was a pie, two useful things happen. First, boards cut like this (called a quarter cut) resist warping because the grain of the wood is running straight up your board, instead of curving through it. Looking at the boards from the top you see little to none of the curve of the tree’s rings. This board will warp very little as humidity changes. Second, there is a structural feature in wood called the medullary ray. These rays go through the wood from the core out to the bark. They are perpendicular to the main grain of the wood, forming a remarkably durable natural plywood. Many Coptic boards break because they are made with wood that does not have prominent medullary rays.

In the above image, notice the faint curve of the grain near the middle of the left board.

In the image below, we can see the medullary rays and the tree’s grain weaving together. The lighter lines are medullary rays, the darker lines are the tree’s grain creating a strong internal structure.


Handmade book
by Jonathan Sandberg from raw materials
at Jim Croft’s “Old Ways of Making Books” workshop



He kaine diatheke
Paris: [Antoine Augereau for] Simon de Colines, [29 November or 22 December] 1534
BS1965 1534

Pasteboard. All this picky woodwork added complications to the bookmaking process. When bookmakers discovered that they could just paste together paper proofs, misprints, or offcuts to make functional boards, it became common practice to do just that. This has made for interesting discoveries as modern conservators re-bind historical books and find that their boards are made of interesting or rare texts.



Deseret News
By Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Volume 6. March 1856-March 1866
Uncatalogued

Waterleaf. Around the mid-sixteenth century, very soon after pasteboard began to be used, another technique for making boards was developed. If you are familiar with historical papermaking, or you’ve seen our recent paper exhibition, Paper is Fundamental, you know that paper was made by drawing suspended fibers out of a vat of water on a screen, which was then rolled onto a stack of felts. Paper makers found that if they took these raw, wet pieces of paper and compressed them together, it formed a variant of pasteboard that was less likely to separate between pages, or delaminate. Pictured here is a bound volume of the Deseret News from 1856. The very worn board is beginning to delaminate which gives us a great view of individual “pages.” Because the board is never printed on directly and almost always covered, papermakers could include fiber that would normally be unacceptable for papermaking. Here you see small pieces of cloth and thread. Historical bookmaker Jim Croft calls this kind of board “barf board” because of the jumble of reject fibers that go into its production.



The Peril of the Times Displayed
Samuel Willard
Boston : Printed by B Green & J Allen sold by Benjamin Eliot 1700
BX7233 W4292 P47 1700

Scaleboard. The first paper mill in Colonial America wasn’t established until 1690. Rather than using expensive, imported book boards, bookbinders often used thin scales of wood in their place. These scaleboards, originally called scabbards, were much too brittle for the task of protecting a book, but when covered in paper or leather they made perfectly usable covers. This book was printed in Boston in the year 1700. The leather is now peeling away, allowing us to look at the wood scale beneath. The end grain of the board is visible at the fore-edge and spine of the book, instead of the traditional head and tail. It may be quarter-cut, the end grain shows only a slight curve. The board is a little warped, but the book has been through a lot, and scaleboard wasn’t expected to do the same heavy structural work as early wooden book boards were.

~Contributed by Jonathan Sandberg, Rare Books Assistant, with photographs by Scott Beadles, Rare Books Specialist

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Ioyfvll newes out of the new-found vvorlde [order]

03 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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American, Americas, apothecaries, armadillos, Atlantic, Bonham Norton, Book Arts Program, bookseller, botanists, Bristol, British, calf, cancer, cassava, cigars, cocoa, common cold, cure, De Jonge Amerikaan, disease, docks, English, entrepreneur, Europe, ginger, gold, handmade, herbs, Indians, Inquisition, iron, John Frampton, Jonathan Sandberg, London, medicine, merchants, minerals, monks, Native American, nephrite jade, Netherlands, New World, Nicolás Bautista Monardes, nicotain, papermaking, papers, paradise, physician, plant, poison, print culture, quinine, rhubarb, sasparilla, sassafras, Seville, silver, smoking, soldiers, Spanish colonies, syphilis, tobacco, tobaco, trade, vernacular, woodblock, woodcuts


“This is the substance which I haue gathered of this hearb, so celebrated and called Tobaco for that surely it is an hearb of great affirmation for the excellent vertues that it hath…”

Ioyfvll newes out of the new-found vvorlde
Nicolás Bautista Monardes (ca. 1500-1588)
London: E. Allde, by the assigne of Bonham Norton, 1596
Third English edition

Translated by John Frampton (fl. 1577-1596) from several treatises first published in 1565 by Nicolás Monardes, the son of a bookseller, and a distinguished physician of Seville. Monardes, who never traveled to the Americas, wrote several treatises  on healing, medicine, and trade with the Spanish colonies on the Atlantic. He learned most of what he wrote about from spending time at the Seville docks, where he gathered information from sailors, soldiers, merchants, monks, royal officials, and even women.

Monardes described the cultivation and use of quinine, sassafras, cassava, rhubarb, ginger, and sasparilla. He wrote about cocoa, armadillos, minerals and metals (iron, silver, nephrite jade), and diseases like syphilis.

He wrote a lengthy description of an American plant introduced to Europe, calling it “tobaco” or “nicotain,” which he claimed was an antidote to poison. He wrote of more than twenty conditions, including the common cold and cancer, that could be cured with the use of tobacco.

“The Indians of our Occidental Indias, doo use the Tobaco for to take away the wearinesse, and for to make lightsomnesse in their Labour, which in their Daunces they bee so muche wearied, and they remaine so wearie, that they can scarcely stirre: & because that they may labour the next day, and returne to do that foolish exercise, they receiue at the mouth and nose, the smoke of the Tobaco, and they remaine as dead people: and being so, they be eased in such sorte, that when they be awakened of their sleepe, they remaine without weariness, and may return to their labour as much as before, and so they doe alwaies, when they have need of it: for with that sleepe, they do receiue their strength and be much the lustier.”

John Frampton, a Bristol merchant, had been imprisoned by the Inquisition. He translated several Spanish texts about the New World while in confinement. The British looked upon the New World as long-lost paradise with its vegetative bounty and ancient wisdom regarding human ailments, beneficial not just for its precious metals but for its plants. Being published in the vernacular, first in Spanish, then in English, meant that common readers, along with botanists and apothecaries, bought the publications. Frampton, ever the entrepreneur, re-titled the work “joyful news,” counting on brisk sales of the book and the trade in plants from the Americas. The “trade” print culture disseminated new data targeted toward popular practicality but also imagination, circulating news of an “other” ready reality just waiting ’round the bend. Such was the miracle of discovery, such was the miracle of plants, such was the miracle of print.

Illustrated with twelve woodcuts depicting herbs and plants. Rare Books copy bound in 19th century calf, ruled in gold.


De Jonge Amerikaan
Netherlands, ca. 1800
NE1154 J66 1800z

Woodblock depicting a Native American in a feather headdress and loincloth smoking a long clay pipe in a coastal setting with two ships behind him. Around this scene are a crown, trident, winged-staff, cigars, snuff jar, tobacco leaves and baled tobacco. It is likely that this woodblock was printed on paper used for tobacco wrappers, a practice that began as early as 1660 in Holland, one of the world’s great shipping centers.

Below are three prints made by Jonathan Sandberg using the woodblock, demonstrating different papers, including a paper handmade by students in last spring’s papermaking class offered by the Book Arts Program.



On July 1, 2018 The University of Utah went tobacco free and said farewell to its last cigarette.

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Exhibition — Travelers ~~ In Celebration of Peter and Donna Thomas ~~ Forty Years of Books to Go

24 Thursday May 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Physical Exhibitions

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artists' books, book artists, exhibition, fine press, hand-lettering, J. Willard Marriott Library, letterpress, miniature, papermaking, personal computer, Peter & Donna Thomas, printing, Rare Books Department, Santa Cruz, Song of the Open Road, technology, The University of Utah, travelers, Walt Whitman, Wandering Book Artists

N7433.3-W36-2011-Cover

TRAVELERS
~~~~~~~~~~
IN CELEBRATION OF PETER AND DONNA THOMAS
~~~~~~~~~~
FORTY YEARS OF BOOKS TO GO

Peter and Donna Thomas are book artists from Santa Cruz, CA. They work collaboratively and individually letterpress printing, hand-lettering and illustrating texts, making paper, and hand binding both fine press and artists’ books. Inspired by a quest for beauty and perfection, and by the potential of word, image, shape and texture to create an illuminating experience, their initial aim was to create limited edition fine press books made of the finest materials and produced to the highest standards of quality, in both full size and miniature format. This aesthetic continues to guide them as they work in new formats made possible by personal computer technology, exploring non-traditional book structures and shaped book objects as both limited editions and one-of-a-kind books. They travel the USA as the “Wandering Book Artists” giving talks, workshops and demonstrations to both academic and community-based audiences.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
— Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Rare Books Department
May 24 through September 1, 2018
Level 1 lobby, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

Gallery talk
Thursday, June 21, 5:30pm
Level 1
Cosponsored by the Book Arts Program

 

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Book of the Week — The Architextures 1-7: The Man of Music

13 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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abaca, Anthropology, Belgium, bookbinding, brass, California, Cambridge, Carolee Campbell, clamshell, English, Felix Titling, Fuji Paper Mills Cooperative, Fulbright, Guatemala, history, Ian Robinson, initials, Japan, Jonathan Cape, Katie MacGregor, King's College, kyosei-shi, letterpress, London, London School of Economics, MacGregor/Vinzani, Maine, Meridien, Nathaniel Tarn, Ninja Press, Pablo Neruda, papermaking, Paris, poetry, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Sherman Oaks, Tokuschi-ma, United States, University of Chicago, Vandercook Universal I, Whiting, wood blocks, Yale University

PS3570-A635-A7-1999-cover

“Who are we that fled the thousand lives we did not lead in order to escape the very one life that we were destined for?”

The Architextures 1-7: The Man of Music
Nathaniel Tarn (b. 1928)
Sherman Oaks, CA: Ninja Press, 1999
PS3570 A635 A7 1999

Nathaniel Tarn was born in Paris and lived in Belgium until he was eleven. He studied history and English at King’s College, Cambridge. After returning to Paris he studied anthropology and received a Fulbright grant. He studied at Yale University and the University of Chicago and did his doctoral fieldwork in Guatemala. He then completed his graduate studies at the London School of Economics. Tarn published his first volume of poetry, Old Savage/Young City, in 1964. His next published work was a translation of Pablo Neruda’s The Heights of Macchu Pichhu, published by Jonathan Cape, in London. He joined Jonathan Cape as General Editor of its international series.

In 1970, he immigrated to the United States, became a citizen, and taught as Visiting Professor of Romance Languages at Princeton University, and later, at Rutgers and other universities.

Of his poetry, Ian Robinson wrote in 1982, “Landscape, geography, and the history and culture of that landscape, that geography, of the societies living there now and that lived there once, all of the present in its present, are the key factors for Tarn.”

The Architextures 1-7 are the first seven from a collection of seventy prose poems.

The book was handset and letterpress printed on a Vandercook Universal I with Meridien type in six colors and 72pt Felix Titling for display and opening initials. Paper is dove-gray abaca, made by Katie MacGregor at the MacGregor/Vinzani papermaking studio in Whiting, Maine. Six-color wood blocks illustrate the text throughout.

PS3570-A635-A7-1999-Title

Ninja Press was begun in 1984 by Carolee Campbell, whose main publishing focus is contemporary poetry. Carolee began her book work as a photographer working with nineteenth and twentieth-century photographic processes. Binding her photograph sequences introduced her to bookbinding and experimental book structures. She then expanded her book work with letterpress printing. Bookmaking opened “the way into contemporary poetry — confronting it for the first time with a directness and penetration she seldom experienced as a reader.” (Ninja Press) All book work from Ninja Press is by Carolee Campbell.

Bound in torched and patinated thin brass boards, with a spine of brass and stainless steel hinges. Issued in a clamshell box covered in black kyosei-shi, a handmade paper from the Fuji Paper Mills Cooperative in Tokushi-ma, Japan. Edition of sixty-five numbered copies, signed by the poet and the bookmaker.

PS3570-A635-A7-1999-quote

PS3570-A635-A7-1999-Spread1

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Book Arts Exhibition – Glimpse

10 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Physical Exhibitions

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

A Fowl Alphabet, Alan James Robinson, Allison Milham, Allyn Hart, Becky Williams Thomas, book artists, Book Arts Program, bookbinding, bookmaking, Cheloniidae Press, Claire Taylor, collage, Crane Giamo, Easthampton, Emily Tipps, encaustics, Glenville, Illinois, intaglio printing, J. Willard Marriott Library, Japanese, Julianna Christie, Karen Hanmer, Keiji Shinohara, leather bindings, letterpress printing, Luise Poulton, Marnie Powers-Torrey, Massachusetts, Michelle Macfarlane, National Endowment for the Arts, Pamela Smith, paper decorating, papermaking, photo engraving, photography, printers, rare books, relief printing, Special Collections Gallery, Stacy Phillips, Suzanne Moore, The University of Utah, type, wood engravings

GlimpsePoster

Rare Books is pleased to support the Book Arts Program with its historic, fine press, and artists’ books collections. Glimpse features these and many other book artists represented in our collections.

DODOe

A FOWL ALPHABET
Alan James Robinson
Easthampton, MA: Cheloniidae Press, 1986

Wood engravings by author. Lettering by Suzanne Moore. Title printed in brown and black; initials and headings printed in brown and gold. Issued in cloth clamshell box. Edition of fifty copies, signed. University of Utah copy is no. 36.


AAAZZZ

AAAAAZZZZZ
Karen Hanmer
Glenville, IL: Karen Hammer, 2002
N7433.4 H357 A6 2002

Housed in box. Title on box shows the letter “A” turning into the letter “Z.” Edition of eight copies. University of Utah copy is no. 6, signed by the author.


AtoZ

THE SPECTRUM A TO Z
Karen Hanmer
Glenview, IL: K. Hanmer, 2003
N7433.4 H357 S6 2003

Accordion-style alphabet book. Edition of twenty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 4.


UV

PATRIOT ALPHABET
Karen Hanmer
Glenview, IL: K. Hanmer, 2004
N7433.4 H357 P37 2004

Karen Hanmer layers fragments of text and image, evoking personal memory within cultural context. Intimate but strong, her books are designed to be handled, their sculptural elements giving way to the physicality of reading the old-fashioned way, by turning a page.

alluNeedSingleLine

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Forty Years, in memoriam

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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American, aquatint, Boulder, British, Buddha, C. David Thomas, China, Cochin China, collage, Colorado, communists, Cornwall, Daphne, Dong Ho, drawings, Earl of Macartney, Edinburgh Review, Emperor of China, English, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Fred Siegenthaler, French, Fulbright Scholar, George Schneeman (1934-2009), GI Bill, Granary Books, Hanoi, helicopter, Hermetic Press, Ho Chi Minh, HP Photosmart Pro B9180, Huu Mai, Indochina, injet printer, International Volunteer Services, Italy, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jeff Branin, John Balaban, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Kawabata Press, Korea, Lancashire, letterpress, London, love, magnesium plates, Massachusetts, Millbrook, Minneapolis, Muttenz, National Book Award, National Poetry Society of America, Nepal, New York, Norman Morrison, North Carolina State University, North Vietnam, Orient, Oxford, paper, papermaking, Phan Ke An, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, philately, Philip Gallo, Pleiku, poems, portfolio, postage stamps, President, propaganda, puzzle, Raleigh, Rhamnoneron blansae, Rhode Island School of Design, Richard Nixon, Rives 300 gm, Robert McNamara, Robert W. Chandler, Sir John Barrow (1764-1848), South Hinksey, South Vietnam, Strand, Switzerland, T. Cadell, Ted Berrigan (1934-1983), Tet Offensive, Torpoint, United States, University of Minnesota, University of Tulsa, University of Utah, US Army, Verona, Vietnam, Vietnam War, Vietnamese, W. Davies, Walter Jones, wars, Wellesley, Westview Press, William Alexander, William Carlos Williams Award, woodblock printing



A Voyage to Cochinchina, in the Years 1792 and 1793: containing a general view of the valuable productions and political importance of this flourishing kingdom, and also of such European settlements as were visited on the voyage: with sketches of the manners, character, and condition of their several inhabitants…
Sir John Barrow (1764-1848)
London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies in the Strand, 1806
First edition
DS506 B37 1806

John Barrow traveled with the Earl of Macartney to Cochin China, now known as Vietnam; Madeira; Jamaica; Rio de Janeiro; Java; and Djarkarta as part of the first British embassy to China, from 1792 to 1794. Barrow acted as official interpreter to the Emperor of China, who was contemptuous of the entire mission and dismissed it almost immediately. The Edinburgh Review, October 1806, was as underwhelmed with the Barrows book as the Emperor was with the British: “His views are often narrow, and oftener unsound…deceived by imperfect information.” Barrow had published a work on his travels to China in 1804 and was known as an expert on the Orient. His work evinced a belief in the superiority of British civilization. His extensive notes on Cochin China range from its history to particulars about its art, architecture, and religious ceremonies. According to Barrow the substance of his writings were taken from a manuscript memoir by Captain Barissy, a French naval officer who had commanded a frigate in the service of the King of Cochinchina. Barrow was the son of a Lancashire tanner, educated in the local grammar school. He became a teacher of mathematics to young men headed for a career in the navy. Illustrated with nineteen aquatint plates taken from drawings by William Alexander who also traveled with Macartney. This is the first illustrated English work on southern Vietnam.




The Beacon Banner: Short Stories about the War of Resistance in Vietnam
Huu Mai, et al.
Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1964
First edition
PZ1 B356 PL4382 E2

Illustrations by Phan Ke An.




Vietnam Poems
John Balaban (b. 1943)
South Hinksey, Oxford: Carcanet Press, 1970
PS3552 A44 V5 1970

During the Vietnam War, John Balaban performed alternative service as a conscientious objector. He went with the International Volunteer Services to Vietnam where he taught until the Tet Offensive during which he was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel. Balaban has been awarded The Academy of American Poets’ Lamont prize, a William Carlos Williams Award from the National Poetry Society of America, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and was twice nominated for the National Book Award. He was named the 2001-2004 National Artist for the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. In addition to writing, he is a translator of Vietnamese poetry. He is Poet-in-Residence and Professor of English in the creative writing program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Edition of six hundred copies.




Nam
Jeff Branin
Millbrook, Torpoint, Cornwall: Kawabata Press, 1981
PS3552 R318 N35 1981

Jeff Branin served a tour of duty in the Vietnam War in 1968 and 1969, building bunkers and latrines and serving as a replacement commanding officer. In these poems Branin writes of rocket attacks, casualties, atrocities against civilians and sexual misadventures using the jargon of the Vietnam-era US soldier.




War of Ideas: the U.S. Propaganda Campaign in Vietnam
Robert W. Chandler
Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1981
DS559.8 P65 C45 1981

This book focuses on advertisement techniques used as propaganda by the United States during the Vietnam War. Many of these pieces were taken by American anti-war campaigns for use in their own material. Chandler writes that US propaganda in Vietnam was targeted toward three groups: communists and communist supporters in South Vietnam, masses and elite in North Vietnam, and non-communists in South Vietnam. University of Utah copy gift of Walter Jones, as part of his Collection on the Vietnam and Indochina Wars, donated to the J. Willard Marriott Library in 2011.




In the Nam What Can Happen?
Ted Berrigan (1934-1983) and George Schneeman (1934-2009)
New York: Granary Books; Minneapolis: Hermetic Press, 1997
PS3552 E74 I656 1997

Ted Berrigan was a poet at the epicenter of the sixties literary underground. He served in the US Army, sent to Korea in 1954, where he did not see action. He earned a BA in 1959 and an MA in 1962 from the University of Tulsa under the GI Bill. George Schneeman received a BA in Philosophy and English Literature from St. Mary’s College, began graduate work in English Literature at the University of Minnesota and then enlisted in the US Army. Posted in Verona, Italy, Schneeman began painting. From the colophon: “First made as a one-of-a-kind collaborative book in 1967-68…The present edition is a simulation of the original…” From Granary Books: “The original was passed back and forth between Ted Berrigan and George Schneeman for about a year, remaining in the hands of one or the other for weeks or even months at a time – poet and artist each adding, subtracting, working over words and images. The material used were pen and ink, white acrylic paint and collage…The ‘finished’ project languished in a drawer in Schneeman’s studio on St. Mark’s Place for thirty years. Produced when the Vietnam War was rapidly escalating, this work is by turns surreal, incisive, hip, outrageous, cartoon-like, flip, sinister, humorous, dreamy, sarcastic, witty – always right on target – a vivid evocation of the times and the broad range of emotional responses to the War.” Letterpress printed in several colors from magnesium plates on Rives 300 gm paper by Philip Gallo at The Hermetic Press. Unbound gatherings in a plexiglass case. Edition of seventy copies, twenty lettered (a-t), hors de commerce. University of Utah copy is no. 42, signed by Berrigan and Schneeman.




Vietnamese Hand Papermaking and Woodblock Printing
Fred Siegenthaler
Muttenz, Switzerland: Paper Art, 2003
TS1095 V53 S54 2003

Fred Siegenthaler writes on the nearly extinct traditional manufacture of paper in Vietnam: processes of making inks, paper, and printing. The book includes paper and print samples from Dong Ho, a village famous for its woodblock printing, located just outside of Hanoi. Included are fourteen different original hand papers and six colored original woodcuts. From the colophon: “The text of this book is printed on paper made of Rhamnoneuron blansae…handmade multilayered Daphne paper from Nepal was used for the cover of the book.” Edition of fifty copies, signed by the author.


N7433.4-T478-C4-2009
Christ Meets Buddha
C. David Thomas
Wellesley, MA: C. David Thomas, 2009
N7433.4 T478 C4 2009

In 1968, C. David Thomas joined the US Army and was sent to Pleiku, South Vietnam as a combat engineer and artist. Thomas drew a picture of a fellow soldier’s girlfriend. In lieu of payment for the drawing he asked his friend, who worked in personnel, to change his records and shorten his stint in Vietnam from twelve to eleven months. Thomas was able to return to the United States weeks earlier than originally scheduled. The helicopter on which he routinely rode was shot down during what would have been the twelfth month of his tour of duty. There were no survivors. Thomas holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Grant to Vietnam. Thomas describes Christ Meets Buddha as autobiographical and a metaphor for his life. The digitally-created puzzle pieces contain religious imagery, war imagery, and family photographs. From the colophon: “These artist’s puzzle books are comprised of the six separate images…Each image is presented in its own linen box made by craftsmakers in Hanoi, Vietnam. All assembled puzzles are 29×23 inches made from twenty individual pieces. Each puzzle piece is printed using archival paper and ink by an HP Photosmart Pro B9180 inkjet printer. The pieces are then mounted on black felt and handcut…” Edition of ten copies. University of Utah copy is no. 1, signed by the author.




Postage Due: Forever Stamps
C. David Thomas
Wellesley, MA: C. David Thomas, 2009
N7433.4 T478 P67 2009

A series of unofficial postage stamps inspired by people and events from the Vietnam War era. From the introduction: “I never really thought about the importance of how we chose what images to place on our stamps until one day in 1995, when I went to the post office and asked for an interesting stamp. The woman behind the counter handed me a sheet of the recently issued Richard Nixon stamp. This stamp was issued only twenty years after he was forced to resign in disgrace as the 37th President of the United States. Needless to say, I handed them back to her with some choice words…in 1996 I went to the philately society in Hanoi, Viet Nam while doing research for a book on President Ho Chi Minh. I found dozens of stamps of Ho Chi Minh…and…a 1966 stamp depicting the shooting down of the 1,500 US aircraft brought down over North Viet Nam and one with the image of Norman Morrison, the man who immolated himself outside Robert McNamara’s office at the Pentagon. Just a few days before the US Post Office issued Robert Indiana’s LOVE stamp in 1973, the US heavily bombed the densely populated city Hanoi killing hundreds of innocent Vietnamese civilians…I have begun to understand the real power of this little jewel which may be the smallest form of propaganda available to all governments. These miniature posters travel all over the world…” Portfolio of unbound folded leaves issued in black linen box. Edition of twenty-five copies. University of Utah copy is no. 12, signed by the author.

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