Book of the Week — Mrs. Delany Meets Herr Haeckel

06 Monday Mar 2017

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Arches, Arches MBM Ingres, artist, Barbara Hodgson, biologist, botanical, Canada, Claudia Cohen, cut-paper, decorations, English, Ernst Haeckel, Europe, German, Gifu, gilt, Hahnemuhle Ingres, hand-colored, handmade, HM Editions, Ingres, initials, Japan, Kiraku kozo, Kitikata, Kozuke, marbling, Mary Delany, microscopic organism, morocco, mulberry, paper, papermaker, Reg Lissel, single-cell, Suminigashi, Turkish, Vancouver, wove, Yatsuo

“Mrs. Delany’s was an age when genteel women, whether amateur or professional, were occupied with crafts, decorative works, design and fine arts. Embroidery, quilling, shellwork, japanning, silhouette making, drawing, painting in oils and watercolours, knitting, sewing, flower making, modelling in wax and clay, miniature painting, and horticulture were among the arts practiced.”

MRS. DELANY MEETS HERR HAECKEL
Barbara Hodgson
Vancouver: HM Editions, 2015
N7433.4 H63 M77 2015

From the publisher’s website: [Mrs. Delany] is an “imagined collaboration between Mrs. Mary Delany (1700-1788), an English widow, woman of accomplishment, and creator of imaginative botanical ‘paper mosaics’ and Herr Ernst Haeckel (1852-1911), a distinguished and controversial German biologist and artist who devoted much of his time to the study and rendering of single-celled creatures.”

Cut paper image of a microscopic organism affixed to frontispiece with another cut-paper image affixed to the recto of the same sheet; eleven cut-paper interpretations of microscopic organisms tipped on to captioned plates; tipped-in cut-paper initials, numerous smaller cut-paper decorations. The paper cuttings are adapted from Ernst Haeckel’s Die Radiolarien (1862) and Kunstformen der Natur (1899-1904). They are cut from a variety of papers, including Yatsuo, Kozuke, mulberry, Gifu, Kitikata, and Kiraku kozo from Japan; Ingres and unidentified wove from Europe; and Reg Lissel handmade papers from Canada. Some were cut from papers previously marbled in the Turkish or Suminigashi styles. Some were dyed by the papermaker; some were dyed or otherwise hand-colored for this book. The cuttings are mounted on one of Arches text wove (white), Arches MBM Ingres (black) or Hahnemuhle Ingres (black).

Bound in full polished morocco, ruled and stamped decoratively in red and gilt with a gilt-lettered spine by Claudia Cohen. Marbled endpapers. Issued in orange clamshell case with a gilt-lettered spine label.

Edition of twenty-five copies plus six hors de commerce, each signed by the author, printer, and binder. Rare Books copy is XXII.

Book of the Week — The Temperamental Rose

24 Monday Oct 2016

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Arches Cover, Arthur Rimbaud, Barbara Hodgson, BFK Rives, Black Stone Press, British Columbia, Claudia Cohen, color wheels, colors, Da Vinci, Daler-Rowney, David Clifford, Francoise Giovannangeli, Heavenly Monkey Editions, Holbein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kroma, letterpress, M.-E. Chevreul, Monotype Fournier, pigments, polymer plates, Seattle, Vancouver, watercolors, Winsor & Newton

A Black, E white, I red, U green, O blue: vowels,
I will someday speak of your unseen births:
A, black corset bristling with glittering flies
That buzz around cruel smells,

Gulfs of shadow; E, innocent vapours and tents,
Lances of proud glaciers, white kings, frissons of an inflorescence;
I, crimsons, spit blood, laughter of lovely lips
In anger or drunken penitence;

U, cycles, divine thrill of a viridian sea,
Peace of pastures sprinkled with animals, peace of wrinkles
Imprinted on broad, thoughtful brows of alchemy;

O, Supreme Clarion full of strange strident cries,
Silence traversed by Worlds and Angels:
—O Omega, violet ray of Her Eyes!

— Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)

The Temperamental Rose: And Other Ways of Seeing Colour
Barbara Hodgson & Claudia Cohen
Vancouver, British Columbia: Heavenly Monkey Editions, 2007
N7433.4 H625 T4 2007

From the Heavenly Monkey website: “A collaboration between author and book designer Barbara Hodgson, and bookbinder Claudia Cohen. The Tempermental Rose & Other Ways Seeing Colour was borne during the collaborators’ first meeting, in the summer of 2006, when they discovered mutual passions for color wheels and other systems for charting and codifying colors. Inspired by centuries of color studies, including those of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and M.-E. Chevreul, the authors reproduce existing color wheels as well as create new and fanciful ways of seeing color. An introductory essay discusses the history of color, and each of the charts is accompanied by explanatory text.”

From the colophon: “This book was designed and set in digital Monotype Fournier by Barbara Hodgson. Francoise Giovannangeli edited it. It was printed letterpress from polymer plates by David Clifford at Black Stone Press, Vancouver, on Arches Cover and BFK Rives. The watercolours used in the charts are from Winsor & Newton, Daler-Rowney, Holbein and Da Vinci.” Edition of thirty numbered and five A.P. copies, each signed by the two authors. Each copy has been bound by Claudia Cohen in her Seattle studio. All hand colouring and other embellishments have been done by the authors. The six vials in each case contain fine artists’ pigments from Kroma, Vancouver.”

Black leather diaper-patterned embossed binding embellished with multi-colored geometric shapes on front and back boards. Spine is red leather with title embossed in gold. Issued in a clam-shell box.

University of Utah copy is no. 5, signed by the authors.

Book of the week — Kuthan’s Menagerie Completed

18 Monday Apr 2016

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animals, anteater, booksellers, Canada, clamshell, colophon, debossed, endsheets, Felicity Reid, flamingo, folio, George Kuthan, Golden Hind laid paper, Heavenly Monkey, Japanese paper, landscape, linocuts, monkey, Nevermore Press, Paris, peacock, penguin, Perpetua, preface, racoon, Robert Reid, Simone Mynen, St. Armand handmade paper, Stephen Lunsford, title page, University of Prague, University of Utah, Vancouver, Vancouver Zoo, waste sheets, William Hoffer

“In the zoo we see, on a small scale, how different all animals are from each other…We have to live together whether we like it or not.”

KUTHAN’S MENAGERIE COMPLETED
George Kuthan (1916-1966)
Vancouver: Heavenly Monkey, 2003

Descriptive text about six animals – a raccoon, flamingo, anteater, penguin, monkey and peacock – each representing a different part of the world and each viewed by the artist at the Vancouver Zoo. Illustrated with multi-color linocuts by George Kuthan. Kuthan studied art at the University of Prague and in Paris before he moved to Canada.

Kuthan’s Menagerie of Interesting Zoo Animals was first published in an edition of one hundred and thirty copies by Nevermore Press, a single private enterprise by Robert and Felicity Reid, in 1960. Sixty of these copies were bound in quarter leather and Japanese paper over boards. Kuthan and the binder both died soon after this first publication. The remaining sheets were left unbound and unsold. Vancouver booksellers Stephen Lunsford and William Hoffer bought the unbound copies from the original binder’s estate in the late 1980s.

Heavenly Monkey issued the remaining sheets within a sheet of yellow Japanese paper (which served as the endsheets for the bound edition). New content (a title-page, preface and colophon) was set by hand in 18 pt. Perpetua and printed on blank and waste sheets of the original Golden Hind laid paper. The whole is in an outer wrap of St. Armand handmade paper and housed in a custom clamshell box covered in red Japanese fabric, with printed debossed paper labels, designed and made by Simone Mynen. The work is comprised of sixteen sheets loose, printed landscape on one side and folded folio, plus three sheets of additional matter. Printer Robert Reid explained that the folded sheets helped solve two problems: the translucent quality of the paper and to add to the bulk of the book when bound. Edition of fifty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 7, signed by Robert Reid.

Book of the Week – Good and Evil in the Garden

27 Monday Oct 2014

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Barbara Hodgson, British Columbia, engravings, gampi, Garamont, Heavenly Monkey, HM Text, Reg Lissel, Rollin Milroy, Shinsuke Minegushi, Simone Mynen, University of Utah, Vancouver, Washington handpress

GOOD AND EVIL IN THE GARDEN
Barbara Hodgson
Vancouver, British Columbia: Heavenly Monkey, 2003
First edition

Designed by the author. Illustrated with engravings by Shinsuke Minegishi printed from the blocks on gampi. Typeface is Garamont. Printed on damp HM Text, an all-cotton paper made by Reg Lissel with a Washington handpress by Rollin Milroy. Issued in slipcase made by Simone Mynen. Edition of fifty copies, signed by the author and the artist. University of Utah copy is no. 24.

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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