Category Archives: fine press editions

fine press editions

Graphic Arts acquires The Torture Garden

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Octave Mirbeau (1848-1917), Le Jardin des supplices [The Torture Garden] (Paris: Ambroise Vollard, 1902). One of 155 copies on velin from a total edition of 200. Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process

Friends and collaborators, Auguste Rodin and Octave Mirbeau published a modest illustrated edition of The Torture Garden in 1899, to limited success. When they heard that art dealer Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939) was preparing a deluxe edition of Paul Verlaine’s erotic poem Parallèlement with lithographs by Pierre Bonnard, they approached Vollard about also publishing their book as a deluxe edition.

“Less than two weeks after they had signed a contract with Vollard on February 10, 1899, the master printer Auguste Clot received ten of Rodin’s designs for reproduction as lithographs. When Vollard’s edition appeared in 1902, the subject and illustrations proved too challenging for some clients, who returned copies they had preordered, creating significant cash flow problems for Vollard.”–Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-garde by Rebecca A. Rabinow (2006)

Clot printed 18 color and 2 black and white lithographs, with Rodin by his side supervising. In the final bound volume, these plates are interspersed throughout Mirbeau’s text, protected with a tissue printed with a linear reproduction of Rodin’s nude underneath. Today, this book is recognized as one of the rarest and most important livre d’artiste ever produced.

“Novels that produce a physical effect upon their reader,” writes Tom McCarthy, “sending jolts outwards from the spine to the remotest nerve-ends, tightening the throat and burning the ears, must number very few; and The Torture Garden must stand near the top of any list of these. Yet not only is it—in its extremity, its viscerality and violence—an uncommon or ‘exceptional’ work of fiction; it also sits neatly in the middle of what, when the dust of time has cleared and the staid realist novels of the early twentieth century have been forgotten, will be seen as a canonical mainline running between the counter-enlightenment visions of Sade and the post-industrial ones of Burroughs and Ballard.”

Diebenkorn and Yeats

Richard Diebenkorn, Poems of W.B. Yeats, selected and introduced by Helen Vendler (San Francisco: Arion Press, 1990). Edition: 426 copies. Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process

When a man grows old his joy
Grows more deep day after day,
His empty heart is full at length,
But he has need of all that strength
Because of the increasing Night
That opens her mystery and fright.
Fifteen apparitions have I seen;
The worst a coat upon a coat-hanger.

–verse from The Apparitions by W.B. Yeats

Yeats wrote this poem in March/April 1938 and published it before the end of that year. The 73 year-old poet had not been well and knew he was coming to the end of his life. Similarly, Richard Diebenkorn was in his last years in 1990 when he received a commission to create work for Arion Press. The artist agreed and chose to visualize Yeats’s late poems.

“The poetry of William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) burst the boundaries of its native Ireland to become part of world culture. Helen Vendler, one of the foremost authorities on modern poetry and a University Professor at Harvard, selected for the Arion Press 145 poems and provided an introductory essay for the book. Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993), internationally recognized as one of America’s leading artists, took the Yeatsian theme of an empty coat on a hanger to produce a series of prints transforming the garment from a representational frock-coat into an abstracted suit-bag. The sixth etching is a double map of Ireland, indicative of that divided country.”–prospectus

It is, perhaps, surprising that the Graphic Arts Collection did not already own a copy of this fine press edition but the gap has now been filled.

The Story of Cupid and Psyche

William Morris, The Story of Cupid and Psyche. Illustrations designed by Edward Burne-Jones, engraved on wood by William Morris (London: Clover Hill Editions, 1974). Designed and printed by Will and Sebastian Carter at the Rampant Lions Press, Cambridge. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this wonderful limited edition designed and printed by Will Carter (1912-2001) and his son, Sebastian, at the Rampant Lions Press, Cambridge.

William Morris (1834-1896) and Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) began discussing this project in the 1860s and Burne-Jones drew over forty designs for Morris to engrave before they finally abandoned the idea. Carter printed from Morris’ original woodblocks and some of the original Troy type from the Kelmscott Press (now in the Cambridge University Press collection) to complete the book in 1974.

Will Carter’s 2001 obituary in The Guardian comments:

His masterpiece was probably William Morris’s The Story of Cupid and Psyche in 1974, set in Morris’s types and illustrated with the blocks engraved by Morris from Burne-Jones’s designs. Carter printed the book jointly with his son Sebastian, who joined the press in 1966. Although they tended to work independently on projects, their complementary skills enriched production. Their partnership is seen to great effect in the catalogue they produced in 1982 for the exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum celebrating “A printing workshop through five decades”. Apart from wood- and slate-carvings and 20 frames of jobbing printings, the catalogue lists 89 books. Thanks to Sebastian, the Rampant Lions Press is a continuing memorial to Will.

Sebastian retired in 2008 and closed the workshop. In 2013, he published a history of the press: Sebastian Carter, Rampant Lions Press: a Narrative Catalogue (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll, 2013). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2014-0015Q

Catch and Release

Reina María Rodriguez, Catch and Release. Linocuts by Alejandro Sainz (Tuscaloosa & Havana: Parallel Editions, 2014). Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process. Gift of the author.

“This book is a collaboration between Cuban poet Reina María Rodríguez, as translated by Kristin Dykstra, Cuban artist Alejandro Sainz, and The University of Alabama. Faculty and students in the MFA in the Book Arts Program, School of Library & Information Studies, College of Communication & Information Sciences designed, letterpress printed, and bound the book.”–Last page. Alternating sections in black and gold type. Limited edition of 60 copies.

We have reserved Margaret Atwood’s upcoming book, to be published in 2114 [this is not a typo]

Margaret Atwood – the first writer for Future Library from Katie Paterson on Vimeo.

A forest in Norway is growing. In 100 years it will become an anthology of books.

The Scottish artist Katie Paterson conceived of this 100-year-long project she calls Framtidsbiblioteket (The Future Library). It is one of four public artworks produced for Slow Space, a program of public artworks for Bjørvika, Oslo’s former container port, and commissioned by Bjørvika Utvikling.

The project has begun:
1. 1,000 trees have been planted outside Oslo, Norway, which will supply paper for a special anthology of books to be printed in one hundred years time.
2. The first writer, Margaret Atwood, has accepted a commission to write the first text over the next year, which will be sealed in a box, unread and unpublished until 2114.
3. Between 2014 and 2114, one additional writer every year will contribute a text, with the writings held in trust, unpublished, until 2114.
4. In 2114, the forest will be harvested and paper made to print an edition of each text.
5. Princeton will receive one complete set of the books.

According to Paterson’s website, the texts will be held in a specially designed room in the New Public Deichmanske Library, Oslo. Tending the forest and ensuring its preservation for the 100-year duration of the artwork finds a conceptual counterpoint in the invitation extended to each writer: to conceive and produce a work in the hopes of finding a receptive reader in an unknown future. Atwood comments:

I am very honoured, and also happy to be part of this endeavor. This project, at least, believes the human race will still be around in a hundred years! Future Library is bound to attract a lot of attention over the decades, as people follow the progress of the trees, note what takes up residence in and around them, and try to guess what the writers have put into their sealed boxes.

Guiding the selection of authors is the Future Library Trust, whose trustees include the artist, Literary Director of the Man Booker Prize Ion Trewin, Publishing Director of Hamish Hamilton Simon Prosser, former Director of the Deichmanske Bibliotek Liv Sæteren, Publishing Director of Forlaget Press Håkon Harket, Editor in Chief of Oktober Press, Ingeri Engelstad, Director of Situations Claire Doherty and Anne Beate Hovind, Bjørvika Utvikling’s Project Manager for the Slow Space Programme.

Thanks to the James Cohen Gallery for helping us be a part of this wonderful project.www.futurelibrary.no

Future Library, Katie Paterson from Katie Paterson on Vimeo.

A new edition of The Dead

After nine years of rejection, James Joyce’s book of short stories, Dubliners, was finally published by Grant Richards in 1914. To help celebrate the book’s centenary, Stoney Road Press, in collaboration with the James Joyce Centre, has published a fine press edition of its final and longest story, The Dead, illustrated by the American artist Robert Berry.

Based in Dublin, Stoney Road Press is the only independent commercially run fine art print studio in Ireland. Princeton collects all of its limited edition books and we are happy to add The Dead. Although we don’t own a first edition Dubliners, we do have the 1917 copy owned by Sylvia Beach.

The Dead begins:

Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat than the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the bare hallway to let in another guest. It was well for her she had not to attend to the ladies also. But Miss Kate and Miss Julia had thought of that and had converted the bathroom upstairs into a ladies’ dressing-room. Miss Kate and Miss Julia were there, gossiping and laughing and fussing, walking after each other to the head of the stairs, peering down over the banisters and calling down to Lily to ask her who had come.

James Joyce (1882-1941), Dubliners (London: G. Richards, 1914).

James Joyce (1882-1941), Dubliners (New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1917). “Published, December 1916; second printing, April 1917.” Rare Books: Sylvia Beach Collection (Beach) 3807.38.331.1917

James Joyce (1882-1941), The Dead. Illustrated by Robert Berry (Dublin: Stoney Road Press, 2014). One of 150 copies. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

See also:
Paul Muldoon, At Sixes and Sevens, with etchings by Rita Duffy ([Dublin]: Stoney Road Press, 2013). Rare Books (Ex) 2013-0082Q

Fighting Words, foreword Roddy Doyle ; text Russell Banks … [et al.] ; limited ed. print Sean Scully ([Dublin]: Stoney Road Press, 2012). Rare Books (Ex) 2014-0002Q

John Montague, Many Mansions (Dublin: Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust ; Stoney Road Press, 2009). Rare Books (Ex) 2010-0201Q

Wild Pilgrimage

Lynd Ward (1905-1985). Wild Pilgrimage. New York: H. Smith & R. Haas, 1932. [95] leaves of plates. Gift of David B. Long in honor of Gillett G. Griffin. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2007-2559N

The Graphic Arts Collection is proud to hold several editions of Lynd Ward’s graphic novel Wild Pilgrimage. In addition, we have a complete set of Ward’s carved woodblocks used in the original printing. Each block has been carefully conserved and housed individually to prevent further cracking or chipping.

In his 1932 NYT’s review of Wild Pigrimage, Harold Strauss wrote that Ward’s story “is severely simple. A young man, aroused by communistic propaganda and his hatred of the ugliness of industrialism, breaks away to the countryside of his dreams.”

But Strauss encourages the reader not to be content simply knowing the plot. “Such is the story but one must page through the book to appreciate its intensity and vitality.”

The reviewer concludes with a comparison to the Flemish graphic novelist Frans Masereel (1889–1972) who he considers the only other true woodcut novelist. “In Wild Pilgrimage,” notes Strauss, “Ward has made such strides toward profundity and power that this reviewer, for one, will grant him ascendancy over his German predecessor.”

Although it might not be apparent here, Ward has used two colors of ink to print his story, black for action in the actual world and rose-red for the world within his mind. Happily, in later volumes, he realizes this is an unnecessary conceit given the power of the visual narrative and returns to black ink exclusively.

Harold Strauss, “Two Tales Told in a Sequence of Pictures: Wild Pilgrimage by Lynd Ward…,” New York Times Dec 18, 1932.

O that Ishtar might hear me

Esther Bensusan Pissarro (1870-1951) and Diana White (1868-1950) studied together at the Crystal Palace School of Art and remained close throughout their lives. White translated a number of works from French, Danish, and other languages while also continuing to paint. When Esther and her husband Lucien collaborated with Diana to publish her translation of The Descent of Ishtar, The New York Times wrote,

“The Seventh Tablet of the twelve in the famous Deluge Series found in fragments in the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, containing the legend of the “Descent of Ishtar,” has been prepared for the press by Diana White, and will bear the imprint of John Lane. It relates the journey of Ishtar, Goddess of Love and Life, to the underworld in search of her husband, Tammuz, her detention there by Allatt, Queen of the Dead, and the subsequent intervention of the great gods to obtain her release which is unwillingly conceded. The closing lines of the tablet are so mutilated that their sense is obscure, but it seems probable that the goddess was obliged to return tto the upper world without fulfilling her quest. The legend dates from about 2,000 years before Christ, and , together with the ceremonies practiced yearly by the people in honor of the god, it survived to the Greeks, through Phoenicia, in the form of the Adonis myth. The book forms the third of the Eragny Press series, and will have a frontispiece designed by Diana White, engraved on wood by Esther Pissarro. Lucien Pissarro has designed the borders and initial letters, and the daisy cover design is by Miss White.”

The Descent of Ishtar. Translated by Diana White. [London: Eragny Press, sold by J. Lane, New York, 1903]. Frontispiece designed by Diana White and engraved on wood by Esther Pissarro. Initials and double border designed by Lucien Pissarro and engraved by Esther Pissarro. Printed by them at their Eragny Press. Cf. Colophon, p. [31], “Limited to 226 copies.” Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PJ3785 .I813 1903

Les Ballets suédois

Michel Fokine (1880-1942), et al., Les Ballets suédois dans l’art contemporain (Paris: Editions du Trainon, 1931). Texte de Fokine, Hedvig Nenzén-Haquinius, Rolf de Maré; Georges Rémon; Alexandre Tasman; Pierre Tugal; Contributions de Claudel, Casella … [et al.]; hors-texte en couleurs de: Pierre Bonnard; Giorgio De Chirico; Paul Alfred Colin; Fernand Léger; along with Dardel, Foujita, Gladky, Hellé, Hugo, Lagut, Laptade, Murhpy, Nerman, Parr, Perdriat, and Steinlen. Copy 292 of 1000. Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process

The year 1920, in which the Ballets Suédois made its debut in Paris, was not a good year for Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. His tours were not successful, and his financial situation was complicated by theft and lawsuits. … Rolf de Maré and his Ballets Suédois would, for the next five years, produce modern theater works incorporating dance, mime, painting, and music that would rival anything Diaghilev had created in terms of their avant-garde aspirations. It was perhaps partly due to Diaghilev’s reaction to the success of the Ballets Suédois that the Ballets Russes began to turn away form Russian painters and composers and instead employ the newest French artists as collaborators. — Sally Banes, Writing Dancing in the Age of Postmodernism (2011) GV1623 .B36 1993

Graphic Arts is fortunate to have acquired this limited edition compendium, with covers designed by Fernand Léger (1881–1955). A suite of fourteen plates are colored by pochoir (stencil) and the volume includes sixty-four heliogravures, with text contributions by Luigi Pirandello, Jean Cocteau, and Frances Picabia. The colorful pochoirs feature costume design by Léonard Tsugouharu Foujita (1886–1968) and set designs by Léger and Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978).

Traité d’enluminure d’art au pochoir par Jean Saudé

This stencil reemerged recently, mixed in with our extensive collection of blocks, plates, and stones. Thanks to researcher Kitty Maryatt of Scripps College for bringing it to our attention.

The pochoir stencil is one, we believe, of many that accompanied Jean Saudé’s book Traite d’enluminure d’art au pochoir when it was published in 1925. What is interesting is that the design on the metal stencil is reproduced as a background color to several pages in the book, much larger than this stencil and often upsidedown. See below.

Jean Saudé, Traité d’enluminure d’art au pochoir par Jean Saudé; précédé de notes par mm. Antoine Bourdelle, Lucien Descaves ; aquarelles de Beauzée-Reynaud, [et al.]; reproductions d’après Jean Fouquet, A. Besnard; image de Georgin (Paris: Editions de l’ibis, 1925). Copy 194 of 500. Princeton copy is no. 1 in the Charles Rahn Fry Pochoir Collection. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2004-0096Q
Another wonderful element of the volume is the use of sequential images to show the painting of the stencils onto a collotype to create a fully painted or printed image.

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