Category Archives: Books

books

The Gardens of England

E. Adveno Brooke, fl. 1844-1864. The Gardens of England. London: T. McLean, 1857. [62] p., 25 leaves of chromolithographic plates: ill., col. front., 24 col. mounted plates ; 53 cm. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize Rowlandson 6093e

The gardens depicted include those at Trentham Park, Enville Hall, Bowood House, Alton Towers, Elvaston Castle, Shrublands Hall, Woburn Abbey, Holkham House, Castle Howard, and many others.

To see the whole book online, try the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s site: https://archive.org/details/gardensEngland00Broo

A book about Cook in a bottle

Rebecca Harvey, Any number of things : being the story of events leading to the untimely death of Captain James Cook ([Columbus, Ohio] : Logan Elm Press, 2013). Includes paper scroll measuring 27 x 288 cm, glass bottle measuring 44 cm high, and ceramic saucer measuring 19 cm in diameter. Copy 10 of 100. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process

“Any Number of Things was written, designed, & illustrated by Rebecca Harvey & was printed on her own handmade Kozo and Gampi fiber paper at The Ohio State University Libraries’ Center for Book Arts & Logan Elm Press, 2013.

Each copy is enclosed in its own handblown glass bottle resting on a ceramic saucer made by the artist for this book with a calligraphic portrait of Captain Cook drawn by Ann Alaïa Woods. Grateful acknowledgement is made to Jeff Bussone, Sara Galluzzo, David King and the team at the OSU hot shop, Helen Liebman, Bob Tauber, Kelly Watson and The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences for their assistance in the making of this book.”–Colophon.

Lettre de Dulis à son ami

Louis Sébastien Mercier (1740-1814), Lettre de Dulis à son ami. Etchings designed by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724-1780) (London and Paris: Nicolas Bonaventure Duchesne, 1767). Bookplate of the opera singer Emmy Destinn (1878-1930). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015-in process

“A unique chronicler of bohemian Paris under the reign of Louis XV, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin was a marginal artist who roamed the streets of the capital his entire life, a sketchbook in his hands.

Since his rediscovery by the Goncourt brothers, admiration for his keen eye, liveliness of execution, sensuous use of materials and freedom of expression has never waned.”–Louvre 2008 exhibition.

When a second “corrected and enlarged” edition was planned immediately after this one, Saint-Aubin’s designs were removed and new plates created by the much sought-after artist Jean-Michel Moreau le jeune (1741-1814), who also illustrated the writings of Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Nagmusiek

Is it a novel or a biography or an artists’ book hybrid? The three-volume set is from the wonderful South African publisher Fourthwallbooks. I will quote the prospectus because I could not do better.

Nagmusiek is a startling addition to contemporary South African fiction and biography. The book is both a scholarly study of the Afrikaans composer Arnold van Wyk and a work of fiction in which the author/biographer—who is and is not Stephanus Muller—highjacks his own literary undertaking. It is an extraordinary meditation on the art of biography, on South African classical music under the apartheid regime, and on the complicated relationship between life and fiction.

Van Wyk’s musical composition, for which this book is named, is a ‘modernist poem of loss, of pain, of flickering memory, of dignified death’. Muller sets out to explore Van Wyk’s work and in the process creates an epic and genre-defying work of his own. This is an important book, a profoundly scholarly undertaking that will be a vital contribution to the field of Van Wyk studies in South Africa, but at the same time a groundbreaking work of experimental fiction.

Stephanus Muller was raised in the Karoo and studied music and musicology at the universities of Pretoria, South Africa and Oxford. He teaches musicology at the University of Stellenbosch, where he is also the founder and head of the Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS).

Stephanus Muller, Nagmusiek (Johannesburg: Fourthwall Books, 2014). Graphic Arts Off-Site Storage RCPXG-8841451

Not Your Standard American Dictionary

Laurie Spitz and Amee J. Pollack, Spitz & Pollack’s New Standard and Movable Dictionary of the American Language: Comparing Selected Words and Phrases, Re-Interpreted with Full Definitions Abridged ed. (New York: Spitz & Pollack Publishers, 2005). One of 35 copies. Gift of the artists. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process.

It isn’t often we get a book with a warning. This one comes with two. The first reads: Caution: Rule of Accountability Applied. This is a handmade, movable book requiring the readers to take action to change the text. However, excessively harsh pulling of the pieces–whether in anger or empathy with the contents–will result in permanent damage.

The second: Warning: First Amendment Invoked. Spitz & Pollack’s New Standard and Movable Dictionary, Abridged Edition, is fully protected by copyright and the First Amendment. All persons are warned against infringing on our rights.
The Graphic Arts Collection is very lucky to add one of the last copies of this limited edition artists’ book to our library. The offset and digitally printed volume includes eight movables, including wheels, slides, dissolves, and spinners.

Amee J. Pollack and Laurie Spitz have collaborated on many projects but Pollack singled out this dictionary, completed in 2005, as one of her favorites. “Bush was re-elected, and it was quite upsetting to Laurie and me,” she said. “So we created a dictionary with movables and it was a reinterpretation of words for our times.” Manipulate the circle and the word oil becomes spoil; reason becomes treason; and so on.

“René Char: Poetry and War”

René Char has long been recognized as one of France’s greatest modern poets, whose prolific career began with Surrealism and ended only with his death in 1988. On February 27-28, 2015, Princeton University will host a series of academic talks, a film, and readings of Char’s work by poets, critics, and students.

http://complit.princeton.edu/events/%E2%80%9Cren%C3%A9-char-poetry-and-war%E2%80%9D-colloquium-princeton-university-february-27-28-2015

This colloquium, open to the public, will address philosophical, historical and aesthetic issues raised particularly through Char’s texts from 1938-1947. It will include remarks by filmmaker Jérôme Prieur and several scholars, a conversation with Marie-Claude Char, René Char’s widow and editor of numerous books on his poetry, as well as a set of readings and translations by well-known poets, translators and members of Princeton’s French theater company, L’Avant-Scène.

This colloquium is co-sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, the Department of French and Italian, the Department of English, the Humanities Council, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the University Center for Human Values, and the Department of Comparative Literature.

René Char (1907-1988), The Summons of Becoming: Marking the Centenary of a Poet. Poems by René Char, translated by Mary Ann Caws with lithographs by Ed Colker (Millwood, N.Y.: Haybarn Press, 2007). Copy 37 of 50. Graphic Arts Collection GAX oversize 2010.0383Q. “This portfolio edition was conceived to celebrate the centenary of René Char, poet and leader in the French Resistance during World War II.” — colophon. “The images were hand-colored as pochoir by the artist.”

For information and a schedule of events, please consult the Princeton University website (http://complit.princeton.edu/events)

Yeats

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a first edition of a 1935 selection of William Butler Yeats’ poetry, privately printed by the Cuala Press, 133 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, for Eleanor Lady Yarrow. Its pages are, as yet, uncut and it is still bound in its original light blue paper wrappers.

Not only is our book one of only 30 copies printed by the poet’s sister, Elizabeth Corbet Yeats (1868-1940) but it is Miss Yeats’ own copy, with her bookplate inside the cover [pictured to the left].

The hand colored frontispiece [seen below] was designed by Dublin artist Victor Brown, a frequent Cuala Press contributor, then heightened with gold. Miss Yeats added hand drawn initials and ornaments throughout the volume.

The collection includes nine W.B. Yeats’ poems: “The Lover Tells of the Rose in his Heart,” “Into the Twilight,” “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven,” “The Fiddler of Dooney,” “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” “When You are Old,” “A Faery Song,” “The Song of Wandering Aengus,” and “The Pity of Love.”

This book is considered one of the rarest and most desirable of all the Cuala Press books (only one copy is known to have appeared at auction in the past thirty years) and we are thrilled to add it to Princeton University Library’s already extensive Irish collection.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Poems (Dublin: Cuala Press, 1935). One of 30 copies. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process.

For more on Elizabeth Yeats and the Cuala Press, see the exhibition website:
http://libweb2.princeton.edu/rbsc2/ga/unseenhands/printers/yeats.html

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin built there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine been rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

Fifteen Engravings Accompanied by a Heroic Crown of Sonnets

Encheiresin Naturae: Fifteen Engravings by Barry Moser Accompanied by a Heroic Crown of Sonnets by Paul Muldoon (Santa Rosa, Ca.: Nawakum Press, 2015). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired Encheiresin Naturae, a collaboration between Barry Moser, Smith College Professor-in-Residence in Art & Printer to the College, and Paul Muldoon, Howard G.B. Clark ’21 University Professor in the Humanities; Director, Princeton Atelier; Professor of Creative Writing; and Chair, Fund for Irish Studies.

“Fifteen abstract relief engravings were invented and engraved by Moser in his studio in Hatfield, Massachusetts in 2014. They were inspired by the phrase encheiresin naturae taken from reading Goethe’s Faust, referencing an alchemist’s experiments in “manipulating nature.” Muldoon was asked to respond to the images poetically and he chose an advanced form of a crown of sonnets, known as a sonnet redoublé, or heroic crown of sonnets for his tour-de-force response.”–prospectus

Encheirisen Naturae was printed by Art Larson at Horton Tank Graphics directly from the blocks on a Vandercook Universal IV. The paper is mouldmade Zerkall and Twinrocker handmade. Jemma Lewis of Wiltshire, UK, designed and produced the marbled papers. The binding is by Craig Jensen of BookLab II in San Marcos, Texas.

The Clipper Quartette

The Clipper Quartette Songster: containing the first and only edition of these most elegant singers’ original songs now being sung by them throughout the United States … together with a number of the latest hits … (Pittsburgh, Pa.: American Publishing Company, 1883). Lyrics without music. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process

In the fall of 1880, the Detroit Free Press announced, “The four gentlemen who disguise themselves under the title of the Clipper Quartette deserved what they received, round after round of applause and four encores to which they responded. Their Laughing chorus and going to the picnic were especially fine.” The Clipper Quartette was formed by [John] McIntire, Frank T. Ward, Campbell, and Hayward. They were billed as “the only organized vocal Quartette on the stage doing their line of business.”

Later, the Quartette worked for Thatcher, Primrose & West’s Minstrels, now including “sweet-voiced John P. Curran, Frank T. Ward, Al Hart and W. H. White.” By the 1890s, Curran and Ward were the listed as the 2 Clippers, performing as a duo.

Sing to Me

Jan Owen, Sing to Me. Text from the Odyssey by Homer, translated into English by Robert Fagles. [Bangor, Me.: Jan Owen], 1997. 1 volume ([1] folded leaf); 63.5 cm. Gift of Lynne Fagles. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process

In 1997, Maine artist Jan Owen created a calligraphic artists’ book from a single sheet of folded paper. The text she chose was from Homer’s Odyssey, translated by Robert Fagles (1933-2008), former Arthur Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Princeton University and renowned translator of Greek classics. By 2003, Ms. Owen had created several others to form a set of three calligraphic foldouts using the words of Homer.

Thanks to the generous gift of Lynne Fagles, the Graphic Arts Collection now holds the first of these unique creations. The book is designed to double as a hanging sculptural, with lettering in gouache on decorated paste papers, painted additions, and gold leaf. Cloth covered portfolio case houses the folded leaf, which is topped with a gold and yellow woven Tyvek circle to complete the design.

The artist writes, “Our age of computer technology is as exciting as when Gutenberg developed the printing press. While digitized information soars through space, I write with pens and brushes. Independent of technology, the power and beauty of words are constant; the depth of thought and leap of metaphor are vital. The complex rhythm of our bodies; our breath and our gestures found in handwritten letters still captivates me.

Hand lettering is the craft of gestural, abstract line becoming letter. The letters combine to make words and a visual conversation begins between writer and reader. I select words that have rhythm and meaning, then letter them into artist books and panels. I want to call attention to words through design and form in an object of beauty.”

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