Books On Books Collection – Menena Cottin

2023/07/122023/07/25Books On BooksLeave a comment

El libro negro de los colores (2006)
The Black Book of Colors (2009)
Menena Cottin and Rosana Faría
Dustjacket, casebound, black doublures, sewn. H180 x W290, 24 unnumbered pages. Acquired 17 October 2017.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with author’s permission.

Menena Cottin refers to her works as “concept books”, and there are multiple concepts at work in The Black Book of Colors. Generically, it is a children’s book introducing the reader to colors — but by the absence of color. In white on black, it addresses sighted readers. In Braille, it addresses unsighted readers. With Thomas, who “likes all the colors because he can hear them and smell them and touch and taste them”, the book introduces to sighted and unsighted readers who are not synesthetic the concept of synesthesia and, through it, a new sense of empathy and imagination. The sighted encounter someone with a sensory anomaly, not a disadvantage. In the company of their imagined unsighted co-readers, the sighted may come to empathize with those with sensory differences. The unsighted encounter someone whose sensory anomaly is an advantage. especially as the book favors their own heightened sense of touch.

Thomas says that yellow tastes like mustard, but is as soft as a baby chick’s feathers.

Thomas likes all the colors because he can hear them and smell them and touch and taste them.

Breaking boundaries in ways similar to those employed by book artists, Cottin manipulates character and narration, also the picturebook’s genres of color recognition and letter recognition (Braille in this case) as well as some of the basic elements of the book (layout, printing in reverse-out and debossed printing). In one of the most sophisticated examples of this, double-page spreads fuse concepts by turning a rainbow into a gathering of raised images of the synaesthetic objects with which colors have already been associated in the book (chick’s feathers, strawberries, leaves).

And when the sun peeks through the falling water, all the colors come out, and that’s a rainbow.

The Black Book uses synesthesia to go beyond the color recognition genre to introduce more complex concepts: the nature of light and water’s lack of color, taste and smell. This stepping outside the genre is another example of the boundary-breaking that artists’ books often perform.

Thomas thinks that without the sun, water doesn’t amount to much. It has no color, no taste, no smell.

The book ends by asserting its membership in the alphabet book genre by presenting the alphabet in lowercase white on black and in Braille. Across from this verso page, there is no set of raised images on the recto page as there has been so far throughout the book. Knowing from touch that this is the end of the book and noting the absence of any image, sighted and unsighted readers might find this coda a prompt to return to the beginning and “re-read” the images with a greater reliance on touch.

Other books in the Books On Books Collection worth comparing with The Black Book of Colors are

Like a Pearl in My Hand (2016) Carina Hesper

Vladimir Nabokov: AlphaBet in Color (2005) Jean Holabird

Blindness (2020) Masoumeh Mohtadi

Voyelles (2012) Arthur Rimbaud/Le Cadratin

Darkness Visible (2017) Sam Winston

The Blind Men and the Elephant (2019) Xiao Long Hua

La Doble Historia de un Vaso de Leche (2019)

La Doble Historia de un Vaso de Leche (2019)
Menena Cottin
Casebound landscape, paper over boards, with orange-yellow doublures, sewn. H160 x W310 mm. 24 unnumbered pages. Acquired from the artist, 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

The Double Story of a Glass of Milk opens and closes with a line that echoes the start of William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow” but is at once more straightforward and just as surprising — as the visual story spills out.

Todo depende del ángulo en que lo miras. A veces un cuadrado puede también ser un circulo y una larga linéa luce como un punto y algo que está solo a medias parece que está lleno. Un mismo cuerpo tiene diferentes caras per a veces te confunde mostrándote una misma forma. Solo si miras a su alrededor descubres que … eso que de frente parece tan discreto desde arriba luce muy escandaloso. Todo depende del ángulo en que lo miras.

“Everything depends on the angle from which you look at it. Sometimes a square can also be a circle and a long line looks like a dot and something only half full looks full. The same body has different faces but sometimes it confuses you by showing you a different shape. Only if you look you discover that … what from the side looks so innocent looks shocking from above. Everything depends on the angle from which you look at it.”

Equilibrio (2019)

Equilibrio (2019)
Menena Cottin
Casebound landscape, paper over boards, with red doublures, sewn. H160 x W310 mm. 25 unnumbered pages, last page on inside of flyleaf. Acquired from the artist, 23 August 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with the author’s permission.

The three colored balls on the cover give their colors to the three i’s in Equilibrio on the title page, announcing the statement to come: El equilibrio es cuestión de balance (“Equilibrium is a question of balance”).

El equilibrio es cuestión de balance. De tomar siempre en cuenta el movimiento del otro y reaccionar para mantenerlo, calculando, arriesgando, y experimentado. Algunos se ponen a jugar sin pensar en las consecuencias entonces se rompe el equilibrio y cada quien hace lo que quiere … pero luego sienten deseos de regresar y cada quien busca su lugar.

“Equilbrium is a question of balance. Of always taking into account the movement of the other and reacting to maintain it, calculating, risking, and experimenting. Some people start to play without thinking about the consequences, then the balance is broken and everyone does what they want … but then they feel the desire to return and everyone looks for their place.”.

As in The Black Book of Colors, there is more than one concept at play, the lesson of equilibrium coming with lessons in community and relationships.

El Tiempo (2018)

El Tiempo (2018)
Menena Cottin
Casebound portrait, paper over boards, with orange-yellow doublure at front, orange-yellow/black at back, sewn. H310 x W160 mm. 24 unnumbered pages. Acquired from the artist, 23 August 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with author’s permission.

Cottin introduces the concept of Time with two metaphors — one verbal, one visual.

Verbally: El tiempo es una cadena de instantes que se suceden uno tras otro hasta el infinito. [Time is a chain of instants one following another until infinity.] Visually: Instants of time are like pages, pages from a diary.

Even in an hour glass, the instants of time are golden pages — Se divide en pasado, presente y futuro que es lo mismo que antes, ahora y después. — [dividing the past, present and future which is the same as before, now and after].

When the future runs out, that is of course when the pages run out, visually and tactilely.

Ana con A, Otto con O (2015)

Ana con A, Otto con O (2015) [Ana with an A, Otto with an O]
Menena Cottin
Bradel binding with cloth spine, paper over boards, yellow doublures, leaves in Chinese fold. H85 x W260 mm. 42 unnumbered pages. Acquired from the artist, 23 August 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with author’s permission.

With this little book, Menena Cottin has secured a place among the Oulipians. Where Georges Perec wrote a novel without the letter E, Cottin has written and created an artist’s book in which the characters have a somewhat opposite challenge.

Ana es una muchacha adorable, pero tiene un problema: habla español solamente con A. Otto es un muchacho encantado, pero tiene un problema: habla español solamente con O. Un domingo por la mañana, en isla de Margarita, Ana sale a caminar por la playa. Otto sale a caminar por la playa. De repente, Ana se tropieza con alguien …
–Aah!
–Oh!

[Ana is a lovely girl, but she has a problem: she speaks Spanish only with words that have an A. Otto is a lovely boy, but he has a problem: he speaks Spanish only with words that have an O. One Sunday morning, on Margarita Island, Ana goes for a walk on the beach. Otto goes for a walk on the beach. Suddenly, Ana bumps into someone …
–Aah!
–Oh!]

When they make small talk about the weather, Ana says, Clara mañana [Clear tomorrow] with which Otto agrees, Con sol [With sun]. Ana tries again with a leading Gran playa, la mar calmada … agradar andar acá. [Great beach, calm sea… it’s nice to walk here.], but Otto can only come up with ¡Como, no! [Of course!].

Eventually Otto catches on and proposes they go for a swim. After, as they walk along the beach being serenaded by a guitar-playing singer whose nonsense refrain is with syllables that have only U, Otto invites Ana to lunch at the beachside restaurant El Pez [The Fish]. There they meet the friendly waiter Pepe, who likewise has a problem: he speaks Spanish only with words that have an E. When their meal ends and Otto sees the bill, he grows pale, suspiciously throws himself to the ground, cries out he’s been poisoned, and then runs off with Pepe in pursuit of payment. Poor Ana wanders back down the beach, but bumps into another character, more handsomely drawn and simpatico: Allan with an A. Colorín colorado, as the Spanish say [And that’s the end of this story], but not until the last page where the character who has been lounging in a beach chair all along now stands, revealing her name on her chair — Iris — and holding a sign that reads Fin.

The rule-abiding dialogue strings the reader along as effectively as the horizon line that runs from page to page over the Chinese folded folios from the beginning to the end. It is a design feature that will be much easier to reproduce than will a translation into English or any other non-Romance language that is as delightful as — or as “consonant” with — Ana, Pepe, Iris, Otto and the singer singing

Las Letras (2008/2018)

Las Letras (2018) [Letters]
Menena Cottin
Casebound portrait, illustrated paper over boards, endpapers. H200 x W205 mm. 24 unnumbered. Acquired from the artist, 23 August 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with author’s permission.

Las Letras has appeared in two editions (2008 and 2018). There are slight grammatical differences, but the meaning remains unchanged. As in Equilbrio, where Cottin finds in an abstract concept a metaphor for interdependence in human relationships, in Las Letras Cottin finds a metaphor for tolerance and communication in the alphabet. Even letters themselves celebrate our differences.

Las personas son como las letras, cada una es diferente a la otra, con su propia forma, su propia forma, su propia voz y su personalidad. Pueden ser gordas, flacas, sencillas o complicados. Algunas son muy populares y se les ve por todas partes, en cambio, a las más tímidas les gusta salir poco. …

[People are like letters, each one is different from the other, with its own form, its own shape, its own voice and its own personality. They can be fat, skinny, simple or complicated. Some are very popular and are seen everywhere, while the shyer ones don’t like to go out much. …]

Other children’s/artists’ books in the Books On Books Collection worth comparing with Las Letras are:

Dessine-moi une lettre (2004) Anne Bertier

A is for Bee (2022) Ellen Heck

One & Everything (2022) Sam Winston

Books On Books Collection – Leonard Everett Fisher

2023/07/102024/06/28Books On BooksLeave a comment

With 260 illustrated books to his name and 90 of them authored by him, Leonard Everett Fisher would have been remiss not to have contributed works to the category of alphabets and artists’ books.

Alphabet Art (1978)

Alphabet Art: Thirteen ABCs from Around the World (1978)
Leonard Everett Fisher
Dustjacket. Casebound, one-eighth cloth and paper over board. Doublures. Sewn binding. H287 x W225 mm. 64 pages. Acquired from 2VBooks, 28 August 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

Leonard Everett Fisher offers thirteen non-English languages — Arabic, Cherokee, Chinese, Cyrillic, Eskimo, Gaelic, German, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Sanskrit, Thai and Tibetan — each with an illustrative image alongside a page of background text followed by a double-page spread of hand-drawn characters of the writing system. Unlike Tommy Thompson’s The ABC of Our Alphabet (1952) and William Dugan’s How Our Alphabet Grew (1972), Fisher’s book does not focus on the development of the Latin alphabet, but unusually aims instead to interest the children’s market in the variety of non-Latin alphabets. In this, it is a precursor to Sam Winston’s One & Everything (2022).

The book has no bibliography or indication of sources, and the background text’s few slightly off-center assertions (e.g., that the Chinese writing system is a syllabary) create a slight unease about the accuracy of the character sets. Nevertheless, for calligraphic inspiration, the double-page presentation of consistent hand-drawn character sets delivers strong impressions of the differences in the look and feel among the languages’ writing systems.

The ABC Exhibit (1991)

The ABC Exhibit (1991)
Leonard Everett Fisher
Dustjacket. Casebound, one-eighth cloth and paper over board. Doublures. Sewn binding. H287 x W225 mm. 32 pages. Acquired from Books End, 28 August 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

The ABC Exhibit emphasizes image more than letter or text. Forgoing other usual features of a children’s alphabet book (such as presenting upper and lowercase letters), the book steers more toward an artist’s book or catalogue of the artist’s style of illustration and art. The colophon even specifies that the original artwork was prepared as acrylics on board. While the image of the elephant and several others can be easily imagined in a children’s book, the rendering of the Brooklyn Bridge in fog stands out as do a sailboat in motion and a still life of oranges.

The book features around the 24′ mark in this interview with the Hennepin County Library in 1991.

Books On Books Collection – Lizzie Brewer

2023/07/042023/10/02Books On Books1 Comment

Babel (2019)

Babel (2019)
Lizzie Brewer
Box: H278 x W158 mm. Leporello: Closed H195 x W97 mm. Open 825 mm. 14 panels. Unique edition. Acquired from the artist, 14 February 2023.
Photos: Books On Books Collection and courtesy of the artist.

Inspired by a 2019 exhibition at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Lizzie Brewer created this work that sculpturally explores the border between image and letters. The laser-cut letters and words in black calligraphy from various languages (Farsi, Chinese, Kufic, Arabic, English, Greek, Japanese, etc.) seem to pour off the pages of a white leporello. Recalling the tower with which the Babylonians dared to reach heaven (Genesis 11:9), the multiple languages and randomness of the script accentuate the disorder visited on humankind when God decided they were being blasphemous.

Whatever Ur language preceded those languages is lost in the blackness of the cloud of ink from which the texts seem to rain. And perhaps the blackness also implies the punitive nature of the Old Testament deity. The leporello and calligraphy should certainly remind us of the pre-codex and pre-typesetting time of the story.

Some of the letters and words, all made from 150gms black Canford paper, are attached to the white 220gms cartridge panels, some are left free to be leaned against the panels or puddled in front, adding to the watery effect of the thinning black India ink in the background.

Library of Babel (2019)

Library of Babel (2019)
Lizzie Brewer
Leaflet. H210 x W105 mm. Acquired from the artist, 14 February 2023.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with artist’s permission.

With its hand-printed title, gold leaf mark and insert, this folded leaflet of hand-made paper made its appearance in an exhibition at the Westminster Reference Library in 2019. The quotation in the insert comes from the “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges, and the phrase “[t]his set of works” refers to several of Brewer’s striking sculptures in homage to the story. These works are not in the Books On Books Collection (yet?), but these images (courtesy of the artist) are too complementary to the works above to be overlooked.

Hexagon (2019)
“The Universe (which others call the library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries” — Borges “The Library of Babel”

410 pages (2019) and detail
“Each book contains four hundred and ten pages.” — Borges, “The Library of Babel”

Lead Page (2019)

Untitled [Labyrinth] (2019)

Books On Books Collection – John Crombie

2023/06/102023/07/21Books On Books1 Comment

John Crombie formed Kickshaws in 1979 in Paris. Joined by Sheila Bourne, they published over 150 works. Apparent as the esoteric influence of visual poetry and the Oulipo movement may be, their works have the combined smell of the printer and typesetter’s workshop and artist’s studio that distinguish them from that crowd.

ABC in a maze (1987)

ABC in a maze (1987)
John Crombie
Spiral bound on four sides, double gate fold. H95 xW95 mm, 17 leaves. Edition of 300 (150 in English, 150 in French), of which this is Letter of 26 numbered A-Z. Acquired from Librairie Jean-Étienne Huret, 17 March 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

The cover of this work hides its title, just as the proper order of the pages hides in the reiterations of the alphabet across 17 leaves of this double gatefold puzzle and book.

The French title ABC Dédale carries more freight than the English. Not only does it convey the idea of the maze by reference to its inventor Daedulus, it refers to Cadmus, the Phoenician prince who brought the alphabet to Greece while on his quest to find his sister Europa, mother by Zeus to the Minotaur — the “monster in the alphabet”. If that seems a far-fetched allusion, then consider the additional hint in the name of the chosen typeface: Hélios, the Greek god and personification of the sun, to which Daedulus’ son Icarus flew too close in their escape from Crete.

Portrait évolutif du typographe
“Evolving portrait of the typographer” (1988)

Portrait évolutif du typographe. Fait par lui-même en collaboration avec sa presse en douze passages a partir des trois couleurs primaires
“Evolving portrait of the typographer. Made by himself in collaboration with his press in twelve passes using the three primary colors)”(1988)
John Crombie
Softcover, sewn and glued. 162 x 162 mm. 28 unnumbered pages. Edition of 60, of which this is #42. Acquired from Antiquariat Heinzelmännchen, 2 October 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

If a selection of works from the Books On Books Collection were made based on the theme of “artists’ books and color”, this small work would have to make the cut. Moving from five small splashes of color in the first pass, subsequent passes build up a multi-colored cartoon image of the typographer in a head-on eyeless gaze. At the seventh pass, however, the colors begin to fade; in the ninth, the features of the portrait begin to erode, and by the twelfth, only streaks of gray and the faintest impression of the outline remain.

A close look at the title reveals that same faint impression of the portrait’s outline. Were it not for its reference to the three primary colors, the title would have to be amended to a baker’s dozen of passes in collaboration with the press.

Books On Books Collection – Alan James Robinson

2023/06/092023/07/21Books On BooksLeave a comment

A Fowl Alphabet (1986)

Under his Cheloniidae Press imprint, Alan James Robinson created three artist’s alphabets: A Fowl Alphabet with Suzanne Moore; An Odd Bestiary (1982) and The Birds and Beasts of Shakespeare (1990), arranged as a double abecedary, first the birds and then the beasts. Although this copy of A Fowl Alphabet comes from the regular edition and does not have the color of the deluxe editions of all three abecedaries, it does demonstrate the extraordinary fineness of Robinson’s wood engraving as well as his compositional talent, which also informs the book’s design. The positioning of the birds’ heads in their printed black frames conveys a sense of movement and three dimensionality on the individual page, but notice how Robinson varies the positioning from page to page and across double-page spreads to enhance the sense of movement.

With its core thick strokes shadowed and entwined with thinner flourishes, Suzanne Moore’s calligraphy creatively complements the way that the heft of Robinson’s engraved heads plays against those compositional features.

“Cheloniidae” is the scientific term for the family of sea turtles, and much of Robinson’s art is marine related. But the dominant and consistent impression conveyed by the ouput of Cheloniidae Press is that of Robinson’s artistic skill as an impresario and conductor of artistic talents. Added to the background of his duet with Moore are Master Printer Harold Patrick McGrath, Faith Harrison and her hand marbled paper, Arthur Larson and his hand typesetting and the binding skills of Claudia Cohen.

Books On Books Collection – William Rueter

2023/06/082023/07/21Books On BooksLeave a comment

The Triumph of the Alphabet (2017)

The Triumph of the Alphabet (2017)
William Rueter
Accordion fold extending from the back page. Bound in paper-covered boards with printed paper title on spine. Twine tie closure. 82.6 x 82.6 mm. 27 panels. Acquired from Vamp&Tramp Booksellers, 7 October 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

From the colophon: “This nameless wood type alphabet was made c. 1900 by the Hamilton Mfg. Co. Here at The Aliquando Press it is affectionately called ‘Ali-oops!'”

The full quotation from Audin is “The triumph of the alphabet gave true impetus to our Western civilization … The alphabet made it possible to transmit all-embracing concepts and truths to humanity”. There was more than one Audin interested in letters. Marius was father to Maurice and Amable, and the three of them produced a multi-volume history of printing called Somme Typographique. Amable contributed the section on the birth of the alphabet, and Maurice wrote the section on the discovery of typography. A scan of this volume does not yield the pronouncement in the Aliquando Press miniature. Luc Devroye‘s entry on Marius Audin cites him as a major influence on the French typographical world, and his number of books exceeds those by his sons combined. Given his livelier style, it seems more likely that the quotation in The Triumph of the Alphabet belongs to Marius. If so, “Ali-oops” might deserve an erratum slip. Slip or no, the panels with their tripartite texture and dual contrast of colors and font make The Triumph of the Alphabet a triumph of printing pleasure.

Books On Books Collection – Suzanne Moore (I)

2023/06/062025/11/17Books On BooksLeave a comment

Rescuing Q (2023)

Rescuing Q (2023)
Suzanne Moore
Box enclosing softcover book. Box: H400 x W300 x D30 mm. Book: H380 x W285 mm. 32 pages. Printing by Sandy Tilcock (and Phoebe) at Lone Goose Press and Jessica Spring, Springtide Press. Unique edition. Acquired from the artist, 25 April 2023.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with permission of the artist.

Rescuing Q is a manuscript book, consisting of original paintings, monoprints, collage, pigmented prints, embossing, debossing, gilding and handwork complementing the letterpress printing. It is one of several such works designed and created by Suzanne Moore after more than 20 years of experimentation.

Q is not normal. Q is quirky. Q floats away. Q comes in too many shapes and sizes and colors. So attractive, Q was bound to be hijacked by Q-Anon, political operatives and social anarchists.

But Q will not remain captive for long because it is always asking questions. And, if we want answers, then as Rilke says, we must “live the questions now”.

For most readers though, the question that will be uppermost is “How did she do that?” Moore is quick in her generosity and would insist on amending that question to “How did they do that?” Consider the selection of paper. More than Arches (a laid paper with visible mesh and watermark) had to be considered for these interactions of ink, gouache, gold leaf, palladium, debossing/embossing by etching press and hand, cuts and overlays.

What notes, movements and rhythms were playing when these colors and the sequences were chosen?

How do they think of paper and ink in three dimensions?

Who saw Q and questions in a bird’s nest?

And someone’s memory called up Cave Alphabet paper for the endpapers.

The fact that Moore and her colleagues can do all that (and more) and the fact that their gentle and pointed questions fuse with the art ensure that Rescuing Q does and will succeed.

A Musings (2015)

A Musings (2015)
Suzanne Moore
Tab-insert portfolio around softcover book. H370 x W230 mm, 24 pages. Edition of 26 variants, of which this is N. Acquired from Abecedarian Gallery, 13 February 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with permission of Suzanne Moore.

Title page

Another manuscript book, A Musings is an encounter between Suzanne Moore and the letter A, one of her 26 muses. As with any artist and muse, this naturally leads to portrayals of A in such varied positions, with such varied tools and techniques and such varied materials that the boxed and bound portfolio must take the amusing title A Musings. The muse finds itself posed across Magnani Aquaforte, Arches Text Wove, transparent kozo and other handmade papers enveloped by a stiffened, painted handmade paper. Moore’s musings fall on the historical, symbolic and spiritual aspects of the letter A with acrylic paint, pencil, freehand foil tooling, gold and palladium leaf, collage, debossing and embossing, sumi ink and gouache, sizing and varnish, monoprint, letterpress, folds and cutouts.

A separately provided copy of the artist’s plan for the pagination, structure and treatment per page offers a useful insight into the questions of how such a work is thought through and made. Page layout and the type of paper, in particular, play together sometimes like a clockwork mechanism and sometimes organically.

Painted cover

Left: Half-title. Right: Half-title turned to show translucency of kozo; note on the facing recto how the stroke from the debossed A on the title peeks through.

After the title page (see further above), the next double-page spread shows the title page’s debossed A in reverse on the verso page. Facing it is a square cutout through which multicolored lines forming overlapping As appear. Because the cutout page is translucent paper, we can see that the multicolored lines extend into a larger A on the next recto page. Turning the cutout page reveals that the cutout is actually a flap folded up and secured with white thread sewn in the shape of an A. This three-dimensionality of the flap is echoed by the way the crossbar swashes of the facing A seem to swirl around its two legs implying a spinning A.

From the single A interacting with a cutout, we move to a dozen evocations of the historic forms that the lowercase and uppercase A have taken. The lowercase “closed a” from the semi-uncial hand starting in the 5th century appears second down in the lefthand column, and the “perfected” Roman uppercase A appears at the bottom of the right column. Amusingly, some evocations blend periods of history. In the lower left, the drawing of a lowercase “open a”, which comes from the 8th century Carolingian miniscule hand, takes on the stylization of the 15th century’s bianchi girari (white-vine stem decoration). Just across from it, the stylized version of the Proto-Sinaitic (1700 BCE) form of aleph, meaning “ox”, has a burnt umber background that suggests markings in early cave dwellings.

Using a translucent leaf with set type shaping half an A, the next two double-page spreads play (or muse) on uppercase A’s bilateral symmetry poised between geometric and freehand approaches to lettering, between typography and calligraphy and between inking and debossing.

When the recto page above with its debossed line and angle is turned, another extraordinary integration of composition, paper, printing (inking, debossing and “embossing”) and, now, cutting occurs. Notice how the ink of the first and third As overlaps the now “embossed” angle, how the now “embossed” line becomes debossed as it crosses the gutter, how the previous double-page spread’s themes of geometry/freehand, printing/drawing and lowercase/uppercase likewise cross over, and how the cutout triangle uses the yellow ink showing through to form the crossbar of an A and the gutter to form the A’s lefthand stem.

There is much else to muse upon in the spreads above, but it’s in the last two spreads where Moore builds and unfolds a fantasia of calligraphy, color, debossing, cutting, gilding and painting. Notice how the gilt crossbar slots through the page and helps secure the debossed piece behind the cutout to the page.

And when the page turns, notice how its gilt crossbar reveals its red paper beneath and becomes the spot of red completing the crossbar for the cutout A. The red spot against white seems to set off the explosion of color and calligraphy on the black final page, printed by Jessica Spring from polymer. The different shapes for A here come from African alphabets. The images are unique monoprints, done on an etching press. With the letters placed to block out the black and overlap one another, a sense of depth and texture arises. Contributing to that sense of texture, the white letters are hand-painted in gouache — sometimes layered, sometimes blended.

Books are inherently collaborative affairs, and for artists’ books, collaboration can become almost another tool for the artist. Jessica Spring, mentioned above, also debossed the opening A, hand-set the half-A composition and contributed to Rescuing Q. Now a fine binder in her own right, Gabby Cooksey, a studio assistant to Moore and Don Glaister, was essential to A Musing‘s hand work, binding and wrapper. Part of Moore’s creative progression from contributing to overseeing to orchestrating can be traced from here across three other works in the Books On Books Collection.

A Blind Alphabet (1986)

A Blind Alphabet (1986)
Suzanne Moore
Accordion-fold. Closed H128 x W93 D28 (spine) D22 (fore-edge) mm; open 3200 mm. 34 pages. Edition of 200 of which this is #91.
Calligraphic letters designed and drawn by Suzanne Moore, printed by Harold McGrath on T.H. Saunders cold-pressed watercolour paper, bound by Claudia Cohen in marbled paper by Faith Harrison.
Acquired from Veatchs, 1 May 2018.

Here, as noted in the colophon to A Blind Alphabet, Moore has the creative role of originating artist, designing and drawing the alphabet — soloist, as it were, in the Cheloniidae Press reportory orchestrated by Alan James Robinson.

In Robinson’s wood engravings of birds, Moore plays a creative contributing role with much the same repertory company.

A Fowl Alphabet (1986)

A Fowl Alphabet (1986)
Alan James Robinson (etchings), Suzanne Moore(calligraphy)
Casebound. Marbled paper over boards. Doublures and flyleaves. H218 x W145 mm. 26 Folios untrimmed at head. Four-page prospectus loose. Acquired from Bromers Bookseller, 16 August 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with Suzanne Moore’s permission.

Again, Cheloniidae Press’ master printer Harold Patrick McGrath and “usual suspects” Arthur Larson (hand typesetting), Faith Harrison (hand marbling) and Claudia Cohen (binding) played their roles in this book. Here, Moore has the creative contributing role of designing the alphabet and, for the deluxe and full vellum editions (not shown), hand lettering.

In book art, an artist’s progression from contributor to orchestrator is not necessarily linear as can be seen in this subsequent work.

Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street (1995)

Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street, 1853. Indulgence Press, 1995.
Typeetting, printing and binding by Wilber Schilling; Calligraphy by Suzanne Moore. Text paper by Janus Press. Endpapers by MacGregor & Vinzani.
Edition of 100 of which this is #71. H320 x W158 x D14 mm. Acquired from Indulgence Press, 17 December 2015.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with permission of the publisher.

Wilber Schilling (Indulgence Press) orchestrated this edition of Herman Melville’s well-known story. Part of Schilling’s genius was to invite Moore to provide the calligraphy for Bartleby’s hallmark (his only) words “I prefer not to”. Another part was to print Moore’s calligraphy in ever-increasing size in ghostly ochre and in descending position across the pages of the book.

For more of Suzanne Moore’s works and artistic roles as well as others’ insight into them, see below.

Books On Books Collection – Dave Wood

2023/06/052023/07/21Books On BooksLeave a comment

Alphabetica (2002)

Alphabetica (2002)
Dave Wood
Bound in vellum; open-spine binding sewn on vellum strips. H210 x W290 x D30 mm. 54 pages. Loosely inserted colophon. Edition of 26. Acquired from the artist, 27 July 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with permission of the artist.

From Alphabetica‘s description as an exploration of the alphabet’s “diverse development from historic shapes to the infinite variations we see today in typefaces and calligraphic forms of the Western alphabet”, the reader might expect an academic work. The deeply embossed and debossed royal purple cover presenting the title in landscape format suggests otherwise as do the marbled endpapers and embossed gold foil title page. The cover is built up with a very strong paper made in Nepal, painted with acrylic then sprayed with semi-matte varnish. Inside, the reader finds a portfolio of twenty-five distinct “canvases” in which Wood demonstrates both historical sensitivity and artistic inspiration.

Across the twenty-six spreads, Dave Wood has captured each letter’s distinct story with multiple styles of calligraphy in Sumi ink and gouache paints as well as varying textures and techniques (Canson and Arches paper, glassine, foil, embossing, stamping, feathering and cutting), colors and layouts.

The letters’ developing shapes and periods are labeled. Starting with the letter B, Wood adds names of typefaces, structural terms for type, palaeographical terms and terms from the crafts of calligraphy, typesetting and printing — all beginning with /b/. Similar labeling occurs for the letter C but with a different layout. Across the twenty-five canvases, Wood excels at this balancing of difference and similarity. Notice, for example, how letters B and C incorporate the Renaissance style of illumination called bianchi girari (white vine stem decoration).

The ways in which uppercase-to-lowercase movements interact with the layout’s variations make for a dynamic experience. Sometime it’s subtle, sometimes vigorous. Note, for example, how the letter D de-emphasizes the gutter whereas the letter E emphasizes it.

With letters H through Q, a shift from Arches white to Canson black paper and back adds to the overall dynamic movement. Yet Wood is attentive to elements of unity; for example, his playful handling of the gutter in the transition from letter H to letters I/J echoes that from letters D to E.

Only six letters perform the trick of extending across the gutter — lowercase H and uppercase K, M, O, U and X. While O, U and X take the similar approach of almost evenly straddling the gutter, each of the other three succeed differently. M is perhaps the most striking and interesting of them all. M derives from the Semitic word for “water” mem. As Wood points out in the loose insert colophon, the watery blue that fills the letter is intentional — as must be the precise alignment of the inner peaks of the letter with the gutter. Such attention to detail in the midst of so much activity on the page demands a similar attentiveness from the reader.

For example, the long tail of the Q does not show up until the bottom of the spread. And the reader may need to pick out the the word “or” in the text to spot the lowercase r in the textured, oversized written word “or” directly below the text.

Visual puns abound. Celtic knots in a capital L (for the Lindisfarne gospels). An S formed of stones. Leaves falling from a lowercase t (for tree or tea, of course). A U growing underground.

Fortunately, the accordion-fold colophon loosely inserted in the book offers pointers to some (not all) allusions. For example, the beginning of the third line for the letter V pays homage to Titivillus, the 13th-century patron demon of scribes’ mistakes. The illustrated W is an homage to Ben Shahn’s letter design. The highly contrasting thicks and thins in the letter X allude, in calligraphic terms, to the thick mark’s determining the number of pen widths making up the x height (the body of the miniscule).

And while the colophon may be necessary to know that the typefaces written in color below were created by Hermann Zapf, any viewer can enjoy Wood’s incorporating the entire alphabet in the Sumi ink design culminating in the letter Z as a fitting self-referential conclusion to Alphabetica.

Books On Books Collection – Bruno Riboulot and Marjon Mudde

2023/06/042023/07/21Books On Books1 Comment

ABC d’Air (2005)

ABCD’Air (2005)
Bruno Riboulot and Marjon Mudde
Greyboard covers on four-flap paper case, handsewn booklet. Case: H212 x W153 mm; Booklet H210 x W145 mm. 26 folios. Edition of 60, of which this is #30. Acquired from Abecedarian Gallery, 10 March 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

The shape of a letter depends on the “air” — the space — within and around it. Bruno Riboulot’s concept, executed here by Marjon Mudde, demonstrates how those spaces can be formed by cuts, tears, folds, “reveals” and contrasting colors. Truly an abecedary of space. (Thanks to Colin Cohen of Missing Portraits for the reminder of the title’s pun on abécédaire.)

A revealing B revealing C

The book consists of thirteen leaves sewn together with linen thread. Each leaf is divided in half, and each half is dedicated to a letter of the alphabet.

Standing, the open book takes on the air of an abstract sculpture.

W revealing X revealing Y revealing Z.

The “reveals” evoke the harlequinade (“flap-book”, “turn-up”, “metamorphosis” or “lift-the-flap”) structure invented in 17th century, in which the book’s narrative unfolds as each flap is lifted. To appreciate how differently this structure can be used with the alphabet, compare it with Scott McCarney’s Alphabook 10 (2015) and Thomas Ockerse’s The A-Z Book (1969/2014).

About the artists:

French calligrapher Bruno Riboulot works with traditional watercolors, pen and ink but also experiments widely with paper (as above), stone, stop motion animation, light and calligraphy performed to music. Visual artist Marjon Mudde currently works as an engraver, printmaker, ceramicist, book artist and editor of handmade artists’ books.

Books On Books Collection – Judy Pelikan

2023/06/012023/07/21Books On BooksLeave a comment

All Around the Block: An Alphabet (2008)

All Around the Block: An Alphabet (2008)
Judy Pelikan
Hardcover H168 x W145 mm. 56 pages. Acquired from Amazon, 24 September 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with permission of the artist.

From the cover to the last letter, Judy Pelikan’s book is an extended visual pun with more puns in between. Some of the resulting images (like that for the letter A) are deeply clever; others (like that for the letter Z) are surreal. Obviously A is for a box of apples, but the uppercase serif A on yellowed grid paper with drawn guidelines recalls the early designers of geometrically created letters such as Feliciano, Pacioli, Durer, Tory and others. Driving home the recollection, the artist has laid out the tools for such typographical design: compass, straightline and pen. Here, “all around the block” is all about the square.

Most of the visual puns are simple like B for books and blocks; others are straightforward but dense like C for crate, cloud, curl, cup, coffee and castle (that’s six for all sides of the block!); others are strange. For the letter Z, we have the surreality of a zebra and her foal grazing on top of the block on whose front panel a zebra moth or butterfly hovers by a ziggurat behind an old-fashioned console (Zenith?) with a third zebra peering from its screen.

All Around the Block warrants a closer look on each page as well as favorable comparison and contrast with any of the works noted below.

La Doble Historia de un Vaso de Leche (2019)

Equilibrio (2019)

El Tiempo (2018)

Ana con A, Otto con O (2015)

Las Letras (2008/2018)

Further Reading

Alphabet Art (1978)

The ABC Exhibit (1991)

Further Reading

Babel (2019)

Library of Babel (2019)

Further Reading

ABC in a maze (1987)

Portrait évolutif du typographe“Evolving portrait of the typographer” (1988)

Further Reading

A Fowl Alphabet (1986)

Further Reading

The Triumph of the Alphabet (2017)

Further Reading

Rescuing Q (2023)

A Musings (2015)

A Blind Alphabet (1986)

A Fowl Alphabet (1986)

Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street (1995)

Further Reading and Viewing

Alphabetica (2002)

Further Reading and Viewing

ABC d’Air (2005)

Further Reading

All Around the Block: An Alphabet (2008)

Further Reading

Portrait évolutif du typographe
“Evolving portrait of the typographer” (1988)