Limited Edition Books

Much as I enjoy making prints to hang on walls, there is an additional dimension for me to the production of an edition of books. They are about a passion that began many years ago. One day when I was in a seminar at graduate school, a printmaking instructor showed us a limited edition book which had been produced at a press where he had been a master printer. Seeing that book, holding it, and wandering through it were a singular experience. Never before had I beheld anything like it. I can still recall the mixture of wonder and excitement I felt when I saw that work. This was something I needed to do – to make a book of my own, from start to finish. Prints soon became material for books in my mind and very little time passed before I was searching for a conduit into the university's graphic arts department, assuring someone there that I knew how to set type (a bold-faced lie), and only needed to use the equipment for a small project over the weekend. A fellow student who was familiar with type setting acted as my guide, and we completed the text for my first venture into making books. All that was ten books ago. It was and is important to me that the books be all mine, so I have never sought the skills of a letterpress printer or a bookbinder to assist me in their production. Each book is the culmination of a lengthy process that involves working through many stages, a process that began in graduate school when I saw that first small press book and said to myself, "Now, that's something I need to do."

Book-Layout

The books shown here are focused on places I have lived – Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where I grew up; the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, where I lived and worked for a number of years; and Damariscotta Mills, Maine, where I now make my home. Each was begun with images produced on etching plates. The poems and text then followed and were printed on a small hand press using hand-set type. Glassine sheets are sewn into the bindings to protect the prints. The poem which accompanies each print is bound facing the print. A description of each book follows.

A Maine Journal

This book is comprised of a variety of images from the midcoast area of Maine where I live. It begins with the following introduction:

The first time I met Maine, I knew I would live there one day. The air smelled of pines; Nature staged dramatic events; days offered up crisp, clear air; nights gave Bible-blue skies filled with moonlight and spectacular star displays. And, most of all, life was simple, unadorned, a bit challenging yet straightforward.

When the day inevitably came to find my home in Maine, the Fates drew me to Damariscotta Mills, a cottage and garden destined to become my own. I've found there a refuge which offers all the natural gifts that brought me to Maine and a peaceful quiet punctuated by choruses of trilling frogs, calling loons, and the wild crescendos of meterological events.

From that base I've ventured out to find some spots beyond my garden walls that embody Maine for me. The images and thoughts gathered here evoke some part of those places and of my home. They are a beginning, for the work goes on as those who share in them find their own musings from the seeds I've sown.

The nine prints in this book include views of my kitchen wood pile, a scene looking down from atop Mt. Battie, the lighthouse at Pemaquid Point, a portrait of an alewife, a still-life from the pantry at the Olson House, a pair of cross country skis, an image of an Adirondack chair in my garden, the view of Great Salt Bay from a small cemetery atop a hill, and a picture of my studio window. A tenth print of pine trees and a silver moon appears on the book's cover. The images in the book were done on 4" x 5" plates, some configured vertically and some horizontally. The image on the cover is 3"h x 4"w. Most of the prints in this book have had color added by hand. The finished book measures 9"h x 12"w and exists in an edition of forty-one copies plus and artists proof.

Price - $400.00

A Berkshire Sketchbook

This book includes views of familiar sights from the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts. The book begins with the following introduction:

Massachusetts' Berkshire hills are a special place for many people. In much the same way they provided clean air and a summer haven from cities to past generations, they abide as a place of respite from urban life. Nature's extremes find an easy home here as storms rumble and ricochet among mountains in both summer and winter. On days of clarity the air is filled with the scent of evergreens rising against backdrops of clear blue skies and pure black star-filled nights. The quiet of those starry nights and the tree scents are my first and clearest Berkshire memories. As each year of my life there evolved, scenes, events, places were added to the image bank, and certain ones endure. I have moved past my life's "Berkshire chapter" but want to hold on, a bit more, to those scenes that remain, and so I've saved my own set of Berkshire images here, to celebrate, to reminisce, and to share a bit with others.

This book includes nine prints that show scenes of picnickers at Tanglewood, cows in a meadow at the foot of Mt. Greylock, rocking chairs on the porch at the Red Lion Inn, Stanford White's Berkshire Theatre Festival building, a winter landscape scene, a sap bucket, a still-life of items representative of the Hancock Shakers, a wood stove, and an image of Monument Mountain as seen from the studio porch at Chesterwood. The images in the book were all done on 4" x 5" plates, some configured vertically and some horizontally. A tenth etching of pine trees and a silver moon that is 4"h x 3"w adorns the book's cover. Color has been added by hand to a number of the prints in this book. The finished book measures 9"h x 12"w and was produced in an edition of forty-four copies plus an artists proof.

Price - $400.00

Transformations

This book is a collection of prints and musings focused on winter scenes of Lancaster County. The introduction reads as follows:

Winter and the startling changes its snows impose upon the landscape have always been particularly fascinating to me. Early in 1978, I visited Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a part of the universe I consider very much my own, following a major snowfall. In my childhood, snows had meant adventures and scenes of indescribable beauty for me, beauty I could not endeavor to portray. Now, relieved of the need for some of those adventures, I could attempt to preserve that beauty in some cogent form. This book is the product of that attempt.

The book includes eight landscape prints, each image being 4"h x 5"w. Two images have skies that were tinted by rolling ink onto the wiped plate. The finished book is 9" square and was produced in an edition of nineteen copies plus an artists proof.

Price – $250.00

Island Vignettes

Presented in a different format from the limited edition books shown above, this book features an accordion-folded panorama of scenes based on images drawn during a variety of island visits I have made over the years. The images are accompanied by my written thoughts, and the printing was done using photopolymer etching plates. Color was then added by hand, using watercolors. There are twelve panels, connected by a continuous horizon so that each panel works independently or in concert with its adjacent images. The book is housed in a dark green folio with magnetic closures and a diamond-shaped cut-out that affords a view of an island when closed. Produced in an edition of forty-five copies plus an artists proof, the finished book measures 7" h x 7.5"w.

Price - $400.00