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Chad Pastotnik, Deep Wood Press

~ Fine letterpress and intaglio printing ~ Celebrating 30 years in 2022

Chad Pastotnik, Deep Wood Press

Tag Archives: Books

Heading to Codex soon

13 Sunday Jan 2019

Posted by Deep Wood Press in CODEX, David James Duncan, Letterpress, One River, The Machine Stops

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Books, Codex Book Fair and Symposium, David James Duncan, Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss, frustration, travel

A new year is upon us and so much has been going on here at DWP. Currently I am preparing for CODEX which is upcoming soon in Berkeley, CA – a global gathering of the book arts that happens every two years. Life has been busy in the studio since my return from Oak Knoll, mostly binding the last of the edition of Kafka’s In the Penal Colony of which I have saved a couple of copies to take to California. Some of you may have noticed that it never even made it to my very neglected website, it’ll get there but most all of my copies have been sold.

Right now I’ve just finished a broadside project titled “One River” with David James Duncan which is part of EXTRACTION, Art on the Edge of the Abyss – Words on the Edge: A Portfolio of Fine Printed Broadsides. Twenty six fine presses from around the world were paired with twenty six authors including Margaret Atwood, Terry Tempest Williams, Gary Snyder, Barry Lopez, Jane Hirshfield, Arthur Sze, Jan Zwicky, Kay Ryan, Eliza Griswold, Wendell Berry, Edwin Dobb, Natalie Diaz, Robert Bringhurst, William Kittredge and more. I got lucky with David – we’re both lovers of trout angry at the world of man.

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The big composing stick was called into service, that’s 18pt Garamond set into the two main paragraphs in a 92 pica measure and 14pt for the bottom comment. Illustrated with one of my wood engravings (on resingrave as seen in the full type case pic) in an edition of 100 on Somerset Book white. Details of the project here.

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Progress is also being made on my other Kafka project now long in the tooth – The Hunter Gracchus. I was hoping to have it done for Codex but alas, it isn’t going to happen. There will be a return to a flurry of activity with it upon my return home though and will likely be complete in May of this year.

On the good news front we’ve gotten the go ahead to resume work on E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops! Never an end to the madness but Mad Parrot Press is up to the task. We’re a bit overwhelmed with The Wind in the Willows at the moment but we’re on it!

Finally, and sadly, I want to put this out there: In the past 2 years I have sold 3 books to Columbia University in New York in two separate transactions. On both occasions the books were “lost” somewhere between the mail room and special collections. Apparently, I have no recourse, USPS delivery confirmation is not enough and there is only so much looking or communication that is ever going to happen. I am without payment for close to $3000 collectively and $2000 just recently which is a lot of money for a single father paying a mortgage, supporting a studio and 2 kids – this IS my day job. A lot of money around the holidays and makes it considerably harder to travel across the country to Codex. Do not ship anything without a signature required on delivery is the hard lesson I’ve learned and I’m passing it along. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me….

Totally open to some legal advice here. What do you think?

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Another binding for Kafka

01 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Book Bindings, In the Penal Colony, Letterpress, Oak Knoll Fest

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Books, fine binding, Franz Kafka, literature

Finding myself pretty well prepared for Oak Knoll next weekend I decided to crank out another binding of the book yesterday and opted to make a drop spine box for it as well.

This copy is bound on Iowa PC4 straps and quarter bound with Harmatan goat and gelatin sized flax Cave Paper with a matte silver foil title & dull black foil author attribution on the cover, the endpapers are offset printed Cartiere Magnani Revere.

10 1/8 x 13 1/4 x 5/8″ (25.5 x 33.5 x 1.6cm) without box or slipcase.

 

 

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Looking forward towards 2018

09 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Authors and Translators, Books, Breon Mitchell - Franz Kafka, Education, Future Projects, In the Penal Colony, Judith Minty, Letterpress, Mad Parrot Press, The Hunter Gracchus, Workshop

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Books, Breon Mitchell, Dellas Henke, Fine Press, Franz Kafka, future projects, literature

Here we are, a new year. I’ve been remiss updating this blog but I’ve not been fully idle in my absence so allow me to update you to some of the exciting projects underway here at Deep Wood.

Franz Kafka  —  In the Penal Colony

I will not attempt to summarize In the Penal Colony, it’s a brilliant and important part of Kafka’s canon. But if you are curious here’s a wikipedia link.

I am pleased to present this new previously unpublished translation by the acclaimed Breon Mitchell which will be lavishly illustrated with six etchings by Dellas Henke. This very limited edition is set at 30 copies  divided between Dellas, Breon and myself and will be sold in sheets primarily. I will bind my third of the edition and also produce some presentation bindings.

Dellas has been working on editioning the intaglio prints and is closing in on his end of the project while the rest of the paper lies here at the press waiting as I fuss with last minute layout adjustments.

The book is large a format 10×13 inch (25×33 cm) page size with the text being composed in Janson and printed on Somerset Book White, 175gsm. The intaglio illustrations are “bled print” to the edges. 40 pages. $1000.00 unbound. Advanced inquiries and sales may be made.

Here are some of the image proofs from Dellas, 10×13″ sheets. It should be noted that these are proofs – works in progress – and also were not printed on Somerset stock.

2 indefensa
3 corrupter
4 lost himself
5 mortem
6 Plentitude

Breon Mitchell has translated major works by Günter Grass, Heinrich Böll, Siegfried Lenz and other leading German authors.  His retranslation of Kafka’s Trial received a special commendation from the American Translators Association. His other awards include the ATA’s Ungar Prize , the ALTA Translation Prize, the Kurt and Helen Wolff Prize,  the MLA’s Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize, and the British Society of Authors’ Schlegel-Tieck Prize. He is Director Emeritus of the Lilly Library and Professor Emeritus of Germanic Studies and Comparative Literature at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Dellas Henke learned printmaking a S.U.N.Y. Brockport from Robert Marx. It was there that he saw his first artist’s books- collaborations Marx had made with the activist priests the Barrigan brothers. Henke continued his education at the University of Iowa where he worked with printmakers Mauricio Lasansky and Keith Achepohl and had the remarkable opportunity to learn about letterpress printing from KK Merker and Kay Amert. It was in Iowa that Henke first illustrated with etchings Samuel Beckett’s, “Waiting for Godot” – an edition sanctioned and signed by Beckett. Over the next few years there were further collaborations with Merker and the Iowa Center for the Book where Henke illustrated Beckett’s “Company” and H.D.’s “ Within the Walls and eventually making an illustrated edition of Beckett’s, “Ill Seen Ill Said”. In the intervening years Henke has been the coordinator for the printmaking department at Grand Valley State University where he continues to make prints, paint, and draw. Henke has been involved in more than 200 exhibitions and has been collected by dozens of public institutions.

I would also be remiss mentioning that Dellas was my professor for printmaking in college long ago. Great to be working with him again and his visits north have been a lot of fun fishing, hiking around with his dog Lazlo and telling stories.

Further, it is a thrill to be working with Breon on this project and a fortunate stroke of serendipity with my own project though rather mind bending to be working on two Kafka manuscripts at a time.

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Dellas, working on print arrangement for the book.

Additionally

  • My own Kafka project The Hunter Gracchus  is also coming along but has been completely redesigned to a larger format. More to come soon with that progress.
  • I sadly note the passing of Judith Minty in November. Judith and I produced her short Killing the Bear in 2011 with wood engravings by Glenn Wolff. In her 84 years I hope I amused her for at least one of them….
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Opening spread, Killing the Bear by Judith Minty

  • James Dissette and I have continued planning our new projects for our Mad Parrot Press (formerly Chester River Press) and plan to bring you E.M. Forster’s strange and prescient science fiction story, The Machine Stops. We are also in the planning stages for the iconic childhood rhapsody, Wind in the Willows which will be illustrated by the brilliant linoleum cuts of Vladimir Zimakov. Here’s a taste of his concept art for Badger:

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Residency and Instruction

One of my distractions lately from making books has been finishing the guest house above “studio B” which is now listed on AirBnB. The space will be used to host collaborators, limited artist residencies and, of course, some additional income…

Use of the studio spaces and instruction can also be negotiated with a stay. Fully (and nicely) appointed letterpress and intaglio print spaces as well as a complete bindery. Visit my main website for much more information about the facilities here.

Airbnb pic

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View On AirbnbStudio on the Cedar River ~ A Bibliophiles Dream

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Pile of books
Pile of Intruders
Deluxe copy of The Changeling's Exile
Opening spread for Minisens
Opening spread for Minisens
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Deluxe copy of The Intruder
Opening spread from Changeling's Exile
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A printed sheet next to the type form
A printed sheet next to the type form
Some books produced at Deep Wood Press
Some books produced at Deep Wood Press. The John Barth book “Browsing” was printed here at DWP for The Literary House Press (Washington College, MD) by James Dissette, my sometimes partner in crime in printing for Chester River Press.
"The Intruder" cover
The Intruder
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Cover detail
detail of “The Intruder” cover
Glenn's remark
Glenn’s remark
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opening spread for the Frogs Who Wished A King by Aesop
Opening spread for the Frogs Who Wished A King by Aesop, intaglio engravings by Chad Pastotnik.
Page spread from The Frogs Who Wished A King by Aesop, versified by Clara Dotty Bates.
Page spread from The Frogs Who Wished A King by Aesop, versified by Clara Dotty Bates.
Saturnalia
Saturnalia
title page from Heart of Darkness
Title page from Heart of Darkness
If
If
Don Etherington binding of The Intruder
Don Etherington binding of The Intruder
Messing about in boats
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JSspread
"The Intruder" cover
Bower by Terrance Hayes
Bower by Terrance Hayes
Glenn's intaglio plate
Glenn’s intaglio plate
Center Spread
Center Spread
Green Man (1994)
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Wind prom
Killing the Bear by Judith Minty
Killing the Bear
the linoleum blocks for "The Path" center spread
the linoleum blocks for “The Path” center spread
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The Trout in Winter
The Trout in Winter
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Deluxe copy of The Path
Custom bound journal, commissioned work
Custom bound journal, commissioned bindery work
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The 6th etching for the book, "Entitled"
The 6th etching for the book, “Entitled”
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the process
the process
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Deluxe Mad Angler Poems
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Title page for the book There Be Monsters
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1,000 Artist's Books
1,000 Artist’s Books
Cover for The Changeling's Exile
The Changeling’s Exile
a pile
a pile
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The Path
The Path
Deluxe copy of Heart of Darkness
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Don Etherington binding of The Intruder
Don Etherington binding of The Intruder
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Along with Youth by Ernest Hemingway broadside
Along with Youth
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Deluxe copy of Heart of Darkness
Chained books at Chetham's Library in Manchester, England where I was a keynote speaker at a letterpress conference.
Chained books at Chetham’s Library in Manchester, England where I was a speaker at a letterpress conference.
If detail
Kafka page spread detail
Killing the Bear by Judith Minty, deluxe edition binding & slipcase
Killing the Bear by Judith Minty, deluxe edition binding & slipcase
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spine label detail
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Title page from Killing the Bear by Judith Minty
Title page from Killing the Bear by Judith Minty
The Mad Angler's Manifesto
The Mad Angler’s Manifesto
Trout spread
Trout page spread
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Title Page
Title Page
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Tree (1991)
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type hand-set on a curve
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CD packaging
CD packaging
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prototype for deluxe edition of "The Intruder"
Deluxe edition prototype
Presentation binding for The Chesapeake Voyages of Captain John Smith
Presentation binding for The Chesapeake Voyages of Captain John Smith
Deluxe copy of The Path
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Deluxe copy of The Intruder
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Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, regular edition binding
Heart of Darkness
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Page spread from The Frogs Who Wished A King by Aesop, versified by Clara Dotty Bates.
Page spread from The Frogs Who Wished A King by Aesop, versified by Clara Dotty Bates.
Deluxe Mad Angler
Deluxe copy of The Intruder
Opening spread for There be Monsters
Opening spread for There be Monsters
Cover of The Frogs Who Wished A King by Aesop, versified by Clara Dotty Bates.
Ripping Oblivion
Ripping Oblivion
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Spread from Heart of Darkness
Spread from Heart of Darkness
deluxe binding of The Intruder
deluxe binding of The Intruder
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Cover for the book There Be Monsters
There Be Monsters.
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Book Bindings Books Breon Mitchell - Franz Kafka Broadsides CODEX Equipment Fine Press Book Association Future Projects In the Penal Colony Letterpress Linotype Mad Parrot Press Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair Moon as Bright as Water Oak Knoll Fest PR and Media releases Printing The Hunter Gracchus The Intruder The Mad Angler's Manifesto The Path The Wind in the Willows Trout Vladimir Zimakov Workshop

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