Fine Bindings for CODEX and other news!

29 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Breon Mitchell - Franz Kafka, CODEX, In the Penal Colony, Kenneth Grahame, Letterpress, Mad Parrot Press, Presentation bindings, The Wind in the Willows, Vladimir Zimakov

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Codex Book Fair and Symposium, Franz Kafka, Kenneth Grahame

It’s been a busy few weeks getting ready and I’ll be heading to Berkeley starting this Friday to once again attend Codex – CODEX VII Nordica – what is now the biggest fine press fair in the world. Come see me at table #159 about 2/3 of the way to the back on a corner along the left side of the aisle, you can’t miss me. For this big show I’ve prepared a couple presentation bindings of my latest book, a new translation of Franz Kafka’s In the Penal Colony as well as some of my earlier book editions. One of them may be spoken for already and I’m down to my last few copies of this book.

And another one in a similar motif – I’ve been using a printed sheet for the endpapers that evokes a topographic map as the Penal Colony takes place on an island so decided to continue that on these covers. Both have Hewit spines and dark blue Harmatan goat on the covers that has been extensively blind tooled, both have various onlays of other leather bits are complete in a drop spine box with spine label. Actually, I’m still working on these a bit, fiddly bits….

The Wind in the Willows — Kenneth Grahame

I will also have with me a prototype page layout for The Wind in the Willows to accompany the first illustration we’ve (Mad Parrot Press) commissioned from Vladimir Zimakov. Conveniently, Vladimir has a table right next to me so we can answer questions and take in the love that surrounds this wondrous book. I’ve gotten more inquiries about this book already than any other ever except maybe the long gone Heart of Darkness and it’s great to share the excitement with people. Here is Pan as found by Rat and Mole during their search for Otter’s poor lost boy Portly from the chapter “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”. In the book it’ll match the text block size and be a generous three color plate of 8 x 9.25 inches – we hope to have at least ten more of these from Vladimir for the book!

final print comb 5

Apologies for the less than ideal photos. There hasn’t been much sunlight here in Northern Michigan these last couple weeks. Plenty of five degree days plunging to -20 at night and an abundance of snow approaching three feet now. It’ll be good to go to California, I’ll take 60 degrees and rain about now no problem even if I have to dig myself into my house and studio when I return.

Our poor snowmen are now “at one” with their world….

Heading to Codex soon

13 Sunday Jan 2019

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

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.

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.

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?

Kafka, Dublin, Berkeley, Seattle and leather bits….

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Book Bindings, Future Projects, Lectures, Letterpress, PR and Media releases, Workshop

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Chad Pastotnik, Codex Book Fair and Symposium, Deep Wood Press, Franz Kafka, Jamie Lee Searle - Franz Kafka, National Print Museum, Seattle, Seattle Book Arts Guild, The Hunter Gracchus, University of Puget Sound

I wish I had some beautiful pictures of new work to add to this post but alas, sometimes running a business and being an artist has nothing to do with actually making art! Fear not, the pictures are coming soon.

The Hunter Gracchus

The most newsworthy part of “not actually making art” is probably the long negotiating process I recently concluded with a literary translator from the UK who I have retained to create a new rendition of Franz Kafka’s The Hunter Gracchus. Gracchus is a project I’ve been waiting on for at least a decade and after yet another round earlier this summer trying to secure rights to reprint from Schocken/Random House was a bust. I needed permission to reprint the original translated version by the husband and wife team of Edwin and Willa Muir in the 1940’s. I decided to look further into Kafka’s estate and was happy to discover that his works are now considered out of copyright in both the EU and USA – in the German anyway.

Here’s where Jamie Lee Searle comes into the picture. There are more translators available for hire in the the EU for reasonable rates than the US, go figure, and most based in the US are busy academics so I had some research and inquiries to make before I could even approach someone I felt competent for the project. While I can’t read German I admired the breadth and selection of titles that Jamie has done and she is quite well regarded by her peers so I sent her an inquiry last October about the project. I am happy to say I will be getting the first drafts in the next few days and hope to have at least some prototype pages to show at Codex next month. I’ve recently acquired the matrices for casting the typeface Weiss in 4 sizes and with luck the Linotype will cooperate and give me 50 good lines as it is bitterly cold outside right now at 6º (-14 C) and it is difficult to convince any of these old cast iron and steel behemoths to perform well in these temps.

Dublin

I’ve also been working on a presentation binding for the last of the deluxe editions of The Heart of Darkness. This binding is for an exhibit at The National Print Museum in Dublin, Ireland which I am happy to be part of along with 24 other invited fine press printers from around the world. There are just a couple copies of this book left in the regular edition and this is the last of the deluxe copies for sale. A good run for a book that was finished 4 years ago and was probably the most fun project that I did in partnership with Chester River Press.

Berkeley − codex

I’ve been working on more presentation bindings/deluxe editions of my most recent books in preparation for the CODEX Book Fair and Symposium coming up in February 8th – 11th where I will be at my table full of Deep Wood Press books. There will definitely be pictures of unique bindings and books gracing this blog in the very near future as these projects near photo worthy stages so please stay tuned.

” Over 200 of the world’s most distinguished book artists and artisans, private presses, and fine art publishers will be exhibiting their work at the upcoming biennial CODEX International Book Fair. This is the largest book fair of its kind in the world today!

There is no better place to find and collect the world’s greatest contemporary artist books, fine press books, and fine art editions than at CODEX. Now in it’s 10th year, CODEX has been acknowledged as the leading International Fine Press and Artist book fair. Exhibitors are coming from Germany, UK, Italy, France, South America, The Netherlands, Mexico, Israel, China, Austria, Poland, Australia, Russia, and Japan. The event also attracts special collections librarians, curators, and private collectors from all over the world. “This is THE place to see the latest work from ‘the best of the best’ “ states Peter Rutledge Koch, Founder of the CODEX Foundation.

Coinciding with the Book Fair is a two-day CODEX Symposium that takes place at the Anna Head Alumnae Hall in the mornings before the Book Fair on February 9 & 10. “

– see you in Berkeley at CODEX, come join the madness!

Seattle − workshop & lecture

I’ll also be teaching a workshop and giving a couple talks in Washington state immediately following Codex on February 12th – 16th. I am teaching a workshop for the Seattle Book Arts Guild on the 14th & 15th from 9:00am-5:00pm Reduction and Multi-block Color Printing with Linoleum Blocks for Letterpress at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, see here for contact information. I’ll be giving a talk which will be an overview of the evolution of Deep Wood Press over the past 23 years for the Guild on the 12th and also at the University of Puget Sound on the 13th.