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| A gate the artist came across in Winston-Salem, NC |
Gates can be barriers against passage from one space to another. Metaphorically, the gate can signify any sort of stop or blockage. The book-of-the-week for Week 11, KEEP OUT, is about one element of gates... locks. It's a pictorial essay of 29 different locks... antique ones and contemporary ones... locks with keys and locks with combinations. It's just the locks.
The small case-bound book is covered with paper from a colograph print made by the artist and the spine is covered in black Japanese silk bookcloth. The title plate is handmade paper of abaca and linen which was printed with polyester plate lithography for the lock image and letterpress printed for the title.
Throughout the book, hues of black, white, brown, beige and gray set the mood. When the book is opened, one sees the endpapers of vintage gray marbled paper. The pages are a soft handmade semi-transparent Japanese mulberry paper... chosen to contrast with the hardness of the locks. The locks were printed on the mulberry paper by the polyester plate lithography technique. A thorough discussion of this relatively simple process, is found at: http://www.nontoxicprint.com/polyesterplatelitho.htm.
A few of the 29 locks...
Whatever the purpose, locks are intriguing
...and sometimes beautiful.
