Secrets. Everybody has them. ...some are hidden from our own consciousness... some are part of our family history.. some are silly gossip.. and this time of year some are about PRESENTS!!!
Secrets Secrets, that's the title of this week's Book of the Week.
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| Cover paper of natural dyes: walnut, brazilwood, osage orange, and cochineal |
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| Letterpress type on the title page |
Letterpress type reflects the diaphanous nature of secrets. When hidden within a
secret the truth becomes a delicate cobweb, flimsy, and sometimes distorted.
Secrets Secrets is a hidden hinge book...also called an accordion hinge book... that's housed in a hardcover case. Six gatherings of pages, called signatures, are threaded onto two accordion folded spine strips. Inside each signature is a watercolor paper "pin" that is threaded through the mountain side of the accordion spine pieces and holds the book together.
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| Marbleized pages and a watercolor paper pin threaded through the accordion spine pieces |
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| Pull the pin up to read the secrets... |
On one paper pin are written the words "Tell" and "Don't Tell." To see the words the pin must be pulled up. A Japanese marbling technique, suminagashi, is used to coat the pages and the hinge pins. The fluid, imprecise nature of the marbled paper alludes to the shapeshifting nature of secrets. The brown accordion hinge strips are painted with pastepaints... scratched through with a comb to imply confusion and conflict.
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| Pen and ink doodles and fold-out pages... |
Fold-out pages serve to hide the text, sheltering from prying eyes those secrets too personal to share.. and sepia ink doodles around stray ink blots illustrate the secrets of the subconscious... What do they say?
Kathy
