Week 48: The Garden of Peace

   So many fairy tales and old fashioned books begin with the words Once upon a time... but this week's book-of-the-week isn't an ordinary book. The Garden of Peace is an assortment of books, objects, and text... all housed within a three-section box that opens from two opposite sides. This type of box is sometimes referred to as an opposing hinge box, but this artist prefers to call it a magic box. And that is what this week's book is about... the possibility of magic... of a wish that was formed on a walk in the woods... the fantastical idea of a Garden of Peace.

the memory of a daydream..

   The lid of the box is covered with pastepaper of a lush green forest and tall leafy trees. The box sides, interior and exterior, are green floral Italian print paper. The three hinge strips are double-sided and made of moss green bookcloth and handmade German text paper digitally printed with the story. When the lid is opened to the right, two shadow-box partitions separated by the text-covered hinge strip are revealed. The top shadow box holds a little hand-wrought copper gate and a collection of mica flakes. The bottom shadow box houses a tunnel book of a path through a forest of trees. Each panel was cut by hand then painted with acrylic paints.

opened to the right...

beyond a copper gate...

tunnel book through the forest

When the lid is opened to the left, a single shadow-box in the center of the box, and two text-covered hinge strips are revealed. Inside the center shadow box is the little letterpress cord-bound book of mantras, The Peace Garden, from last week's book-of-the-week. 

opened to the left...

This the story of a walk in the woods... and a daydream...

a walk in the woods...

.my mind began to wander...

an Eden...

looking in...

Imagine a Garden of Peace, everywhere.

Week 47: The Peace Garden

    The book-of-the-week for Week 47 is a tiny book... barely 3 inches square titled The Peace Garden.

A cord-bound book with a green leather spine piece, it's front coverboard is solid green handmade paper and the back coverboard is a colorful pastepaper. Inside, the endpapers are a moss-like collagraph print. The text paper was handmade by the German company, Hahnemuhle. Every page that doesn't have a pastepainted surface is letterpress printed over the entire surface of the page with the mantra...Come into this garden where PEACE grows. 

The type is 14-point Italian Oldstyle italic font, and the ink is a shade of brown. The type was printed uneven and smudged to indicate age, decay, and distress... as if the ideals within the tiny book were hard to obtain. 

The Peace Garden.

Just that.  

Imagine it. 

This book is part of a boxed set of two books and an object, all housed in a double-hinged, three compartment "magic box." More next week...

Week 46: Gates of Paris

  Paris is called the City of Lights... La Ville-Lumière.  In the 1800's it was one of the first cities in the world to install gas street lights. Fifty-six thousand gas lamps lit the streets of Paris in 1860! At that time, that was more than anywhere in the world. 

   Still, the landscape of Paris is only the backdrop of the illumination of this beautiful city... Dating back to the late 17th-century, Paris has had a great part in the cultural change known as the Age of Enlightenment. It was during a stay in Paris in 1622 that Rene Decartes (founder of analytical geometry) wrote his first essay on method: Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii (Rules for the Direction of the Mind). The most famous Parisian of the Enlightened Age was probably Voltaire, the writer, philosopher, and historian. An entire set of volumes could be written on the brilliant Voltaire... who's real name was François-Marie Arouet. Actually, an entire volume could be written on his pen names... Voltaire was said to have used over 175 pen names! 

   Paris can be just as mercurial. The history books, novels, whispered back room intrigues, and center stage flamboyance tell its captivating story over and over again in a thousand different voices. This week's book-of-the-week, Gates of Paris is based on the impression of all those voices... whispered to this Paris visitor... standing on the Pont des Arts on a warm September night a decade ago.

a road map of the City of Lights...

   The book is fabricated with the swinging hinge structure, developed by Hedi Kyle and based on an accordion folded spine. The book materials consist of vintage maps from a 1954 Michelin® Tour Guide of Paris, a monoprint on Mohawk® cover paper, French® paper, pastepaper, silk brocade book cloth, and photographs taken off the pedestrian bridge, Pont des Arts, in Paris...

a row of gates swing back and forth...

When viewed from the front side, the swinging panels depict sections of a map of central Paris. The streets... angular yet sinuous, seem to switch back and forth in a prism of light and form, just as the book panels' swinging alters the view of the pages. The map serves as backdrop for the short poem, Gates of Paris, which was letterpress printed on the Pearl press. Black ink and a flowery font, Crayonette, were used. These relate to the ornate ironwork of the mid to late 1800's when Paris was rebuilt by Napoleon III and his Prefect of the Seine Department, Georges-Eugène Haussmann... who put in all those gas street lamps.

pastepaper and monoprint... of a rich and vibrant Paris

the photograph.... a night on the Pont des Arts

the River Seine cuts through and bridges lace it's span

This is the poem...

Sprawled across the 

Pont des Arts

Sipping red wine

and gazing at the stars

Across the rooftops

the Eiffel Tower

twinkles in the night

And the gates

of Paris

Open your mind

a silk brocade...

the lights off the bridge...

Gates of Paris, continues the theme of France... but really, the ideas and impressions can be applied to any place one finds fascinating. 

Week 45: Le Bistrot

A PROCLAMATION FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF COFFEE HOUSES: 

Whereas it is most apparent that the multitude of Coffee Houses of late years set up and kept within this Kingdom...and the great resort of idle and disaffected persons to them, have produced very evil and dangerous effects; as well for that many tradesmen and others, do herein misspend much of their time, which might and probably would be employed in and about their Lawful Calling and Affairs; but also for that in such houses...divers, false, malitious, and scandalous reports are devised and spread abroad to the Defamation of His Majesty's Government, and to the disturbance of the Peace and Quiet of the Realm; his Majesty hath though it fit and necessary, that the said Coffee Houses be (for the Future) put down and suppressed..." -King Charles II of England, 1630-1685

   This week's book-of-the-week, Le Bistrot, is a tribute to the delicious foods of France and the atmosphere of community, ritual, artistry, agriculture, and history that make up the gate that is French cuisine. Unlike the sentiments expressed in the quote from King Charles II, the gathering of people around a table of good food and drink has been known to form unions, friendships, and understanding between people of all kinds... to instill and inspire ideas, creative thought, and progress, and to feed the spirit as well as the body. It is a gate...  Where would we be today if the French had felt as King Charles did?

the book Le Bistrot and its box case

   Many cultures have an equally delicious food culture.. so why is French cuisine so special? From the 

fields of delicately tended herbs and straight-rowed vineyards that are prolific throughout France, to the aestheticism of truffles and foix gras... the subject of French food is a study in dedication and excellence. UNECSO (http://en.unesco.org) 

experts singled out French gastronomy as one of 178 "world intangible heritages," a “social custom aimed at celebrating the most important moments in the lives of individuals and groups." -The Telegraph. 

Who doesn't love the thought of champagne, croissants, and creme brulee? 

windows of a french repast

   Le Bistrot is a three panel accordion book with pop-out windows, that stretches out to form a wall of visuals. Inside, the

 background has been papered with an Italian paper similar to wallpaper one might see on the walls of a French chateau. On the front cover is a photograph of the entryway to a small local restaurant, Le Bistrot, in Angers, France. A blue satin ribbon ties the coverboards together. Each window showcases a 

photo from  one area of French cuisine... the delicious native wines, the elegant pastries, or the eclectic homeyness of a favorite provincial cafe. 

Delaunay Pere & Fils (father and son) Vineyard and tasting salon in Loire Valley

patisserie (pastry) shop window in Guerande

Barbe Bleu (Blue Beard) Restaurante, Champtoce sur Loire

  In reference to the many told and untold stories that center around the tables of French meals, this book is housed in it's own book-like box. Covered outside with royal blue bookcloth on the spine and printed paper with a French motif, the drop side box is made to fit the small 5 x 5-inch book. Inside, the box lining matches the wallpaper lining of the book. A wallpaper panel with a blue satin ribbon lifts the book for easy removal from its box.

the bookish box 

inside the box

nestled in its box

Le Bistrot is covered on the backside with a collage print of a variety of French shop labels, alluding to the richness of the culture.

The other side...

You never know what you'll find when it comes to French cuisine...

....marzipan mushrooms in the window

Bon Appetit!

Week 44: Artists and Dreamers

                                            Enter through

                                            this gate

                                            And wash

                                            your hands

                                            In the

                                            marl

                                            Of artists

                                            and dreamers.

   The book-of-the-week for Week 44 is a slat book titled Artists & Dreamers. It's made with bookboard slats which have been covered on the outside with paper dyed with walnut and cochineal. The four slats are strung together with brown tinted linen thread wrapped around two vintage buttons. The title plate and text are letterpress printed on handmade Japanese mulberry paper with Oldstyle Italian Italic font.

all folded up, it fits in the hand

The interior paper is a watercolor painting with hand-ground earth pigments that were dug up on the grounds of an artist community in the mountains of North Carolina. It is the inspiration for the poem Artists & Dreamers.

earth drawing and letterpress poetry

a view of the mountain gate

Week 43: Living with the Ghosts

   Have you ever lived in a haunted house? With Halloween coming up next week, ghosts, haunted houses, and unexplained phenomena are common topics of conversation right now. Though there is no real proof that ghosts exist, many people believe in ghosts... and quite a few folks have their own haunted house stories and stories of seeing ghosts! Who knows if it's true?... once you've experienced some unexplained eerie apparition, you never think of ghosts in the same way again. The book-of-the-week for Week 43 is titled Living with the Ghosts. Housed in it's own little book-like box, Living with the Ghosts is centered on a real place... an 100-year-old carriage house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania... and all the ghosts that inhabit it.

the box it rests in...

  A photograph of the wooden backyard fence, partially covered with ivy, hints at the lost stories of the building and the colorful ghosts that still haunt the place. Natural dyes, cochineal, walnut, madder, and osage orange stain the cover paper on the box and the book cover. They mirror rust and the fall colors of the ivy as they allude to ongoing change and transformation... yet with a ghostlike quality of semi-permanence.

the book inside its box case

   The text is hand written on accordion-folded heavyweight paper, which has been cut to form 3 recessed windows. The windows are really inverted box pop-outs. Photographs of two rooms inside the house...a bedroom and the living room... are pasted inside the recessed box pop-ups. Studying the photographs, decor is a mix of old and new things... a 1930's ladies' Panama gardening hat, an antique bed, prints and hat boxes... and their modern-day counterparts... photographs, pottery, books, and sculpture. Side-by-side, the very real objects of modernity abide alongside the relics of another time.

three window pop-outs...

The accordion folded pages can be viewed as single leaves of a book... opening like flower petals,

the book spills out of the box

or the entire structure can be stretched out... like a snake... or a boney skeleton.

Inside, the diary-like text is handwritten along the margins of the pages in train-of-thought style...  with grammatical errors and doodles included.

looking from the living room into the kitchen...

beside the bed, hat-boxes and jewelry boxes

the bedroom...

a line from the book states, "such are the gates of memory." 

Happy Halloween... May all your ghosts be kind.

Week 42: An Open Gate?

   What constitutes a gate? Sometimes the gate is unexpected, unprecedented, or unusual. In the book-of-the-week for Week 42, An Open Gate?, the gate is one of those. Constructed as a swinging panel book, An Open Gate? is a poem which describes a series of six vintage photographs of a baby boy. 

the cover

  The cover of the book is painted with hand-ground earth pigments and natural dyes... cochineal, osage orange, and walnut ink. These colors reference the aged, pink hue of the photographs, as well as the creamy pink skin of the baby. The accordion-fold pages are made with gold cover-weight French Paper® which has been cut out to facilitate the swinging panels. The text was printed on Arches® paper with the Pearl letterpress using 18-point Crayonette font. The Crayonette font was designed by Henry Brehmer and released by the Keystone Type Foundry of Philadelphia in 1889. The ink is a shade of baby blue... mixed to resemble the little shorts worn by the baby in two of the photographs.

poem pages facing forward...

  On the front side of each panel is a poem stanza, which was affixed to the panel with double-sided tape. On the back of the panels are taped the photographs... taken in 1965 with a Kodak Brownie® camera. The panels pivot back and forth... so either photograph or stanza can face the reader. 

poem or photos facing forward...

Kodak Brownie Camera

If there's space, the whole book can be stretched out like a sort of picket fence.

stretched out...

The poem goes like this: 

An Open Gate?

Remember?

Coming home late

to an open gate-

The song from the spoon

and a paper exploded room

His marvel of a ball

and a ball bearing wheel

Racing down the hall to

a cotton covered feel.

Seeing the hunger 

from being held

and hearing the squeal 

from having fell

Still we present ourselves

to history 

and wonder at 

the packaged mystery.

Stockings hung by a nail

hugged by that picket rail.

I remember, still,

coming home late

to that old open gate.

the first page...

moments in time...

the baby...

the unexpected gate...

colophon

an open gate...

shadows behind the gates

Even the littlest can sometimes become a gate.