AbeCedarium
An Exhibit of Alphabet Books

Don E. Sanders
Austin, TX

ABC

5 1/4 x 4 1/4 x 1 inches
A full leather binding in red goat-skin, with raised onlays of colored goat. The signatures are sewn on tapes and there are silk endbands. The endpapers are photocopies of the original hand-stamped letters used as background for the alphabet capitals in the text. The calligraphy of the lower case letters with handmade tissue overleaf, is by Jean Holbrook. 1998

Claire Jeanine Satin
Dana, FL

Alphabook Tibetan

14 inch diameter x 1 3/4 inches
The Italian Ciralux covered box (by Bob Muens) has gold stamping on rim Verba Volent, Scripta Manent. Artist-designed water-jet cut tile of alphabetic notations is mounted on top. The Fabriano Murillo pie-shaped pages are joined at the points by a screw post topped with tile handles. Images and alphabetic notations are photoetched, are printed with metallic and black inks and depict eleven different alphabets from prehistoric to the present Roman. Edition of 11. 1997/1998

Joanne Sonnichsen
Menlo Park, CA

Alphabet en Enigma by Victor Adam

8 3/4 x  4 3/4 x 3/4 inches
The dark green chagrin leather covers (pressed in part) have reptile onlays, gold tooling and chains at the spine area to match the tooling of the Z. It is an accordion book of printed reproductions of an 1830 alphabet. 1998.

Jean Stephenson
Bronxville, NY

Weisscrack (Detail)

26 x 16 1/4 inches unframed
Wall piece of Barcelona handmade papers with collage and letterpress printing. The riddle was found in a 1893 family autograph album and the letters were drawn from Weiss Roman Bold capitals. 1998.

Cris Clair Takacs
Chardon, OH

Three Classic Faces
The Standing Press, Pulborough, West Sussex, 1997

2 1/8 x  3 3/4 x 2 1/2 inches
The three books are covered in Hahnemüle Bugra paper, are sewn on tapes and have silk endbands. The Mohawk endpapers have laser-printed type cases appropriate for the country of origin of each typeface. Solaire text papers have electronically produced text. The box is covered with the same Bugra paper acrylic painted with a faux woodgrain, and has brass handles made from twisted wire and gold Japanese paper. 1998.

Donna & Peter Thomas
Santa Cruz, CA

Mac’s ABC’s

7 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches
The calf covers by Donna Thomas have bas relief and onlays; the title is letterpress-printed on vellum. Peter Thomas made this accordion book of his 100% cotton paper, with hand-punched holes and perforations to suggest computer paper. The water color illustrations of letters are by Donna and the binary equivalents were letterpress-printed by Peter. 1996.

Judith S. Thompson
Dallas, TX

The Rune Poem
Edited by Gill Griffiths

5 1/4 x 7 x 3/4 inches
A full leather French-style binding with recessed leather onlays. The book has leather doublures and endbands with Fabriano Roma flyleaves. The illustrations are woodblock-printed. 1998.

Peter D. Verheyen
Syracuse, NY

Twenty-Six Words
Bird Press, Thorsten Dennerline, 1998

5 1/4 x 5 3/4 x 1 7/8 inches
An accordion book, it has boards covered in full Niger leather with onlays and inlays of chagrin, oasis and frog. A hinged"slipcase" is covered with oasis and veiny calf vellum with words from the text underlayed. The gray Rives BFK text paper has illustrations in offset lithography and letterpress by Thorsten Dennerline. 1998. See also Thorsten Dennerline's binding of this book or view the entire book online.

Laura H. G. Wait
Denver, CO

The Cosmic Book: An ABC of Gardens & Creative Energy

7 3/4 x 11 3/4 x 2 inches
The mahogany covers are dyed green, with supports riveted on with copper plates inset into the wood, and with a copper device on the front cover. The book is sewn on laminated, dyed alum-tawed calf and vellum supports/straps with dyed linen thread. The endpapers are mylar with hand painted acrylic paste. Mylar pages alternate with Johannot Heavyweight papers which have paste underpainting over initial pencil drawings. The text is on the paste-painted mylar pages. Gold ink calligraphy by Sandy Marvin. 1998.

Annie Tremmel Wilcox / Cheryl Jacobsen
North Liberty, IA

A Culinary Alphabet

4 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3/4 inches
The boards are covered with Orizomegami over flax paper and have silver spoons with semiprecious stones sewn to them with silk. The two-section book was sewn with silk thread. The text block is Rives Heavyweight, and has illustrations and text in gouache and watercolor. The calligraphy is by Cheryl Jacobsen. 1998.

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