Conference Papers Manchester 1992 are now available from the Institute for Paper Conservation, Leigh Lodge, Leigh, Worcester WR6 5LB, England. Members $20, non-members $30. Also available are Vol. 1 - 18 of The Paper Conservator; members $10; non-members $25.
Simon de Colines: An Annotated Catalogue of 230 Examples of his Press, 1520 - 1546. Assembled by Fred Schreiber, with introduction by Jeanne Veyrin-Forrer. 1995. W. Thomas Taylor. 320 pp., illus. "Based on a unique collection at Brigham Young University assembled by bookseller and scholar Fred Schreiber, this illustrated catalogue describes 230 editions published by the first true French Renaissance printer, Simon de Colines, active in Paris 1520 to 1546." Available from W. Thomas Taylor, 1906 Miriam, Austin, TX 78722; (512) 478-7628; fax 478-5508. Regular edition, until June 1, $95; thereafter $150. Special edition $375. $5 s&h, U.S.; Overseas, $6.50 surface, $30 by air.
The Art & History of Books, by Norma Levarie, Oak Knoll Books. 328 pp., 8«" x 11", 176 b/w illus. $45 cloth, $29.95 paperback. Available from Lyons & Burford, 31 West 21st St., New York, NY 10160-0226. (and, presumably, from Oak Knoll).
"FIVE SHORT STORIES" by Marcel Ayme, 150 copies printed on Arches mouldmade paper by Henry Morris of Bird and Bull Press. Illustrated with ten wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec. Book and extra set of engravings boxed for $400. Henry Morris has generously offered the book in sheets for bookbinders, plus the extra set of engravings for $200 plus $7.00 S&H. Available from Bird and Bull Press, 2 Jericho Mountain Road, Newtown, PA 18940. (215) 598-3066.
This list is compiled by Sid Huttner and includes catalogs received by him which include books of interest to GBW members. Catalog number, address, phone number and Internet address are recorded.
The Book Block 32 (81 items). 8 Loughlin Avenue, Cos Cob CT 06807. 203-629-2990. Illustrated boooks including two incunabula, some objects relating to the history of printing (including an ivory carved Reynard the Fox, an 18th century painted enamel portrait of Gutenberg and a 48 piece Victorian puzzle titled "The History of Printing"); bindings (including four by Arthur Johnson); and much else.
Maggs Bros. Ltd. 1185 (248 items). 50 Berkeley Square, London W1X 6EL. 0171-493-7160. Illustrated & Private Press Books, including Eric Gill manuscripts and runs of Nonesuch Press and St.Donminic's Press books.
Marlborough Rare Books Ltd. 161 (88 items). 144-146 New Bond Street, London W1Y 9FD. 0171-493-6993. Fine bindings and distinguished provenances. Very largely pre-1850 identified bindings, two illustrated (a 1638 Book of Common Prayer and a 1699 Horace).
Museum Source, volume 2 (1994). P.O. Box 13096, Milwaukee, WI 53213. 414-778-1998. A directory of products and services for the museum marketplace. Offered at $39.95 plus $2 S&H, this is an 84 page indexed, spiral bound directory organized under several rubrics, e.g., collections (including art & history, conservation), exhibit support, electronic communications, operations, education and promotion/development. Includes a qualification card for complimentary copies of future editions.
Oak Knoll Books M546 (735 items); 168 (776 items. 414 Delaware Street, New Castle, DE 19720. 302-328-7232. <oakknoll@ssnet.com>. Lit M546, "In print books about books" is a compendium of books about the book arts currently available. Catalogue 168, books about books and bibliography, offers Oak Knoll's usual range of subjects.
Rulon-Miller Books, part V: Elmer & Eleanor Andersen Library (252 items). 400 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55102-2662. 1- 800-441-0076. <rulon@delphi.com>. More bibliography & books about books, including substantial runs of Caxton, Grolier and Rowfant Club publications.
A. Sokol Books 25 (99 items). Berghersh Place, Witnesham, Ipswich, Suffolk IP6 9EZ, England. 011-44-0171-831-9473. Early printing, four color pages of bindings; printed wrappers reproduce two leaves from a 1440 Book of Hours.
Wilsey Rare Books 30 (363 items). 23 Mill Road, Oliverbridge, NY 12461. 914657-7057. <rippleyduggan@delphi.com>. Press and illustrated books, book arts subjects. Good bit of Doves Press, including letters and bindery receipts gathered by Harold Peirce.
Charles B. Wood III 86 (150 items). P.O. Box 2369, Cambridge MA 02238. 617-868-1711. Four Collections & 150 Rare Books (including The Whole Art of Bookbinding, 1811 ($5500), Henry Parry, Art of Bookbinding, 1818 ($3500) and a good many other infrequently seen books.
(Editor's Note: We were invited a few months ago to review exhibitions of Dobbin Books scheduled for New York City and Mills College. It was not possible to review the exhibitions, but Nina M. Schneider, Center for Book Arts, agreed to visit Dobbin Mills and has submitted the following report of its activities. Robbin Silverberg will lecture on her work at the Center for Book Arts, 626 Broadway, 7 p.m., March 30. 212-460- 9768 for further information.)
Dobbin Mill consists of a large papermaking studio, an artists' book studio, a photography darkroom, and a courtyard for working outdoors. Located in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, it enjoys an international reputation as one of the few, and perhaps the most unique, hand papermills in New York. Robbin Ami Silverberg is the director. To find it, I walked by past a public school, a park, and the small Popiciuscko Square, where a few people fed pigeons. Turning down Dobbin Street towards the East River, I walked beside warehouses interspersed with the two and three story apartment homes typical of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. 50-52 Dobbin Street consists of a two story apartment next to a large metal garage door perfect for trucks delivering construction materials or large equipment. I was greeted by Silverberg's dog, a small cat and Robbin herself. The studios are on the ground floor, with living quarters on the upper floor. The garage door leads to the outdoor courtyard where Silverberg works and teaches when weather permits. She had just finished giving a tour of the facilities for a group of college students and some of her bookworks were on display. Silverberg's collaborative bookworks and handmade papers have been exhibited internationally; in solo exhibitions at the Istv n Kir ly Museum in Hungary and Mills College California, in a retrospective at the Harper Collins Gallery in New York, and in numerous group shows throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Robbin studied sculpture and art history at Princeton University. While a student, she became aware of handmade paper and mixed-media pieces and became interested in doing this type of work herself. Not knowing anyone making their own paper, she experimented on her own. Her first creations were thick and unwieldy sheets similar to blotter paper.
She moved to Boston and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Still unable to locate American papermakers and frustrated with her own crude results, she moved to Europe, settling in Vienna. There she met a master bookbinder who agreed to teach papermaking if, in exchange, Silverberg would help her bind books. Handling bookbinding materials, Silverberg learned the qualities a good sheet of paper possesses and grew to love the exactitude of books. This developed into an exploration of the book arts. Her first experiments with artists' books began in 1982. As Robbin told me, her current position did not come through careful planning but as a result of erratic and fortuitous moves and discoveries.
Robbin explained that her collaborations with artists with backgrounds in non-book media has been a focus for her from the start. Dobbin Books was established as a separate entity within Dobbin Mills four years ago, and she has collaborated on every piece since then. She prefers to work with artists who are not book artists. When I suggested she might prefer this in order to control the final outcome, she explained that artists without a book background conceptualize their art in a completely different way. A book's function doesn't dictate to them as they don't know the limitations a book format can impose. Thus Robbin can take their ideas and explore options which would not have occurred to her without their input. Because of her book arts training, she can suggest design ideas and offer variations to make the pieces work as books that these artists would not normally think about. This cross-fertilization has been beneficial to all parties.
I asked her how she first started to collaborate. Did she have artists in mind that she wanted to work with? Did she have specific book projects in mind but needed help in solving certain problems? When Dobbin Books first started, Robbin sent prospectuses to a variety of artists. She received only one response and realized this type of direct marketing probably would not work. The collaborations evolved more organicly, usually by word of mouth. She has worked with photographers, sculptors, children's book artists, illustrators, and weavers. The artists she collaborates with come to a project with strong ideas of what they want to accomplish. This allows Robbin to explore their creative solutions and transform them into unique bookworks.
When Robbin makes books for herself, she generally makes no more than five copies. Dobbin Books editions rarely exceed 20 copies. Many small presses have a specific "house" style and a collaborating artist has to plug into this formula. Dobbin Books collaborations are much more interactive and the collaborator's function is not orchestrated by Robbin. She is most interested in the dynamic that happens by bringing people from different aesthetic and artistic backgrounds together. She wants to experiment with the creative process. There are no formulas in Dobbin Books and contributions vary with each edition. The only thing that is rigid in the collaborative process, says Silverberg, is her standard of quality. Robbin considers herself an artist first and feels equally at home in books arts or handpaper venues. "My art most often takes the form of an artist book, but I approach the book as a cultural object that has the added dimension of being a container of information. The artist book is dynamic as it allows for multiplicity, sequence, time, and rhythm within a single art piece."
Although the books are made in editions, Silverberg makes each copy different. Having made one-of-a-kind books before creating Dobbin Books, when she began her collaborations, she wanted to maintain the integrity of her book work by doing singles. However, with the success of the new works, collaborators wanted copies and there was an inevitable need for books to travel in exhibitions. Robbin settled on making editions, but an edition as a series, with individual copies varied within the edition. Robbin explained that she likes the opportunity to explore the variables and doesn't really like to make each piece identical to the other. If she returns to a book after thinking it complete, she returns to it with a new eye and incorporates changes she thinks necessary to make it a stronger piece.
When she started her collaborations, she initially feared that her own vision would be lost and that each book, created with different artists, would be so dissimilar from the previous work that the Dobbin Books "signature" would be lost. Looking at the body of work that has accumulated, however, she realizes that a stylistic signature was not important. In the end, a project may not look stylistically like either artist, or perhaps it will resemble one artist's style more than the other. It is this unique quality of Silverberg's books that make them so interesting.
We moved downstairs so that Robbin could show me the books assembled for that morning's tour. Popieluscko Square, which I had passed to get to the Mill, was the subject of one of the books, Bread Head Fables. In the middle of the square is a pillar surmounted by a sculpted stone head of the Polish priest for whom the square is named. The book consists of three panels of photographs showing the benches and trees in the area. Robbin's partner on this collaboration, Andras Böröcz, sculpted a number of portraits of the priest out of bread and put them in the square to be devoured by pigeons. Robbin photographed the bread heads on the site and added them as a suite of small photographs within their own frames, allowing the viewer to assemble the diorama to create his or her own fable.
Another collaboration, Tapestry Lunchbox (Homage to Severini), involves poetry, gobelin weaving, and Robbin's handmade paper, integrating elements of tapestry, haiku, and papermaking. The gobelin weavings were designed and executed by Christiane Wustinger, the haikus written by Martin Kubacek and the drawing, handmade cotton and iris fiber papers, and the book and box constructed by Silverberg. The book sits in a box with its own lid and consists of a series of five thin, vertical panels of board. Each panel opens into an accordion with haiku and drawings on each page. The weaving is a separate element in the box but some of its patterns are incorporated into the drawings and tie all the elements together.
Lipton: The Gallow's Book is another collaboration with Andras Böröcz. When closed the book has the shape of a rough L, simulating the shape of a hangman's gallows. The contents are a juxtaposition of Stalin and Lipton (of instant tea fame). The bizarre similarity in appearance between these two public icons was the starting point of the piece. Romulus and Remus, Mms. Guillotine and Duchamp, and other well-known images of Western culture are montaged with Stalin and Lipton. The book contains hand-drawn images made with ink and Lipton tea, teabag collages and handmade Dobbin Mill paper (which was dyed with tea). This book has no sequential narrative and only later was a text page added. It offers biographical details about Stalin and Lipton, emphasizing their absurd similarities.
Perhaps the most interesting of Robbin's later works is Sisters: Five Smooth Stones. This book is actually a five part box structure which consists of two sets of cast paper heads (Robbin's and her four sisters). The heads were life cast and then shrunk in a process that leaves details undistorted. The larger heads are attached to square, silver-leafed panels which make up one side of a cube. The book requires the viewer to assemble the relation of the heads and texts. This is done by placing the large magnetized heads on the panels and holding them in place by a small magnet inside the box. The smaller heads remain inside the boxes. Because the panels are attached to each other by a strip of cloth they can be arranged in a variety of ways: closed in a star shape with the large heads facing each other; in a row with the heads facing the viewer; or turned outward with the heads facing away from each other.
Some of Robbin's later works in paper have a close and eerie resemblance to human skin. "Paper often dominates the work as a metaphor for skin, the protective yet fragile surface of the human body" [as in her book Skin Garden]. Other times it is used for its inherent characteristics, such as layering, (After Midnight), resonance (Drums), or translucency. "The link, therefore, between form, content, and ultimately presentation has rested on a personal notion of expression based primarily on the materials."
Julia Ayres. Printmaking Techniques. New York: Watson-Guptil
Publications. 1515 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. 1993. 160 pages.
$35.00. ISBN 0-8230-4399-1.
Reviewed by Denise Mullen.
Julia Ayres is not a printmaker, a fact, she argues, which may make it possible for her to present the elements of printmaking more simply and to point out to those new to the printmaking process things that a proficient printmaker might overlook. This may be true, but it is also the case that the knowledge which comes with sustained practice of a process can also be crucial to explaining it. Consequently, I find the underlying concept of Printmaking Techniques somewhat problematic.
Ayres's approach, however, avoids a pitfall common to some printmaking texts written by printmakers or artist/printmakers: being thorough only in the author's area of specialization. She uses the work of master printers or artist/printmakers to illustrate various techniques. The work of Carol Wax, for example, illustrates the extremely difficult intaglio technique of mezzotint, and even in reproduction the differences between Wax's mezzotint prints and the author's attempt at them demonstrates the obvious need for skill, practice, and experience to develop technical proficiency. Anything which encourages people to become involved with printmaking is good for the field, and this book may get some people started. They may then need to seek instruction in classes or to find information in more technically oriented books.
The design and layout of Printmaking Techniques are well thought out, and the technical reproductions illustrate clearly the written descriptions of processes. Students may find also find the many "humble" illustrations encouraging. While carefully selected, not all the work presented is the result of high craftsmanship and great artistic ability, characteristics which might well intimidate beginners.
The four main printmaking processes--relief, intaglio, lithography, and screen printing--each have a chapter. The final chapter covers the collograph technique and the related techniques of cliche verre and computer generated prints. These are the topics usually included in a printmaking text; Ayres also briefly discusses papermaking and bookbinding in the main chapters. Her strong voice conveys her enthusiasm, and her willingness to experiment without inhibition may be infectious to the novice printer. Her descriptions of processes are generally accurate, and they offer an insight into how different printers and printshops approach the same techniques. In some cases, however, Ayres's information is incomplete, and may, in a few instances, lead readers to frustration if they follow only the instructions given when attempting difficult and unpredictable techniques.
The section on papermaking is straight-forward and clear. It includes description of a technique incorporating the use of gold leaf which may be useful to bookworkers, as may descriptions of the chine colle (paper lamination) method, the method of transferring dot matrix prints with alcohol, the use of cast plaster, and the brief but lucid description of inks and their properties. This last discussion might spark ideas for the use of inks in binding. In the intaglio chapter, bookworkers may be amused by the author's lack of emphasis on the time and precision required to sharpen metal cutting tools properly. The tools, however, may be of interest as they could be adapted to other uses.
Traditional printmaking processes which could be easily adapted to book forms, and which do not require a printing press, are woodblock, paper plate lithography, and collograph techniques. The woodblock process, for example, might lead to use of prints for illustrations and endsheets with the blocks themselves used for covers. Ayres included a thorough list of woods and their properties, but the explanation of endgrain techniques is insufficient. Paper plate lithography is explained deeply enough to start experimentation, and the section on collograph technique contains suggestions which also might be worked into book structures as pages or covers.
Bookbinding is described in a section with hand-made cards, a grouping which seems to minimize the importance of technique and substantial imagery. The books subsection makes the helpful suggestion to first create a mock-up and then a working model as preliminary steps to a finished book project. It also outlines a method of logically analyzing the structure of an existing book. Two simple sewing structures--a 3-hole pamphlet and a 5-hole long stitch--are outlined. Ayres, here as elsewhere, encourages experimentation, including the addition of collaged materials and folded pages (but neglects to mention that these additions require compensation at the spine). Take a close look before purchasing this book. If you are coming to these processes for the first time, or you are looking for a different perspective on processes you have begun to investigate, it may be for you.
Paul W. Nash and A.J. Flavell. The Corvinus Press. A History and
Bibliography. Scolar Press, Old Post Road, Brookfield, VT
05036-9704, 1994. lvi, 245pp. $79.95. ISBN 0-35967-952-7.
Reviewed by Frank J. Anderson, prop., Kitemaug Press.
Viscount Carlow (1907-1944), founder and owner of the Corvinus Press, who lived in London, was a versatile man interested in sailing, foreign travel, and amateur radio as well as in book collecting and printing. He was a linguist who spoke nine languages. As an accomplished pilot, he lead a London based RAF squadron, but when World War II began, he was posted to the Intelligence section of the Air Ministry rather than to flying duties. This work sent him on diplomatic missions to Finland, Portugal, Brazil, and Venezuela. In 1944, while on his way to a new post in Yugoslavia, he was killed in a plane crash.
Carlow had established the Corvinus Press in London in 1936, and during the nine years the press was in existence saw a number of books of literary and typographic importance printed and published. Carlow's intent was to create books "beautiful beyond all those yet produced." The authors of this bibliography state "... although Corvinus is not one of the few truly great private presses it is among the most original and important of its day." Authors whose work was printed at the Corvinus Press include Edmund Blunden, Walter de la Mare, Norman Douglas, Richard Findlay, Louis Golding, B.H. Liddell Hart, Holbrook Jackson, James Joyce, T.E. Lawrence, Wyndham Lewis, Sir Ronald Storrs, L.A.G. Strong, H.M. Tomlinson, Humbert Wolfe, and Stefan Zweig.
The press has been overshadowed by the work of presses, such as Ashendene and Gregynog, contemporary with it. Nash and Flavell have corrected its neglect with a full-blown history of the press, a biographical sketch of Carlow, and a detailed bibliography of Corvinus Press books. Paul W. Nash works in the Special Collections department of the Bodleian Library in Oxford and is the co-proprietor of the Strawberry Press. A.J. Flavell is the head of English accessions at the Bodleian Library.
Perhaps one of the reasons Corvinus Press publications were neglected by scholars and collectors is the scarcity of the books. Of the 58 books listed and described in the bibliography only five were issued in editions of more than 100 copies. Print runs ranged from a low of four copies to a high of 260 copies. Items #39 through #58 were produced after World War II started in 1939, which must have affected distribution, and a portion of the book stock was destroyed when a storage warehouse was bombed and burned.
Carlow became interested in book collecting and discovered the world of private press printing, buying an Adana press in 1934. He did some trial printing, but abandoned the effort. T.E. Lawrence was a close friend, however--Carlow was at his bedside when he died in May of 1935--and Carlow was invited to serve on one of the trusts set up to administer Lawrence's literary estate. This gave him access to a number of Lawrence's unpublished works, and this in turn raised in his mind the possibility of printing them himself.
Late in 1935 Carlow gathered type specimens and searched out equipment to begin his venture. He bought a medium-sized Albion hand press and font of 14 point Centaur type. Then he rented two small rooms on the first floor of an office building at 12-14 Red Lion Court, just off Fleet Street. The press was installed in January of 1936, and Carlow began work on his first book.
This first book was to be a tribute to T.E. Lawrence with a text consisting of speeches given by B.H. Liddell Hart and Sir Ronald Storrs. Carlow selected a page size about 9"x11 1/2" but by late January, when first proofs were taken, realized the 14 point type was too small for the page. Consequently, he set only the Liddell Hart speech and printed it in ten or fifteen copies, which he found unsatisfactory. The book of fourteen pages was stapled together and the colophon rubber stamped. Surely Carlow had a lot to learn about producing fine books. He subsequently hired G.J. Bolwell, a retired printer, as his pressman. A.H. Cardew replaced the aged Bolwell during the second half of 1937 and remained with the press until it closed.
Carlow had fonts of Corvinus Light type in various sizes and used this type face in many of his books. The type was designed by Hungarian Imre Reiner who had named it after the 15th century Hungarian bibliophile king Matthias Corvinus. This was Carlow's inspiration for his press name. His raven and ring press device was taken from a 1934 Corvinus type specimen sheet (five variants of the device Carlow used are pictured in Appendix VI of the bibliography). The bulk of the book under review (pp. 3-168) is the bibliography, a detailed description of the 58 books produced by the press. Each numbered entry begins with the author and title of the item, the date of production, and reduced facsimiles of the title and colophon pages. Then leaf size, collation, contents, type-page, type, paper, binding, print run, completion date, distribution, copies seen, references, and notes are recorded.
Appendix I lists press ephemera; Appendix II talks about the apocryphal Eight Letters from T.E. Lawrence and refutes the attribution of this work to the Corvinus Press; and Appendix III discusses another Corvinus Press ghost, an edition of George Borrow's The Bible in Spain, which Carlow had been interested in printing in June 1939 but never got beyond the inquiry stage. Additional appendices discuss the various type faces used by the press, paper, press devices, binders, printers and suppliers, authors, subscribers, and notable recipients. Corvinus books were bound by edition binders, except for special copies. In 1939 Elizabeth Greenhill bound Copy A of Lawrence's Two Arabic Folk Tales in full orange-red morocco decorated with a gold-tooled portrait of Lawrence. Madeleine Kohn bound Copy A of James Joyce's Storiella as She is Syung in full dark green morocco with ruby morocco onlays and decorations and lettering in palladium. Copy B of Walter de la Mare's Poems, bound in 1938 in full dark green morocco, is signed by G.F. Laurence, Binder, London. Charles McLeish, who had been finisher at the Doves Bindery, and his son Charles bound several Corvinus books. W.H. Smith, Audrey Field, Robert Riviere and Son, and Sangorski and Sutcliffe, Ltd. also did bindings for Carlow's press.
In mid-1945 the equipment of the Corvinus Press was bought by Viscount Kemsley, a newspaper magnate, who used it to found the Dropmore Press. The final Appendix IX (pp. 224-238) details the books and ephemera produced by the Dropmore and Queen Anne presses. A detailed index completes the book.
The authors are to be congratulated for their efforts in adding this scholarly work to the literature of the private press.
I (Margaret Johnson, editor) just got a book through the Crafts-Book-of-the Month-Club, Hand-Made Books, An Introduction to Bookbinding by Rob Shepherd. 80 pp. $16.95. (ISBN 085532 754 5. Search Press Ltd., Wellwood, North Farm Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3DR, England). Yes, this is the same Rob Shepherd of Shepherd Bookbinding that we met and drank with in Dallas, Texas. From the back cover..."He introduces the basic skills and techniques of bookbinding through a series of ten individual projects, all of which can be completed at the kitchen table using equipment likely to be found in every home." The techniques are sound, the photos numerous and the diagrams helpful. He covers gluing and grain, lining fabrics, japanese binding and paperback repair. It would be a good text for a basic binding class or the individual just starting out with no experience or tools.
Miniature Literature: The Stanley Marcus Collection of Miniature Books at Bridwell Library, February 26th through May 27th, 1995
Since the early days of printing, the quest to produce books in small format has been a driving force in book publishing. The first recorded printed miniature book was created in Venice by Nicolas Jenson in 1475, only twenty years after Gutenberg's printing of the Bible. Of this event Stanley Marcus muses, "I have often speculated about a fictional scenario in which a group of the masters of printing from Germany and Italy were sitting around discussing Gutenberg's huge opus and the leading printer in the group was challenged to print an even larger volume. In my fantasy story he replied, 'I don't have a press large enough, but I can print a much smaller one.' And so he did."
In 1986 Bridwell Library received over eleven hundred volumes from the miniature book collection of Stanley Marcus. It is from this gift that the exhibition Miniature Literature: The Stanley Marcus Collection of Miniature Books at Bridwell Library is drawn. The exhibition, which celebrates the miniature book and the role of Stanley Marcus as collector, features 130 items that are divided into eight categories which emphasize different aspects of the miniature book: The Art of the Miniature, Religious Works, Classics, Almanacs and Calendars, Multi-Volume Miniatures, Children's Miniatures, Bindings, and The Somesuch Press (Marcus's own publishing venture in the field of miniature books).
Dr. Valerie R. Hotchkiss, Director of Bridwell Library, praises the generosity of Stanley Marcus, noting that Bridwell Library has been the happy recipient of several of his collections. "Though this miniature book collection requires little shelf space, it spans a dozen centuries and ranges from abecedaria to Zechariah," says Hotchkiss. "The selection we have chosen includes many monuments (albeit diminutive ones) of book production."
An illustrated catalogue has been prepared by David J. Lawrence, curator of the exhibition, which includes an essay, "My Enchantment with Miniature Books," by Stanley Marcus, a history of the collection at Bridwell and explanation of the exhibit, and a brief description of each item on display. This catalogue - also a miniature - was letterpress printed by Darrell Hyder of The Sun Hill Press in North Brookfield, Mass.
The exhibition is free and open to the public; hours are Monday through Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.