Graphic Design :: Cococello

Though it’s been an incredibly long and busy week I found time to get out with some friends to check out a book arts exhibit at Print Arts Northwest last night titled, “The Printed Page”. I found out about the exhibit through the NW Book Arts List which is a fantastic listserv for all things related to Book Arts.

I’m not big on going to the Pearl for “First Thursdays” so I was glad this was the Wednesday night Preview. The gallery was not crowded so we took our time taking in as much of the books as possible without touching them. Oh, but how we wanted to touch them! I mean really — the papers, the textures, multiple pages — so reasons to touch! That was the only one immensely frustrating fact.

The one book I really wanted to get close with was Sarah Horowitz’s Mohn. According to her artist’s statement, Mohn translates into poppy in German. It’s a delicate and beautiful book and I can understand why it was enclosed in a case. If I owned it, I would put it in a case to save it from dirty fingers and possible damage. The image below is a page detail from the book. If memory serves, the image is an etching.

Mohn

Inge Bruggeman’s book, Impact: Shades of Gray made me curious. It’s a letterpress printed book on what seems like vellum. It is large and delicate. It’s a curious book because of its size and then the sheer, translucent nature of the interior pages. It also looks really well constructed. I heard letterpress printing on vellum can be quite a challenge so I really wanted to take a closer look. Plus, she printed my brother’s wedding invitations and after seeing a .25pt line letterpress printed I am in awe of her skills. (Most printers request a line of .5pt at the very minimum.)

Inge Bruggeman

And the best book, I thought, since I’m a sucker for great humor is Diane Jacob’s book, Alphabet Tricks. I saw it in the window when we first arrived and wished we had the time to read every page. We shared more than a few laughs between us. I wished I had a better camera to take a photo of how the book was presented. The way the light casts shadows and the arrangement really works with the content. If you are in the neighborhood, I recommend checking it out for a chuckle. Here’s a detail of the book:

Alphabet Tricks