London Rare Book Fair Battersea Evolution

May 24-26, 2018

NEW Additions to our London List

Abby Schoolman Books 332 E84th Street � New York, New York � 10028

All books are in fine condition unless otherwise stated.

Prices are in effect as of the first date shown above but are subject to change without notice. All titles are subject to prior sale

Abby Schoolman Books

332 E84th Street � New York, New York

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A Unique Binding by Richard Minsky

1. [Minsky, Richard] Lewis, Sinclair. It Can't Happen Here. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1935. First Edition. [269] £14,800. The third in a series of unique bindings of the same title by book artist Richard Minsky. Lewis' novel It Can't Happen Here is about a newly elected populist president of the United States, who won by playing on the fears of the electorate and promising a return to prosperity and "traditional" values. He quickly takes over all branches of the government and establishes totalitarian rule with the help of a paramilitary force. The similarity to Adolf Hitler and the SS, on the rise at the time in Europe, is not accidental. The protagonist in the novel is a journalist opposed to the new reign of terror. His efforts to undermine it include secretly printing on a hand press and surreptitiously circulating a 4-page pamphlet titled Vermont Vigilance. Secret, pseudonymous pamphleteering, publicizing and protesting the crimes of the government, is evocative of the period of the American Revolution before the establishment of the United States and The Bill of Rights, including the freedom of the press. Vermont Vigilance, the fictional publication from Sinclair Lewis' novel, was reified and printed by Richard Minsky on the Kelmscott-Goudy Albion handpress at Rochester Institute of Technology's Cary Collection in April, 2017 from a photopolymer plate (the first use of photopolymer on that press), with type composed digitally using InDesign, in typefaces that were in use at the time the story takes place (1930s): 8 pt Times New Roman with Goudy Sans headlines and Old English masthead. Richard Minsky (b. 1947) founded the Center for Book Arts (NY) in 1974, upon which many other centers for book arts around the world are based. In 1978-1979, Minsky lived in London teaching, studying, and making art as the National Endowment for the Arts and British Council's US/UK Bicentennial Fellow, culminating with his participation in the exhibition The Open and Closed Book (1979) at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Adding to many honors during a long career, Richard Minsky received the 2017 Guild of Book Workers Lifetime Achievement Award and the American Printing History Association 2018 Laureate Award. The Richard Minsky Archive is at the Yale University Arts Library, which mounted a 50-year retrospective in 2010.

Abby Schoolman Books

332 E84th Street � New York, New York

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Split board binding; original 1935 Smythe sewing. Alum tawed goatskin, 22K gold stamped spine, inset front board panel includes pied (scattered) 8-point type, the artist's blood, and acrylic paint over a copy of Vermont Vigilance printed by the artist. Canson Mi-teintes sepia endpapers. Another copy of Vermont Vigilance, printed on newsprint, one of the very few Minsky printed on such paper, intentionally under-inked and not signed or numbered, is laid in at the front endpaper (in the novel one way of distributing the pamphlet is by inserting it into other publications). Housed in a custom dropback box by the artist, covered in red book cloth, 22K gold stamped black leather spine label. Bound by Richard Minsky in 2018. 14.6cm x 20.7cm x 4.8cm.

Language Illustrating Itself

2. Baatz, Ronald. The Delicate Work of Song. West Sayville, NY: Tideline Press, 2013. Signed Limited First Edition. [266] £1350. Copy 23 of 30. 23 French folded leaves. Ideograms by Guyang Chen. Artist's statement:

I have long desired to be able to utilize the Chinese and Japanese means of the language illustrating itself. Here, in my 43rd year of printing, it has been made possible. Guyang’s ideograms are comprised of Latin letterforms: the typeface is Bradley. She first experimented with combining Bradley sorts to mimic the language of her native China. In The Delicate Work of Song she worked digitally so as to be able to be able to overlap and flip the letterforms. The ideograms are the poetry in selected forms almost like a reverse translation into the Chinese. Referenced here is the idea presented by Eliot Weinberger that 20th century American poetry would not have existed in the form it became without the translations into English of ancient Chinese poetry. (The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry, 2003)

Abby Schoolman Books

332 E84th Street � New York, New York

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The poetry is by Ronald Baatz. From a review of another of his books, Bird Standing:

The high art of the short poem has no master more accomplished than Ronald Baatz. The places found in these poems impart a metaphysical geography amazing in scope and imaginative dimension, a sense of how the continents of conscious thought and feeling must have been experienced and known before they drifted apart. This book is stunning. Its visions redeem a world and a language we may have thought were lost. Think again. – Michael McClintock, President, United Haiku and Tanka Society.

Leonard Seastone is a book designer, printer, binder, and proprietor of the Tideline Press, the imprint he has been using since 1972. He studied poetry at Fairleigh Dickinson University and has an MFA (1988) from SUNY, Purchase College where he is an Assistant Professor of Book Arts. Non-adhesive binding. Quarter-sawn old growth Red Cedar shellac- and wax-finished boards. Dark green leather spine; red leather sewing supports; hand dyed yellow linen thread. Spine title in gold leaf. Text hand-set Delphin I and Trump Mediaeval, poly-plates on Seikosan washi. Offsetting and simultaneous printing of unpigmented ink. Type and plates letterpress printed by Leonard Seastone at The Tideline Press. Bound by Leonard Seastone in 2013. 12cm x 19.2cm.

Abby Schoolman Books

332 E84th Street � New York, New York

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Two Unique Books from Bowman’s Limitless Range Series

3. Bowman, Kelie. [Untitled Large Square]. [Brooklyn, NY]: Kelie Bowman, 2015. Unique. [274] £480. Unique artist's book, signed by the artist. 10 "leaves." Drawing on her experiences living and working on a sailboat, both in Tampa Bay, FL and Jamaica Bay, NY, Kelie Bowman has crafted a body of work inspired by her observations of light reflecting on water. This a unique book from Bowman's Limitless Range series, in which she explores the effect of shifting light on the constant motion of the sea. Bowman silkscreens washes of color onto paper, creating unique prints, then cuts each print into geometric patterns that, when sewn together, can be folded and warped in virtually endless combinations, making each reading experience unique. Playing with these books, the reader creates personal architectural landscapes: explorations of color, abstraction, depth, and, perhaps, even perception of space and time. Kelie Bowman lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She grew up in Clearwater, Florida close to the beach. Bowman earned a BFA from the University of Florida in Video, Performance and Photography (Summa Cum Laude) with a Minor in Art History. After college, Bowman performed with the Cloud Seeding Circus of the Performative Object and lead bike tours in Germany. Eventually, her travels took her to New York. In 2004, Bowman founded Cinders Gallery, now a not-for-profit organization, with the artist Sto Len. Bowman makes music and art in the bi-coastal band Light Hits. She has exhibited internationally, painted several large-scale murals, and has work in the permanent collections of MoMA, NYPL, RISD, and Yale, among other institutions and private collections. Silkscreened boards with onlayed silkscreen on paper. Silkscreen on paper and vellum, modified accordion fold structure, thread. 19cm x 19.2cm.

Abby Schoolman Books

332 E84th Street � New York, New York

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4. Bowman, Kelie. [Untitled Small Square]. [Brooklyn, NY]: Kelie Bowman, 2015. Unique. [273] £370. Unique artist's book, signed by the artist. 12 "leaves." Silkscreened boards. Silkscreen on paper, modified accordion fold structure, thread. 14.3cm x 14.2cm.

Limited Edition Pop-Up Artist’s Book

5. McKinnon, Nora. Linear Disintegration. Oakland: Liquid Impressions, July 2017. Signed Limited First Edition. [270] £370. One of only 6 copies. Letterpress printed and hand constructed pop-up book. 18 leaves, including endpapers and title page. 5 pop-up spreads. Copy 2/6 numbered and initialed in pencil by the artist on the colophon leaf. Entire book printed with a grid pattern in black ink using a polymer plate. Mylar transparencies also printed with a grid interplay throughout the book, both as windows and overlays. The 5 pop-up cubes increase in complexity as one progresses through the book

Abby Schoolman Books

332 E84th Street � New York, New York

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Artist's statement:

Following a geometric shape as it glitches in space, Linear Disintegration is an examination of the matrix and its ability to reintegrate and absorb mutations in the pattern. Neither optimistic nor pessimistic, the emerging logic is simply that through repetition and movement, divergent strategies often become the dominant paradigm. Whether natural or constructed, change and shifts are the only constant for bodies in space.

Nora McKinnon is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and musician currently based in Oakland, California. They hold an MFA in Book Art and Creative Writing from Mills College, and a BA in Interdisciplinary Arts from The Evergreen State College. Their work seeks to interrogate and critique Western imperialism and capitalism through visual and poetic mediums. They construct books that communicate complex concepts through both structure and image-based narrative. In addition to a commitment to the book itself, they emphasize non-digital print methods. Letterpress printing in conjunction with the book form firmly plants the hand of the artist into the book. Creating work with great intention, they believe books are an immersive and infinite art form that affect every level of sensory ability. In addition to creating original artist’s books, they have designed and letterpress printed broadsides for Maggie Nelson and Eileen Myles, as part of the Mills College Contemporary Writers Series. McKinnon’s work has been exhibited at the Elverhoj Museum, The San Francisco Center for the Book, The Sheffield International Artist’s Book Exhibit, The College Book Art Association, and Aggregate Space Gallery in Oakland. Modified Hedi Kyle storage book binding with Kevlar accordion-fold interior spine structure. Boards and spine covered in black book cloth. Front board adorned with a raised, onlayed section of printed grid with printed Mylar inset. Entire book letterpress printed in black ink on white 100lb coverstock and Mylar. 19.5cm x 20.5cn x 4cm. Exhibition: "Degrees of Innovation." San Francisco Center for the Book, October 2017-January 2018.