ilfant press ~ Washington
(Lisa Hasegawa)

How are you?
By Lisa Hasegawa
Seattle, Washington: 2006. Edition of 100.

3.5 x 4.5"; 14 pages. Letterpress and offset printed on Strathmore Writing. Pamphlet bound in Fabriano Ingres and Hahnemühle Ingres.

Lisa Hasegawa: "This book is an honest response to the meaningless question we ask each other every day."

         "How are you?"
         "Fine, thank you, how are you?"
                "It's what we say."
                "Not what we mean."
$20

POHST KAHRD
An obsession through history
By Lisa Hasegawa
Seattle, Washington: ilfant press, 2004. Edition of 50.

5 x 7"; 14 leaves. Housed in lightweight cardboard folded case with title printed on front cover. Paper: 80# Classic Crest Cover; 88# Strathmore Cover; 120# Smooth Bristol Starwhite Vicksburg; 57# Vellum Bristol; 67# Vellum Bristol; 80# Firare Cover; .012 Pacesetter CIS Cover; Rives BFK; 80# Glacier 95 Opaque Cover; and, Havey Manila Tag. Printing: offset lithography; color Xerox; silkscreen; and letterpress. Printed for the University of the Arts Book Exchange.

A brief history of postcards: nine examples, each slipped into a leaf so that it can be extracted for examination. Brief specifics on the front of the leaf about that era of postcard. Also a brief introduction about this "little writing table," as the Greeks called the postcard, and a two-page list of definitions for the postkärd.

Colophon, Lisa Hasegawa: "When I was young, my dad lived at a hippie camp (Camp Kilowana, the white border postcard) where a large wall was covered by various postcards. One postcard showed an old man in a mud bath, another had a bloodied man facedown in the desert and being eaten by vultures, and a few others were Japanese prints from the Edo period depicting lovers in difficult sexual positions. I loved the postcard wall, and I believe this was what spurred my infatuation with postcards.

"Since then and for most of my life I have collected postcards; memoirs from vacations, artist announcements, odd humor, etc. I have been creating artist postcards since undergraduate school and co-founded an artist postcard exchange in 2001. Postcards are a big part of my life.

"My passion for the postcard as a medium for artwork began several years ago. When artwork is mailed as a postcard, it becomes somewhat less precious as it is rough-handled, dirtied, and sometimes destroyed or lost. As a non-precious piece of art, one can touch the postcard without hesitation and turn it over to examine both sides. And yet, a handmade postcard is more precious because the receiver has a special object made specifically for him or her. Even the mere mailing of artwork as a postcard presents a unique way of showing artwork in a non-gallery setting, because it has the potential of being seen by every postal worker who comes into contact with it.

"The postcards in this book were inspired by the eras they represent. Most images are photographs by or of the artist."
$65

Mouseness
By Lisa Hasegawa
[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]: ilfant press, 2002. Edition of 150.

5 x 6.25"; 16 pages. Printed in Seattle by Joseph Juiliano on a Multi 1650 offset press. Screen printed pictorial covers. French Pale Gray Speckletone paper. Fonts: Parade and California FB.

A human and humorous tale about Hasegawa's reactions to mice: fear at their presence, horror at the prospect of trapping them. Each copy has a small plastic bag stitched to the colophon, containing mouse droppings complete with label indicating date and place of collection.

Lisa Hasegawa: "This is a true story. Most of the images are blind night drawings, drawings made each night in bed with my eyes closed, usually about something that happened that day. I often saw mice."
$30