Janus Press ~Vermont |
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How to' and models of Janus Press bookworks |
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| TATATA By Peter Schumann Newark, Vermont: Janus Press, 2011. Edition of 120. 10.25 x 10.875 x 1.75"; 46 pages. 24 one sheet chapbooks. Charcoal-and-ink drawings scanned using a Xerox Docucolor 700 on Mohawk Superfine eggshell white paper. Crayon cover drawings scanned and printed using an Epson Stylus NX515 on Mohawk Via cream linen. Display pocket panels Fabriana Milliana Ingres. Housed in triptych constructed cloth covered case with paper title on spine. In paper slipcase with the paper title on the spine. Janus Press: "Another publication with Peter Schumann of the Bread and Puppet Theater, TATATA. The twenty-four booklets are a group he drew for Christmas 2009 in the spirit and tradition of Hispanic Cordells. These are chapbooks made from one sheet of paper folded into eight pages plus a cover. The are hawked by poets in Latin American marketplaces strung up pinned on lines like laundry or arrayed on trays similar to those that were carried by cigarette girls. The subjects traditionally cover a variety of subjects as do Peter's: political, tales, ruminations, admonitions, kids' stories and even the weather." TATATA chapbooks: Mess Makers; Milk & Honey; Man - Carrot; You Man; RR; People Who; Possibilitarianism; Birdism; University; Under; Notebook with Iliad; Unreadiness; Pour Down; Foggy Morning; Life; We Must; If you; Helios; Access; DADA; The Hen; The TATATA; Great Wolf Theory; 2 Old Gods. The American Folklife Center: "Literatura de cordel, literally "string literature," refers to small popular books or chapbooks, predominantly from northeastern Brazil. They were often suspended from cords or strings, hung across marketplace stalls belonging to local poets during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, cordel chapbooks are still sold and performed on street corners and in markets throughout Brazil, but are more readily circulated through the Internet. Literatura de cordel (sometimes known colloquially simply as "cordel") is a complex and vibrant expressive form that continues to reflect the popular voice of the Brazilian people." $350 |
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Waste Incant 7.75 x 11.5"; 22 pages. In plexiglas slipcase. Plastics used include the acrylic slipcase and illusion polycarbonate and flexible vinyl from Rowland Technologies. Papers: Barcham Green Cambers and Cairo from Hayle Mill. Printed in black and silver. Johanknecht’s response to the storage of nuclear waste in plastics. This book is a sequel to Johanknecht’s Hermetic Waste (about Chernobyl), published in 1986. Artist's statement: "The format and materials of this book reference Hermetic Waste (Gefn Press, 1986) which was completed the summer following the Chernobyl disaster. The collagraph prints in Hermetic Waste were derived from alchemical engravings — here the calligraphic line drawings are derived from science illustrations in children's text books (Science from the Beginning edited by Hampson and Evans, 1962). Redrawn and merging, the pictorial 'facts' depict a disrupted 'nature.' "Poetic texts sit inside the imagery, functioning as an integrated caption. They describe processes by which toxic material enters into the environment. The back of each page lists hazardous wastes. "Plastic interleaving features in both books, referencing materials used in the storage of waste. (How little has changed in twenty years.)" "The book, in its acrylic case, is a statement about the storage of nuclear waste in plastic. The line drawings are derived from children's textbooks, redrawn to show a disrupted nature. The toxic wastes, listed partially alphabetically, are printed on both sides of the embossed paper, each page separated by a plastic sheet. The unstable and hence inappropriate and hazardous use of plastic to contain toxic waste is emphasized by the diverse deformations of each of the plastic sheets. "How fascinating that the book is immaculate and glamorous while its topic - water - implies what's dirty and distasteful. The ironic disjunction dramatizes the tension between the allure of easy labor, magical communications and other seductions of our high tech culture and the tarnished other side of the coin, deadly byproducts with tenacious half-lives. The book uses the very products it condemns. We can't do without it, can we?" [Beyond the Text: Artists' Books from the Collection of Robert J. Ruben by Yvonne Korshak and Robert J. Ruben] |
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The Gospel of Mary 10 x 11.5 x 1.5"; 44 pages. The center piece is a pop up representing the journey of the soul — “upward from its bondage to the flesh and the lower world to its liberation in the higher celestial realm” (p. 15) — on a base sheet that was pulp painted by the author and Katie MacGregor; they also made the cloud cover sheets. The binding is a further development of the woven-strip binding used in Rise (Janus Press, 2003) and is made with Barcham Green Cairo, a pure linen sheet. The clamshell box has stays of Baltic birch and is lined with paste-patterned DeWint with DeWint drummed on the cover. Translated from the Greek with commentaries by Rosemary Radford Ruether printed in Amercican Uncial with initials based on Victor Hammer's titling, Prisma and Plantin on calendered Barcham Green Boxley with decorations based on Jay Hambidge's Dynamic Symmmetry, the Greek Vase. Rosemary Radford Ruether, noted Christian feminist theologian, begins her Introduction thus: “The Gospel of Mary is a fragment of a Gnostic gospel of earth second century Christianity that focuses on Mary Magdalene as the ‘beloved disciple’ of Christ who especially understands his message and conveys her understanding of this to the male disciples. It is part of a larger literature of early Christianity (first to third centuries) in which Mary Magdalene plays a leading role as a disciple of the Lord.” |
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| Bone Songs By Clifford Burke Newark, Vermont: Janus Press, 1992. Edition of 150. 10.25 x 8 x 2"; 40 French-folded unnumbered pages including covers. Eighteen polymer relief prints from drawings by Ruth Fine. Poems set in 10 pt Gill Sans Light caps. Colophon set in 8 pt italic caps. Gutter repeat columns set in 8 pt italic lower case. Text printed damp from magnesium plates in black on Barcham Green Royal Watercolour Society paper. Completely non-adhesive binding using MacGregor-Vinzani calendered ivory abaca paper. Housed in a two-sided slipcase of Barcham Green Renaissance paper and drum vellum. Califia Books: "Poems written by Clifford Burke in response to line drawings by Ruth Fine. In 1990, Fine sent her drawings of animal skulls to Burke and asked him to write poems to go with them. Text and image transport us into the realm of spirit and nature, reminded of Native American lore as we would be by bleached skulls in a dry desert – a liminal world of spirit and earth. The construction and presentation of this book are exceptional. "Each deckled sheet was printed whole with two drawings and two blocks of text, then folded in four and bound together with paper strips for alternating spreads of text and image. The paper stripping forms a spine at the center of the illustrated pairs of pages. The two word titles of the poems – 'Fire Song,' 'Wind Song,' 'Root Song' – straddle the fold, printed in a tiny point size and repeated in vertical columns, an echo that anchors the page without overwhelming it. Thus, the book opens like a series of spread wings. Letterpress in a delicate, capitalized san serif font that reflects the quality of the line drawings. Printed on thick, handmade paper the color of sun-bleached bones. Housed in a two-sided slipcase made of folded paper and folded skin the texture of a drum." $500 |
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Eat Book Photo offset images in sepia of various foods and eating utensils. Hand lettered printed offset as well. Bound in split boards with vellum spine. Wrapped in a linen napkin. Boards plastered with acrylic and wrapped in a rumpled linen napkin. 26 pages. In conjunction with Gefn Press, this long poem by Katharine Meynell, is a satire on nursery rhymes. A sardonic poem with six sepia duotone still lifes of cherries, sausages, and white bread, made in collaboration with Susan Johanknecht who lettered the text, made eight reliefs of various kitchen utensils, and designed the binding. With recipes written out by Meynell. |
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| 'How to' and models of Janus Press bookworks | |
Deluxe edition: Woven and Interlocking Book Structures from the Janus, Steiner and Gefn Presses 8.5 x 11" box holding models. Cloth covered clamshell boxes made by Judi Conant and Mary Richardson in Maidstone, Vermont. Trade edition laid-in. Signed by Claire Van Vliet. Using the instructions from the book “Woven and interlocking Book Structures” Audrey Holden, assistant to Claire Van Vliet at Janus Press, created models of the books. |
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| Catalogues documenting the history of Janus Press | |
The Janus Press - Fifty Years: 8.5 x 8.75"; 80 pages. Illustrated in color. Printed at the Stinehour Press in Vermont. Founded in 1955 by Claire Van Vliet, the Janus Press is the oldest private press currently operating in the United States. This catalogue was done in conjunction with exhibits at The Grolier Club, Louisiana State University Libraries, the National Gallery of Art Library, Denison Library (Scripps College, member of the Claremont colleges), Smith College Library, University of Virginia Libraries, Wellesley College Library, and the Arts of the Book Collection (Arts Library, Yale University). Foreword by Connell Gallagher, Director of Research Collections, University of Vermont Libraries, now retired. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Ruth Fine: "Fifty years: half a century: an anniversary year heralded as golden: the present catalogue marks this important milestone in the life of the Janus Press. Founded by Claire Van Vliet in 1955 in San Diego, California, the Press has since published or co-published more than ninety books, more than a dozen broadsides, several pamphlets, and numerous ephemeral pieces that are much acclaimed throughout the book arts community." $35 Trade edition: casebound in illustrated black wrappers |
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| A book series inspired by the seasons | |
| Four Months / Four Seasons By Ruth Fine Newark, Vermont: Janus Press, 2010. Edition of 110. Four accordion books, each 5 x 8.5 x 3.5" and 14 pages plus a folder-like pamphlet with text on both endpages and one 2-leaf pullout. The accordion books contain reduction linocuts by Ruth Fine. October is bound in Barcham Green handmade paper wraps, April and July with papers specially made by Katie MacGregor. All housed in wooden slipcase made of Baltic birch and poplar. Four Months / Four Seasons is the first in a series on the seasons by various artists. It contains four books - January, April, July, and October - plus a pamphlet describing the reduction linocut process. The pamphlet pullout shows the initial state of the seventh opening in October. Excerpt from pamphlet: "Each of these four books is printed from seven carved linoleum blocks onto multiple sheets of paper. The sheets subsequently are attached to each other and folded to create seven accordion openings that together form a panorama. "All sections of the seven-part image are made by a reduction linoleum cut process. This method requires that each section is partially cut from the block which is then printed, then cut again and printed again, multiple times. "Following each recutting of the seven individual blocks, the newly printed ink layer adds marks and shapes to the final panorama as it maintains those already printed." $600 |
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Helios
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| Richard Goodman, Fine Books & Collectibles Magazine 2006: " Van Vliet has continued growing throughout her long career. For example, in the late 1980s, she created the first of her "quilt" books, Aunt Sallie's Lament, based on a poem by Margaret Kaufman. ... There followed an inventive series of books and broadsides inspired by the mostly anonymous American quilt makers of the past." | |
Aunt Sallie's Lament. Altered. 8.25 x 11" (irregular shape) fitted into a 9 x 12" box. Originally published in an edition of 150. "An inspirational story of a Southern quilter printed on colored, uniquely shaped pages that create a layered effect, mimicking the patterns of a quilt, gathering words as stitches, gazing back to a moment lost but not forgotten, to a love burned deep." This new production of Aunt Sallie's Lament by Claire Van Vliet has been altered by adding new color & patterned swatches of paper to brighten the pages and to quilt the cut pages. Laid in fitted box covered with lined with several patterned fabrics as well as covered in patterned fabric. |
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| Janus Press Out of Print Titles: • Compound Frame. • Praise Basted In: A friendship Quilt for Aunt Sallien • Narcissus • Beauty in Use |
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| ABC Of Bugs and Plants in a Northern Garden By PJudy Fairclough Sgantas Newark, Vermont: Janus Press, 2012. Edition of 120. 7.5 x 7.375 x 2.5"; 82 pages, including 26 trifold pages. Drawings digitally scanned from ink, graphite, and colored pencil originals. Printing with Durabright Ultra Inks on an Epson Workforce 1100. Text letterpress printed from polymer plates on a Vandercook SP20. Printed on mouldmade Arches 90lb Cover cotton paper. Bound in Barcham 140lb DeWint handmade watercolor paper. Woven strip binding designed by Claire Van Vliet. Laid in box tray covered in Scholco and Seta cloths and lined with St. Armand paper. Box exterior cover in natural linen. Title label printed on ochre paper mounted on paste paper. A collaboration between Vermonters Claire Van Vliet, proprietor of Janus Press, and Judy Fairclough Sgantas, an artist and gardener. This work is a double alphabet book, with classical Roman letter forms entwined with plant life and insects. For each letter of the alphabet a black-and-white image faces a second colored image, revealed by opening an opposing folded leaf, with text positioned on a center panel between the complementary images. The content is about garden pests – what attracts or repels them – and a plant’s defenses. The text gives definitions of the insects for that letter including both common and Latin names. Information ranges from "common habitat" to "natural control." Note on the Letters: "The geometrical formation of Roman capitals was inspired by Renaissance interest in the monumental inscriptions of classical antiquity. … The earliest example of a work to show diagrams of letters formed by geometrical means is a 1463 manuscript by Felice Feliciano of Verona. ... In 1509 the first printed edition of Pacioli's De Divina Proportione appeared in Venice, including an appendix on geometrical letterforms with the different circle sizes that determine the curves of the letters and serifs. ... Different designers divided the basic square into grids of nine, ten, and twelve divisions to help determine the shape and proportion of the letters. The title page ABC is from Pacioli's drawings of the alphabet in the appendix of De Divina Proportione. " (SOLD) |
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Deep in the Territory 9.75 x 8.75 x 1.5"; 26 unnumbered pages, including covers. Letterpress printed. Composed of a variety of hand- and machine-made papers; minimal adhesive. Thirteen collages (six double-sided pages plus the cover) of woven and interlocking colored papers. Handmade papers in quilts and binding: Barcham Green, Shadwell, Cal-ling, MacGregor-Vinzani, Degener, Twinrocker, Janus. Titles handset in 30 pt Tuscan and 14 pt Berthold Walbaum; text handset in 12 pt Berthold Walbaum. Printed on dry calendered Barcham Green Sandwich paper. Housed in a cloth-covered clamshell box with title label on spine. Box covered in Waverly upholstery gingham with stays and interior in two indigo calicos. A quart-size ziplock bag of paper remnants laid in. Binding structure & design by Claire Van Vliet. Califia Books: "Third in a series of quilt books by the poet and the press, this edition also echoes, in its design, Janus' Beauty in Use by Sandra McPherson. The thirteen quilts, which bring to life the eleven poems herein, are built from interlocking strips and shapes of paper to form double-sided quilt squares. But, while book artist Claire Van Vliet's intricate and sumptuous delivery may draw us at first visually into the book, Kaufman's quiet, carefully rendered verse stands at its heart. Kaufman, a collector of fine quilts, elevates the ordinary through close observation to the arts and artifacts of life. Her attention to detail, as she stitches together a poem word by word, reveals a fascination with language and object that echoes Van Vliet's equal delight in the interplay of materials – shape, paper, text. Illustrative quilts range from the geometrically spare to one that flaunts convention." The Janus Press - Fifty Years: "Deep in the Territory inspired by plainswomen's quilts. ... There is a recto/verso structure for the quilt pages, and the two sides vary radically in most instances, in both hue and in format. Looking at one side you have no idea at all what you will see when you turn the page. ... "Two poems in Deep in the Territory, 'Old Quilts' and 'Pandora's Box' were featured on the eponymous broadside Van Vliet completed in 1989 and 1991 respectively. ... published with a bag of paper cuttings from the various sheets used for the guilt pages; these were included with the volumes in their clamshell boxes, enabling the purchasers to examine the beautiful papers themselves more closely and in isolation. As Van Vliet explained it: 'The scraps just seemed too nice to throw away.'" |
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Gone 7.5 x 11.25 x .75"; 46 pages. Signed on colophon by Van Vliet and McCulloch-Lovell. Colophon: "The text is set on the computer in 11pt Myrial Pro Italic with titles in Condensed 30 pt. Myrial Pro was designed by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly for Adobe Systems. Polymer plates were made at Boxcar Press and printed by Andrew Miller-Brown at the Janus Press on Richard de Bas Apta that was handmade at Hayle Mill in Maidstone, Kent, England. "Two-color lithograph was drawn on the stone by Claire Van Vliet and printed by Eystein Hanche Olsen on Rives BFK in the lithographic workshops at SKHS in Oslo Norway. "The book was long stitched into a Rowlux vinyl moiré cover by Audrey Holden. Slipcase is covered with calendered Royal Watercolour Society paper made by Barcham Green at Hayle Mill." Twenty-one quietly perceptive and reflective poems, filled with close observation about a life lived in concert with the natural. Van Vliet's lithograph of sky and copse and gray-white field, glimpsed through vinyl moiré cover, is an apt reflection of the spirit of the collection – spare without begin bleak, at once solid and in flux. Claire Van Vliet: "Many of the poems in GONE are seasonal though it is not specifically a part of the series [a series of artist and writer responses to the seasonal round of the year]. GONE is a return to poetry publishing; the last poetry book was Alan Loney's RISE in 2003 which surprised us by being so long a pause." |
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Woven and Interlocking Book Structures from the Janus, Steiner and Gefn Presses 7.5 x 10"; 142 pages. In black wrappers, woven structure illustration on front. Step-by-step instructions for making 4 x 5 inch models of structures developed for editions at the Janus (United States), Steiner (Australia) and Gefn (England) presses. Includes "multitudes" of instructional diagrams drawn by Claire Van Vliet and Elizabeth Steiner.
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Page last update: 04.03.13
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