This is not the kind of book that you will buy on Amazon or see on the shelves of your local bookstore. It is more like an artwork than a normal printed book, although it is also a printed book. What makes it different is that there are only 150 copies (plus 10 Specials) signed and numbered, and that they are all exquisitely hand-printed and bound, and that they contain 43 original images - not reproductions - printed by Nicolas McDowall from the blocks which I drew, cut and proofed, and that Dick Jones' contemporary translation is closer to Cendrars' spirit and language than any previous ones published, and that it has the imprimatur of Blaise Cendrars' daughter Miriam Gilou Cendrars, and that the text is beautifully laid out and printed in 24 different colours, and that the binding is a joy to touch and stroke....I could go on!
But if you still think that such a book is expensive, consider how much it costs to buy a fine original print in a gallery. How much a case of fine wine? Dinner for two in a gourmet restaurant? You get my drift.
This isn't sales talk (well, sort of) but simply trying to change a mind-set which says that a book...a book!...at this price is outrageous. No. It is not. In this digital age when the physical presence of books may soon become only a memory, it's good to know that works like this can still be made.
4 comments:
Best to you in the New Year!
Thanks Hattie and a great New Year to you and yours.
one swift look will quickly reassure...43 original artist's works...in a beautiful binding...wonderfully set out with the text an art form in it's own right...a work of passion and beauty by bookbuilder, artist, binder and translator too...a creative triumph!
Google's mysterious ways have somehow transformed me into Somebodie Ennywear so if you see that signature, don't worry, it's only me.
Many thanks Bill, that's a wonderful description! Can I quote you?
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