Here is a promising start to a new series: Inscriptions. The public display of words shows us the ideas we think our society is founded on. Inscriptions are all over the place here in DC. There’s no public building or monument without an inscription. Click on the images to see a larger picture. The first image shows the final state of “Inscription I” made from a photo I captured of the Department of Justice building—printed on stretched canvas, with hand embroidery. 20 inches square. (More coming soon.)
The canvas is heavy and to make my stitches I have to punch hard with the needle. The thread makes a kind of moan as I pull it through the coated, heavy, printed fabric. Punch (pierce) moooooan, punch (pierce) moooooan, punch (pierce) moooooan . . . The second image shows the stitching in progress, from the back. Light shines through the holes. Stitching is a “feminine” art, so this series is part of the #FemalePowerProject
as in queen (the abecedarium of a typophiliac) is an alphabet book of the letter Q, a reprint/reworking of a fine press artists’ book I published in 1997. The text is a series of praise poems to this letter. The words form mesostichs (similar to acrostics) in which a word is created by the vertical alignment of other words, in the middle of the text block. The words thus formed are the name of the typeface of the particular Q, in alphabetical order. So the first is Anna and the last is Zapf Book. The text forms a riff on gender and sexual identity since the capital letter Q, rarely used (closeted?), but often strange or ornate, has both female and male elements (the open circle and the protruding bar). The original fine press artists’ book was selected by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) as one of the 50 outstanding examples of book design for the year 1997.
You can order this book online from my Blurb bookstore at this link. Blurb is having a FREE SHIPPING sale until Dec. 31 (free ground shipping in the USA). Use code FREESHIP2015 and order by Dec. 11 for delivery by December 24.
Image of the flat-open cover designThe first mesostich, for the letter A, the typeface is Anna.
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