Search Results: Illustrated Books from Bromer Booksellers

Octon, France: Verdigris, 2005. Rothchild, Judith. Oblong quarto. (15)ff. From an edition of fifty copies, this is one of ten deluxe copies, which include an original copper plate and an additional mezzotint. Signed by the artist and by the printer, Mark Lintott, at the colophon. Rothchild's illustrations-two mezzotints, one of which has been broken up into eight fragments-communicate the pensive darkness of the writer's desk, laying it, as Bishop does poetically, before the reader in pieces and as a whole. Bishop's poem was originally published in Geography III in 1976. Her verses address the elements of her writing desk as if they were news events, as if they were soldiers on a battlefield or secret weapons or natural disasters. Her matter-of-fact tone and obsessive analysis of the trivial-the stack of papers, the typewriter, the inkwell-reflects a larger anxiety with the state of the world and with the way that world appears on the "real" news. Bishop questions, with no hint of forthcoming… Read More

London: Gogmagog Press, 1967. Cox, Morris. Small octavo. (28)pp., frenchfold. From an edition of 100 copies, this is one of 40 bound in Hana-asa paper, reserved for members of The Society of Private Printers. Signed by Cox and printed on Japanese handmade paper. Fourteen spare three-line poems, illustrated with three offset prints in black and blue. Slight lean, else near fine in brown paper boards covered with delicate patterned Japanese Hana-asa paper. (Chambers 18).

Chicago: Sherwin Beach Press, 1993. Tappin, Mike. Oblong octavo. 21pp. One of 200 copies. Four photographs by Mike Tappin depict people living on insubstantial government funds, the "safety net." The text by Steve Bogira, originally published in 1983 in the Chicago Reader, details the lives of those hovering at the poverty line, those who "are too good at surviving," and the government systems that dictate where and how funds are dispersed. In particular, the essay exposes how government programs and economic structures inordinately and inherently discriminate against people of color, and especially the Black community. It wrestles with a government's responsibility to its own citizens, and what it owes to those it marginalizes. Bound with leather cords in gray paper wrappers. Fine.

Cincinnati: Mosaic Press, 1978. Kintzer, Cynthia. (59)pp. One of 500 copies, signed by the author, artist, and printer. With black & white illustrations by Cynthia Kintzer. Tells the stories behind seventeen of America's haunted houses and the ghosts that supposedly haunt them. Very fine in black buckram with white stamping on front and spine. (15/16 by 13/16; 24x21mm).

Cincinnati: Mosaic Press, 1978. Kintzer, Cynthia. (59)pp. One of 500 copies, signed by the author, artist, and printer. With black & white illustrations by Cynthia Kintzer. Tells the stories behind seventeen of America's haunted houses and the ghosts that supposedly haunt them. Very fine in black buckram with white stamping on front and spine. (15/16 by 13/16; 24x21mm).

Rio de Janeiro: Aloísio Magalhães, 1971. Magalhães, Aloísio. Octavo. 24ff, frenchfold. One of 96 copies. According to the artist's statement, printed on both covers in tête-bêche format in two colors, the contents consist of sixteen-sheet outdoor posters cut into octavo french-fold leaves, inserted at random across the edition. Magalhães's conceit revolves around the idea of reassembling what was once "informação inteira," which then become open to the imagination and whimsy of the viewer. Widely considered a pioneer of modern design in Brazil, Magalhães's work included the design for the first logo for Brazil's Rede Globo television network, as well as a major redesign of the country's banknotes - which incorporated a moiré pattern that made forgery quite difficult. In the present work, the printing resolution for a large poster allows one to see various pixellation patterns in the color separation, giving the work both color and texture, and therefore a mutable meaning - a concept… Read More

Alford, MA, 1962. Fink, Sheldon. Small quarto. 28ff. One of forty copies. Etched title page and twenty-six fine etchings by Fink, ranging thematically from portraits to botany to insects. Many of Fink's etchings have a decidedly Baskinesque aesthetic, but Fink's circle centered primarily in New York, where he was friendly with Jack Levine and Raphael Soyer. For this collection, Fink commissioned Royall Moore to create paper with a high linen count, and this was the subject of a Popular Mechanics article in 1965. Moore, who was described in the article as an "inventive Yankee," was a carpenter by trade, and made all the equipment himself. The binding for this edition was executed by Arno Werner, who bound it in full orange-toned deerskin with a hubbed spine and decorations printed in black on the upper cover and spine. Werner also presumably made the marbled endpapers, which also decorate the deerskin-backed folding case. Book is fine and bright; light rubbing to edges of box.

San Francisco, CA: Juniper Von Phitzer Press, 1986. (106)pp. One of 175 copies. Signed by Von Phitzer at the colophon. A typographic abecedarian, pairing each letter with stock woodcuts printed in many colors. Bound in full blue leather, gilt-titling to spine. Fine. A.e.g. (2 3/8 by 2 7/8; 60x73mm).

(London): Gogmagog Press, 1968. Cox, Morris. Octavo. (43)pp., frenchfold. One of twenty-six copies printed and signed by Morris Cox. Contains thirty-four "nature prints," actually made with plastic and gesso, with results resembling the vein patterns of leaves, which Chambers refers to as "a notable modern exploration of nature-printing." The title is printed within a double-page offset print in black and yellow. Extremely fine in black and white striped glazed cotton over boards, with printed spine label. (Chambers 20).

Cincinnati, OH: Mosaic Press, 1983. McCurdy, Michael. (64)pp. Signed by the printer, Miriam Irwin. Frontispiece portrait of Sherlock Holmes. What follows is a brief but no less scintillating Sherlockian mystery. Fine in gilt-stamped brown leatherette. This the later edition, of shorter stature and not blind-stamped. (15/16 by 3/4; 24x19mm).

Cincinnati, OH: Mosaic Press, 1983. McCurdy, Michael. (64)pp. Signed by the printer, Miriam Irwin. Frontispiece portrait of Sherlock Holmes. What follows is a brief but no less scintillating Sherlockian mystery. Fine in gilt-stamped brown leatherette. This the later edition, of shorter stature and not blind-stamped. (15/16 by 3/4; 24x19mm).

Minneapolis, MN: Vermilion Editions, 1987. Rathman, David. Small quarto. (10)ff. One of thirty-five copies, signed by the artist at the colophon. Throughout, Rathman's linocuts, gothic and mythic in their intensity, evoke the nervous, even violent edge of the text. The present tale is inspired by and adapted from Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard, the first African novel to be published in English outside of Africa. Tutuola based his original text on Yoruba folktales, and his style, epitomized by the novel, has become a considerable landmark in discussions regarding colonial (and decolonized) literature and language. Although Rathman's adaptation has smoothed over some of Tutuola's idiosyncracies, his linocuts conjure similar feelings of mysticism and urgency which are indelible to folklore. Printed with aid from Gerald Lange of the Bieler Press and Norman Fritzberg of the Hansestadt Letterfoundry, and funded in part by the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts. Sheet held loose in four-flap… Read More

London: Heinemann, 1912. Rackham, Arthur. Quarto. xxx, 224pp. First trade edition. Contains thirteen color plates tipped-in on brown paper, and 53 illustrations in black & white. Translated by V.S. Vernon Jones, with an Introduction by G.K. Chesterton. Save for the smaller trim size, the trade edition is identical to the signed, limited edition in terms of number of illustrations. In full limp leather stamped in blind and gilt on upper cover—a binding not noted in Latimore & Haskell. Extremely fine and fresh, still retaining its original glassine wrapper and fragile two-part decorated box, which has had some expert restoration to lid. (Latimore & Haskell, pp. 38-39).

Providence, RI, 1956. Hanf, Brigitte. Quarto. (ix), (15)pp., frenchfold. One of six copies. Illustrated with nine etchings by Brigitte Hanf, who has also rendered the fables into verse. With an Introduction by Robert B. Gates, which indicates an affiliation with Brown University. This appears to be a possible student work by Hanf, who was the granddaughter of German folk art maker, fabric print designer, and Holocaust survivor Moritz Wallach. Hanf's etched animal figures seem to take cues from some examples of her grandfather's work. Her use of a sheet of semi-translucent Japanese tissue for an image of "An Old Lion" allows the subject of the fable to exist on his own page as well as serve as part of the mise-en-scène presented in the accompanying poem, thanks also to some clever typographic arrangement. An auspicious beginning for Hanf, who went on to illustrate an edition of Beowulf in 1968, as well as a limited edition bestiary in 1974. Accompanying this book are four mechanicals and three proof… Read More

NY: Viking Press, 1933. Artzybasheff, Boris. First edition. Inscribed by the illustrator, Boris Artzybasheff, to Dorothy Lathrop. Twenty of Artzybasheff's inventive, cartoonish wood engravings illustrate ninety of Aesop's famed fables. Artzybasheff's work, both in book illustration and commerical art, adopted the graphic and the grotesque, imbuing humanity, both in implicit emotion and explicit anthropomorphish, into animals and machines. His book Seven Simeons was chosen as the Caldecott Honor Book for 1938, and his inscription here links him to another Caldecott winner in Lathrop. Bound in full red cloth with paper labels to spine and upper cover, the latter showing Artzybasheff's illustration of a bookish donkey. Some exterior soiling, trace foxing to edges of text, else near fine in near fine pictorial dust wrapper, which shows expected chipping and discoloration to spine.

Paris: Three Star Books, 2018. Bronson, A. A.. Square folio. (50)ff. One of forty copies, signed by the artist, A.A. Bronson. Fifty identical tearaway posters of "AIDS," using an appropriative design based on Robert Indiana's 1967 "LOVE." The relation of AIDS to love, both conceptually and artistically, and its adaptation into a repetitive format similar to a sample book, points to the persistent threat of AIDS even as the crisis is declared "over." The book follows the tradition established by General Idea, an artists' group founded in 1969 by Bronson, along with Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal, which for 25 years was a vanguard of punk, queer theory, and AIDS activism through periodicals, public art projects, and low cost multiples. Both Partz and Zontal died in 1994 of AIDS-related causes; Bronson's present publication is as much an act of love and remembrance as it is of protest. Perfect-bound with a fabric spine and silkscreened boards. Fine.

1982. Weier, Debra. Quarto. (14)ff. A one-of-a-kind book, signed by the artist. Each two-page opening contains a unique and colorful collage, using string, torn papers, textured papers, and paper toned by etching and aquatint. Pop-up elements and folded paper strips add a third dimension to this multimedia meditation on the link between color and emotion, here unconventionally imagined as blue/aggression rather than the expected red. The tactile persistence of Weier's abstractions evoke the shocking and the unexpected, and push the affective boundaries of art at close range. Fine in blue paper wrappers which match the pages. Housed in a cloth drop-back box.

San Francisco: Sore Dove Press, 2021. Hirschman, Jack. 16mo. (11)ff. One of eight copies. A selection of postcard-sized art prints by Hirschman, all signed on the verso by him. Hirschman was a Beat poet, who was passionate about the anti-war and Black liberation movements, and the prints represent a sampling of a larger project by him: from 1976 to 1988, he, by his own account, gave away thousands of such works as an artistic effort to match the state propaganda machines of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Each has a statement of support ("Solidarity El Salvador," "Solidarity Haiti," etc.) and a statement of defiance ("No Nazis," "No Klan," etc.). Between them are gestural illustrations, names of eminent poetic and political leaders, such as Vladimir Myakovsky and Ho Chi Minh, and Hirschman's portmanteau "Ameryc," a pun on "amorous" that combines "America" and "Russia." The blending of word and image, both abstract and concrete, along with the prolific dissemination of… Read More

La Plata, Argentina, 2015. Blu Blau, Cecilia. 16mo. (v), (30)pp. One of seven copies. Apo's poetry, which meditates on loss, impermanence, and despair, appears on the versos, facing on the rectos Cecilia Blu Blau's woodcuts. Blu Blau is a tattoo artist and illustrator, and her images shine with the bold lines and black inks that are the hallmarks of traditional tattoos. The colophon states that the woodcuts were hand-pressed using a wooden spoon, and that the text was composed by hand with Trodat Typo (rubber stamp) printing. Bound in full red cloth over boards with title woodcut stamped to upper cover. Scant exterior soiling, hinges starting, else a remarkable example of private printing in modern Argentina. No copies recorded in OCLC.

Santa Cruz: Peter & Donna Thomas, 2012. Thomas, Donna. Small quarto. (12)ff. One of fifty copies. Illustrated througout with arboreal linoleum cuts by Donna Thomas, two of which are full-page bookends to the volume's text. Others serve as backdrop to Everson's poem, as well as the colophon, so the text appears as seen through the many branches of a forest. Included is "A Companion to The Alder," with an essay by Allan Campo and an artists' statement by Peter and Donna Thomas. Bound in alder, specifically from Kingfisher Flat, where Everson felled the tree described in his poem. Very fine, housed in a lapped animal-skin slipcover.