James Reid: Selected Wood Engravings

Boston, MA: Brier Hill Press, 2013. Reid, James. Quarto. Two booklets, both (16)pp., and two portfolios of prints. One of 125 copies, signed by the printer, Robert Strossi. The second booklet in this copy is identical to the first, but not numbered or signed and with frontispiece and caption directly printed onto the title-page verso (in the numbered/signed booklet the frontispiece is tipped in and the caption appears on an interleaved translucent sheet). In his essay on Reid, which starts the booklet, Strossi outlines the history (and mystery) of the publication of Reid's wood engravings for his wordless books, The Life of Christ in Woodcuts and The Song of Songs, and argues that, had it not been for the commercial failure of the latter, Reid would be discussed alongside the more famous names of his era and medium, Fritz Eichenberg and Lynd Ward. The engravings appearing in the subsequent suites were printed from the original (or, as Strossi explains, near-original) blocks created in 1930 and 1931 by Reid. Both as individual works and as collections the prints strongly evince Reid's inclination toward and expertise with the aesthetic adopted by Ward, Buckland Wright, and Kent, among others whom Strossi has justifiably identified as Reid's peers. All items held in clamshell box with photograph of Reid and his wife, Alyse, and associated caption inlaid to underside of lid. Prospectus laid in.