at low water: an intertidal memoir

[Simi Valley, California]:: Pie in the Sky Press,, 2017.. Edition of 60 + lettered copies. 5 x 8"; 64 pages. 10 and 12 point Deepdene and the California Old Style figures were cast by M & H Typefounders, while the 14 and 36 point Deepdene italic were cast by Swamp Press. Photographs taken by a Nikon 7100 digital SLR equipped with a 60 mm macro lens and a polarizing filter mounted on a monopod. The specimen images, created using photopolymer plates made by Boxcar Press, habitat spreads, and handset type were letterpress printed on thick Awagami Kozo with Niyodo Kozo overlays using a Vandercook Universal III abp Press. Written, designed, printed, and bound by Rebecca Chamlee. Signed and numbered by Chamlee. Standard edition (numbered 1-60): a drum leaf sewn-board style binding, gloved spine in Ginga backcloth, printed St-Armand Old Master paper covering the boards. Laid in a printed paper chemise. In slipcase of lightweight blue paper.  Deluxe edition (lettered A-E): housed in a custom clamshell box includes a suite of prints wrapped in a paper chemise, a shell, and a copy of the book "at low water" laid in box's center cavity. Pie in the Press: "at low water was made fifty-odd years after the events documented by Rebecca Chamlee." Rebecca Chamlee, Prospectus: "As a self-taught naturalist, my work examines the intersection of my artistic and scientific interests by collecting and cataloging the natural world. I am inspired to record, interpret and celebrate nature. "My new artist's book looks back to the beginnings of my passion for exploration and observation of native species to a time when I collected sea animals gathered at low tide to bring home and live in an aquarium in my girlhood bedroom. "The main text recalls the story of filling the tank with mollusks, fish, crustaceans, echinoderms, and invertebrates-anything unlucky enough to be captured by my bare hands-and the life-and-death drama that took place among the captive inhabitants. A poem, told from the viewpoint of the child in the moment of discovery, runs through the book on translucent leaves that overlay closeup images of the intertidal habitat. Field notes contain data from the year spent in the tide pools of Southern California researching and collecting images for the fourteen detailed plates of marine specimens and twelve habitat images found throughout the book."