Swan Song : Five Years & In The Black

No Place Stated: Black Swan Letterpress Printing and Graphic Design. Very Good+ with no dust jacket. 1995. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Short, tight split to the wrap at the tail of the spine.; One woman's journey in letterpress and graphic design, from unloading machinery in her driveway, to the tedious business of book and job printing, to the "Swan Song" of her Black Swan press years later. More than storytelling, it's rendered as an artist's book with text printed over illustrated leaves. Some pages have two story lines interspaced together in different text colors. One of a limited edition of 500. No place of publication stated, but likely Providence, RI where Black resided at the time of publication. 12 pages, but unpaginated. Black says of her two presses: "It might take me several hours to get the make-ready just right. The thing about C&P's (sic) is that the first impression always looks like shit. Even after three years I have to steel myself for that first sink-of-heart. The Windmill, though, the Windmill is a completely different animal. And I know it my very first impression, it's just there, right from the start." She has a 'press injury:' "I can feel my hand start to swell instantly. I go into a panic. "Help, somebody help me!" I shout. Mark's voice in the hall, "Who is it, where are you?" He sees me and goes into a worse panic than mine." ... "I realize no one knows how to save me. A clarity settles across my mind. I've read somewhere in my manual about how to run the press backward, but that's too hard. I look down & see my salvation will be the roller height adjustment. "Get the wrench!" Charlie picks up the roller height gauge which doesn't remotely resemble a wrench. I need the 13/17 spanner but it's not where it should be. With focused clarity I spot it under a pile of proof sheets on the stone, out of my reach. With it I release my hand." ... "After my nausea passes, I wash up the press. Stupid mistake, dumb luck. I keep that wrench in my pocket now when I print: my escape wrench. I have a tiny scar where the skin was tucked & pinched. I could have crushed my hand flat. Machines don't know from flesh." In polychrome illustrated paper over cardstock covers with title in black, outlined, block font. Brown pastedowns. Endpapers with various, colorful, embedded fibers. This is a tiny book that says much and is a fearless first-person account of letterpress. It's clean, conservatively Very Good+, and appears Near Fine. Quite scarce in the trade, despite its print run.; Color Illustrations; 12mo 7" - 7½" tall; 12 pages .