Epilonian Books

Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997

Catalog notes

Description

California Institute of the Arts, School of Design, [No date: circa 1974]. Comb bound, 12 leaves (unpaginated), first leaf blank, remainder printed on rectos only; 31 x 29 cm; edition of 100 copies, this copy numbered 6 and signed by the artist in the colophon; illustrated with 7 black-and-white collaged plates and a 3-page pictorial index.

Condition & notes

In Acceptable condition. Coppery-silver metallic paper covers, stock named in the colophon as Old Tavern Metallic, black hand-drawn border, small engraved figure of a girl holding a torch, title lower right. Bumping and creasing to edges and corners, peeling at corner tips and at head and foot of spine, nicking to some edges, prominent crease to rear cover, mild to moderate scuffing and soiling overall. Black plastic comb binding chipped with several teeth snapped off; all leaves remain attached. Moderate foxing to endpapers, mild foxing to title page, occasional spotting and foxing along edges of remaining leaves. Seven black-and-white collaged plates, all of one scene. An engraved family sits at a table. Each plate alters the one before it: the woman's head changes, a kerchief for a powdered wig, the baby in her arms becomes a different child, and animals, insects, disembodied hands and small nude figures arrive and multiply. Pictorial index at the rear grids the parts themselves, heads and hands and figures and objects. Alm was first director of the Women's Graphic Center, the print workshop Sheila Levrant de Bretteville founded in 1973 at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles; she equipped it from a defunct letterpress shop and taught from her own collection of artists' books and fine press material (Sam Regal, East of Borneo, 2023). A second edition of 200 copies followed.