Esslemont linocuts (double-click to open in new window)
'The Guesthouse'
Schanilec engraving
The glass building
Special binding
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Ink on the Elbow
Ink on the Elbow Conversations between David Esslemont and Gaylord
Schanilec $480(Full
cloth with slipcase)
Contents Both Esslemont and Schanilec are established, accomplished
and award-winning artists in their own right and their unique relationship
is revealed in this selection from their email correspondence. It is both
extraordinary and mundane, yet fascinating and entertaining as they revel
in the possibilities afforded by the computer and the instantaneous transfer
of electronic data. Communication has taken on a new meaning.
Covering a period of four years the conversations are concerned primarily
with the making of books. The daily exchange of emails during the summer
of 2002 for example, when Esslemont and Schanilec were simultaneously working
on books, reveals the anxiety and strife associated with this particular
creative activity and displays the extraordinary detail that book artists
must consider. Domestic life is interwoven as are the passing of seasons
and world events.
With Introductions by Andrew J Armacost, Duke University, and David Chambers,
Editor of The Private Library.
Armacost writes:
'In one way, the correspondence of Gaylord and David is a daybook chronicling
the seasons of the year in Wisconsin and Wales. In another way, it is a
diary, with production notes, of editing, printing, and producing some important
books. It is also a log of two personal journeys, a record of the writers'
struggles to manage personal lives and professional lives in the midst of
children, book fairs, accolades, and calamities. Still another important
story is Gaylord and David's continuing dialogue about their current printing
projects and the implications of their individual printing decisions.'
Chambers writes:
'For the curious reader . . . there is much detail that can be recounted,
at parties in the elegance of London or New York, to entertain one's bookish
friends – and even one's acquaintances who may be into golf or bridge.'
Illustrations Esslemont's visits to the Schanilec home in Stockholm, Wisconsin, have
provided the inspiration for these colour linocuts. Printed directly from
the original blocks, each is displayed on a page of its own. The average
size is 200 x 130 mm (8 x 5 inches) They include: portraits of the family,
one of their dogs, their guesthouse, the old pickup, the prairie, the workshop
and friends and neighbours.
These linocuts have also been printed in small separate editions and are
available as individual signed prints at £30 ($60) each.
Schanilec engraving
Schanilec's visits to the UK for the biannual Oxford Fine Press Book Fair
provided the subject for his thirty-three-inch panoramic colour engraving
of Esslemont's homestead in Wales.
The glass building
Collectors may also be interested in a linocut that was made for but not
included in Ink on the Elbow: 'The glass building'. This has also been editioned
and is available at £30 ($60). Edition details Printed letterpress from photopolymer plates
in an edition of 200 numbered and signed copies. The typeface is Cronos
Pro, the paper is acid-free mould made 145g Zerkall 7625.
155 pp, 340 x 230 mm (13 1/2 x 9 inches) £300 ($480)
90 copies bound by David Esslemont in full paste-grained cloth, with a cloth-covered
slipcase.
10 copies bound by David Esslemont in a special full-leather binding: Sewn
on linen tapes with hand sewn headbands and leather joints; paste paper
end leaves. Covered in paste-painted white alum-tawed goatskin, with gold
tooling. In a felt-lined cloth-covered drop-back box. Out of print.
100 copies bound by Gaylord Schanilec in half cloth with paste paper, with
a cloth-covered slipcase.
This book is a co-publication of Solmentes Press (David Esslemont) and Midnight
Paper Sales (Gaylord Schanilec)