Books

Right There, an artist’s book

Posted by Tom Virgin

Thirty years of Florida living did not dim the memory of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Actually when I was a kid it was just plain Sleeping Bear Dunes, complete with Dune Rides in great big American Car dune buggies. A residency at Glen Arbor Art Association in 2005 gave me an opportunity to visit the area and recreate the the park and my childhood memories in  this book. “Right There” was the Florida Artist Book Prize winner in 2006 and is now part of the collection at the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book.

Colophon

This book is a tour through time and space, bouncing around the artist’s head, Glen Arbor/ Glen Haven, Michigan, and the early 1960’s. Much of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has remained unchanged. Memories however may have become better with the passage of time. The book’s covers are basswood, planed, sanded and tied together with leather thongs. The cover art is laser etched into the wood, front and back covers of each chapter. The papers used are Thai Unryu and Arches Cold Press Watercolor 300 and 140 lbs. The book was created in Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Pagemaker 7.0. The font used is Americana. “Right There” has seven chapters, and when closed creates a block approximately 10 inches wide, 12.5 inches tall, and 10 inches deep. A custom denim bag is included for transportation. Each chapter contains one woodcut print, one C-print, one digital scan, and one essay by the artist. The book is an edition of five. The photographs were taken at a residency at Glen Arbor Art Association/ Sleeping Bear Dunes in summer 2004. The toy images, woodcut prints, and book itself were produced in 2006. The essays are semi-accurate memories of the artist’s childhood growing up in Michigan during the 1960’s.

Every Pot Has a Lid, an artist’s book

Posted by Tom Virgin

Every Pot Has a Lid           8 inches x  9 inches  x 1/4 inch            2003

This book is a fable using simple household objects to express the complexity of relationships. The artist borrows quotations from notable historic figures to unravel and examine the permutations of love. Haiku written by the artist further iluminate this mystery.
A Japanese stab binding encloses inkjet prints of the artist’s original drawings that have been digitally colored. Printed on Unryu paper. Covers are book board covered with brown bark paper. This book is an edition of 20.

Every Lid Finds a Pot, an artist’s book

Posted by Tom Virgin

“Every Lid Finds a Pot” in an artist’s book in an edition of one. Drawn and painted on one side, with hand lettering and collage on a full sheet of Okawara (36 inches by 72 inches) the book is folded into sixteen panels and cut to create a serpentine book. The covers are ink dyed mango paper over book board with cotton ribbon ties. The book is mixed media: charcoal, ink, and gesso. The back side of the book is collaged with white paper maps of South Florida and Baltimore on the natural colored Okawara paper. When displayed backlit, hung vertically, both the images and maps are visible.

 

Ganko, an artist’s book

Posted by Tom Virgin

“Ganko,” is an observation of overlapping cultures, housed in a multiple quire binding. After a class in single/complex quire bindings by Julia Miller at Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2007, I couldn’t wait to put the knowledge to work. During my residency there during summer 2007 this book came together with letterpress printed covers (thanks to Moe Snyder), digital imaging on sheets of Mohawk Superfine Text, and end sheets of kimono fabrics from the Japanese Gardens in Portland, Oregon. Akiko Watamori, my friend (and my bird Ashlynn’s Veterinarian) gave me a window on Japanese culture. I gave her a tour of Miami. The result, including some random images of Portland, Oregon, became “Ganko” in an edition of three.

Can’t See It From My House, an artist’s book

Posted by Tom Virgin

Can’t See It From My House     artist’s book/ title page    9” x 12” x .5”        2008

Can’t See It From My House was created from woodcut prints, photographs, and other ephemera gathered between 2005-2007 in Miami and Coconut Grove, Florida. It is a story of one neighborhood being replaced by another, although it is far from being a completed story. The story will continue to be told by the City of Miami for years to come.
The cover is blind embossed Murillo, with Foldovers and Tackets. Paste papers front and back are real estate listings, laminated in Mulberry paper, as are the end sheets. The book block consist of seven folded sheets, twelve by eighteen inches, of Hannemuhle German Etching paper. It is sewn together with a kettle stitch and bound to the cover with a Complex Multi Quire binding.
The images are inkjet photographs, mixed media drawing, and five woodcut prints (reduced and recreated with polymer plates as relief prints with the Vandercook 4 proof letterpress at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, Florida). Can’t See It From My House is an edition of twenty with five artist’s proofs.

Conversation, an artist’s book by Tom Virgin and Kari Snyder

Posted by Tom Virgin

Conversation    artist’s book/ title page    6.5” x 9” x .5”    2008

This book was born of a profound respect of the printmaking skills of Ms. Kari Snyder. A Florida Individual Artist Grant Winner, Kari’s intaglio prints of indigenous plants, birds, reptiles and other wildlife compelled me to ask her to collaborate on a book project.

Conversation was letterpress printed from linoleum plates, half from Snyder and half from Virgin. It has sixteen pages bound with a complex quire binding.  The cover is laminated paper with Thai Banana on the outside and Japanese Katazome paper on the inside. Each artist contributed five plates and hand colored the Rives Tan paper pages. Conversation is an edition of 20 books. “Conversation” was printed at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida with special technical assistance from Seth Thompson.

Process: DC Art Press Folio, 2010

Posted by Tom Virgin

This work is a portfolio that came from a collaboration with Leon Loughridge of DC Art Press. After flying into Denver on the way to an earlier residency at the Ucross Foundation, I saw one of his books at the Denver Public Library’s Artist’s Book Collection. Not only was the work exquisite, but the book included a fine explanation of reduction woodcut printing.I met Leon in Denver after several attempts, returning through Denver from an artist’s residency at Jentel in Banner, Wyoming.

Leon publishes an annual portfolio of prints, print processes, and other work that includes an image by another artist. I am honored to have been 2010’s contributor to “Process: DC Print Folio.” For this publication which was entirely printed on the letterpress at DC Press in Denver, Colorado, I contributed an essay on the topic of process and a 5 inch x 7 inch multiple color print printed on Kitikata paper for the edition of 30 folios. My print was printed at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Mountain Tops, an artist’s book

Posted by Tom Virgin

Mountain Tops             45 in x 11 in x 3 in (open)               2011
“Mountain Tops” is an accordion fold structure made from powdercoated watercut aluminum, rivets, aluminum mounted C-prints covered in plexiglass, dye on linen, canvas, and teak dowel. The font used for the haiku is Regallo Aplaya from T.26.
This book has two C-prints mounted under plexi on aluminum, one drawing and one print cut from aluminum plate, two panels of words (a haiku written by the artist), and a canvas carrying sling. The book is created in response to an artist’s residency at Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, Oregon during the summer of  2007. This book received an honorable mention in the 2010 Florida Artist Book Prize at the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book. It is an homage to Jim Findlay who helped me gain access to mountain tops with his support.

Your School, an artist’s book (paper)

Posted by Tom Virgin

9.5 in x 40 in x .25 in (open)        artist’s book    2012
“Your School” is an accordion structure book created from waxed Stonehenge paper, and text printed on bands of Hahnemühle Ingres with a Vandercook 3 Proof Press. The book employs the metaphor of keeping a simple, low maintenance pet (a fish) to examine multiple challenges that schools, and especially young people, are currently facing in Florida and Miami. This book is an edition of 17 with 3 artist’s proofs. This book is a scanned copy of the glass book that approximates the presence of the glass book.

It seems that most everything that I make for the last few years has been directed to teenagers. From the National Parks books that pass along places that many of my students have not been, to work that was created to record what has disappeared, my work archives my world. This version of “My School” is a larger edition than the glass book, that will allow it to live in more than two places.

INDU: Commensalists and Hand-me-downs, an artist’s book

Posted by Tom Virgin

INDU: Commensalists and Hand me Downs
artist’s book    closed 15” x 12” x 7” / open 46” x 46” x 6”    2010
This book passes along the experience of discovering an urban National Park, exploring it, capturing it in images, and introducing it to others. The book box is made of maple and red oak indigenous to the park, attached with leather hinges. It opens through several layers to a shallow irregularly shaped box that is 46” x 46” x 6” deep. First up is an 850 word essay, then a layer of four woodcut prints (two inside of doors with images of the park exterior). The next layer contains two etchings and a second essay of 950 words. Hidden under photographs of the dunes and surrounding woods is the last layer, a drawing of one of the Park’s closest neighbors.
Papers used in its production are Rives De Lin, Thai Unryu, Kensho Sekishu Natural, and Vellum. The fonts are Kelmscott Roman NF, and IM FELL English PRO. This book includes four relief prints, photographs, two etchings, transfers, inset Lake Michigan stone and cut steel. It was printed with an Epson 4800 Printer, a Brand Etching Press, and a Vandercook 4 Proof Press. This book is an edition of 5 with two artist’s proofs. Text and artwork by the artist.