fine arts press collaborations
From A Letter of Columbus, the Logan Elm Press’ fine arts edition of Columbus’ letter to Queen Isabella of Spain. Its text is a verse translation of that letter written by Ohio’s late great poet, David Citino.
--and one of the hundreds of initials I hand lettered for it--all coordinated to the colors that Anthony Rice used for his illustrations of this would-be traveler’s journal, showing what the explorer might have sketched of the wonders he encountered had he had such a book.
One of the edition’s 130 hand lettered and gilded title pages--
Pulp for the edition’s covers was beaten
from black cotton academic gowns from
the Department of Theatre and jock shorts contributed by the OSU Athletic Division, producing a perfect Ohio State gray ground for the title’s scarlet lettering. I based the lettering for the title and initial letters on the book’s text font, Johanna, and later, as needed, inscribed copies of the book for a number of its fortunate recipients--
in scarlet, naturally.
Another treasure from Logan Elm Press
is this little volume, University Days.
My charge was to design the title
lettering and initial letters.
Featuring this sensitive portrait of the author by Sid Chafetz, the book brings together two of James Thurber’s most incisive short works about university life at Ohio State
Over 35 years elapsed
between the initial idea for this book and its ultimate realization at the Logan Elm Press in November, 2010.
With a thread running from Virgil’s Eclogues through Edmund Spencer’s Shepheards Calendar through Paul Gaugin’s hand-painted and hand written menus for his Tahitian dinner guests, this small edition of 26 recounts a chef’s life through twelve sumptuous meals created over his life-long journey in the culinary arts.. A small number of copies of the book remain available for purchase directly through the Logan Elm Press. The calligrapher’s story of the book’s realization was told in a recent presentation to a joint session of the Cincinnati Book Arts Society and Cincinnati Calligraphers Guild, now available to interested groups. For more information, write aimiaart@gmail.com.
Solche Sensationen:Such Sensations
has just won the prestigious Hertzog Award
for Excellence in Book Design
--March, 2012
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. ©ann alaia woods 2008