Apr 26, 2016 Earth Day — “…oceans both…”

“You oceans both, I close with you,
We murmur alike reproachfully rolling sands and drift,
knowing not why,
These little shreds indeed standing for you and me and all.”

WHITMAN CROSSHATCH…
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
East Hampton, NY: 2015

From the artist’s statement: “both a hunt for, and a despair of, meaning. The ‘Likeness’ that the poet recognizes in the sea-tossed windrows of: ‘Chaff, straw…’ describe a purposeless world…[Whitman’s] life persistence after the abyss has looked us in the eye, is heroism. By setting the text on diagonals and verticals at odds page to page, the book captures the poet’s bleak mood. Whitman’s own resolution takes the visual form of bright colors, and a text that meanders – in and out as the tide – but does not dissipate.”

Unique artist’s book by Barry McCallion. Unnumbered pages, including title-page and half-title and colophon. Text printed on paper mounted on blue Saint Armand paper, interspersed with the broken up text on cream Richard de Bas, painted in various colored India inks, collaged onto various grids which form crosshatching. Binding by Joelle Webber: hand-sewn in gold suede with onlays of yellow, red, green, blue and white forming cross hatch on front panel. Housed in red cloth with blue edges over boards, clamshell box with title on spine on paper with repeat of crosshatch motif, crosshatch motif repeated on front panel. Signed by the artist.

View the original article on the OpenBook Blog