Feb 26, 2018 Books of the Week — Sara Langworthy

Everything Speaks In Its Own Way
Sara Langworthy
2003
N7433.4 L355 E8 2003

Printed from photopolymer plates and linoleum on blotters using a Vandercook press. Drum leaf binding. Edition of twenty copies. Rare Books copy is no. 14, signed by the author/bookmaker.

New Patterns in Old Style
Sara Langworthy
Oxford, IA: Sara Langworthy, 2013
N7433.4 L355 N48 2013

From Sara Langworthy’s website: “[This] began as an investigation of two opposing definitions of the word ‘CLEAVE’…The book combines images and text printed from photopolymer plates with hand-brushed sumi ink painting…The text…was constructed from a series of random/chance exercises using [the words from the definitions]. The first signature sets the scene of the word ‘cleave’ fighting itself; a passionate joining with a violent separation. The second signature examines the results of the repeated joining and separating. The first signature is printed primarily in pale greys and greens; the second signature is equally monochromatic, but uses a pink/orange/yellow palette…The papers used are Kitakata, Kozo Kiga, University of Iowa Center for the Book handmade text sheets in a variety of fibers including hemp, flax and cotton, and overbeaten flax/cotton combination, and offcut left over from paper specially commissioned from Cave Paper…The book is sewn into a modified limp paper binding, cover paper is UICB Papercase Natural. The book is housed in a clamshell.”

From the colophon: “Text is digitally set in Dante and Bulmer, and printed…on Vandercook number 4.” The images originat[ed] from scanned leaves and tracing of plants. The text is assembled from two sources: the definition of the word ‘CLEAVE’ and instructional language found in tatting manuals. The title of this book is borrowed from a sewing manual of the same name by Emilie Bach.

Edition of twenty-four copies. Rare Books copy is no. 5, signed by the author/bookmaker.

This book was exhibited as part of the fifth annual College Book Arts Association Conference and Annual Meeting, January 2-4, 2014, Salt Lake City, Utah, hosted by the Book Arts Program, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.

View the original article on the OpenBook Blog