ABC: An Artists' Book Abecedarium

Some thirty-six ancient and medieval model books have survived, from a second century Egyptian papyrus sheet of drawings for sculpture to a late fifteenth century Italian sketchbook. Preparatory drawings would be shown to potential clients or handed to workshop artisans involved in decorating manuscripts. Most of these guides have been preserved only in a fragmentary state, such as the one here of thirteen leaves of Romanesque pen-drawings. Ornamented initials and animals are two of the various motifs included. The manuscript was produced at the Rein Abbey in Austria.

This model book was created by painter, sculptor, and architect Giovannino de Grassi in Milan in the late 14th century. Model books were indispensable to the artist’s workshop as guides to ornamental elements, calligraphic initials, animals, and the human body in various poses and at specific activities. De Grassi’s model book is known for his Gothic alphabet, consisting of human and animal figures. All model books influenced the stylistic evolution of art. This one influenced the development of script. De Grassi was a pioneer in Italian art at the beginning of the Renaissance.

Veronese calligrapher Felice Feliciano wrote in 1463 that he constructed his Roman capital letters based upon ancient marble tablets found in Rome. The text of this codex is in Italian.

William Nicholson was a distinguished painter, but he made his reputation in the 1890’s as a graphic designer. This “popular edition” of Sir Nicholson’s Alphabet, with twenty-six color lithographic plates is based on the original edition, which was larger in size and whose illustrations were woodcuts. Each letter is depicted by a person, a figure from life in Victorian England. The subjects were carefully chosen. “A was an Artist” is a self-portrait. The original edition existed in two states: the earlier has “E is for Executioner” and the later has “E is for Earl.” The change occurred because the executioner was deemed too scary for children. The “popular edition” follows the original second state. This copy has the original pictorial boards, stained red edges, and all the tissue guards.

This is the first edition in English of Geofroy Tory's famous work on Roman letterforms, first published in Paris in 1529. In 1531, Geofroy Tory was named Imprimeur du roi. Tory developed a method of drawing letters with geometrical aids and then related their proportions to the human body. The English edition was printed for the Grolier Club at The Printing House of William Edwin Rudge and designed by Bruce Rogers, one of the premier American typographers of the twentieth century. The typeface is Centaur, designed by Rogers and based on traditional Venetian typefaces first developed around 1465 by master printer Nicholas Jensen. Rogers redrew all the original specimens and illustrations, thereby omitting the imperfections resulting from the over-inking and poor printing of the Paris original. This book was one of Rogers' own favorites. Printed on American wove rag paper, it was bound in half vellum, lettered in gold, and covered with a paper in a pattern of alternating fleurs-de-lys and thistles, also designed by Rogers. The University of Utah's copy is signed by Bruce Rogers.

The headmaster of the Birmingham School was Edward R. Taylor, a disciple of William Morris. Arranged and printed under the direction of Leonard Jay.

Printed by Robert Grabhorn and Andrew Hoyem. Edition of one thousand copies.

The lettering for the word "Pinks" was originally designed and drawn for Pinks Restaurant in Fairford by Sylvia Stokeld. This booklet, designed by Dennis Hall, was printed via hand-lithography by Harry Crook at the Inky Parrot Press in the design department of Oxford Polytechnic. Edition of fifty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 44, signed by the author.

Designed as one strip, folded accordion-style to create fifty-four page surfaces, on every two of which is formed, by cutting of the paper, a letter of the alphabet, "a" through "m" on one side of the strip, "n" through "z" on the other. The ends of the strip are pasted to separate boards. The boards, title-page and colophon are letterpress printed.

Written and designed during the artist's Brinkley Fellowship in the Department of Graphic Design at Norwich School of Art, 1983-4. One folded sheet. Bound in plywood. Issued in slipcase lined with green cloth. Edition of fifty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 20.

Wood engravings by author. Lettering by Suzanne Moore. Title printed in brown and black; initials and headings printed in brown and gold. Issued in cloth clamshell box. Edition of fifty copies, signed. University of Utah copy is no. 36.

Shape of alphabet letters suggested by the combined arrangement of various body positions and articles of clothing. The alphabet was designed and illustrated by the author, who also modeled for the letterforms. Book design by Rebecca Saady Bingham. Edition of two hundred copies, the first fifty of which were specially bound. University of Utah copy is no. 39, signed by the bookmaker.

Movable book of one accordion-folded sheet in box with elastic clasp. Each letter of the alphabet is represented by some 'Jack'-related concept.

From the colophon: - woven wattle, wheat waves, hay rolls, fence rows, mangers, chutes - malleable, entwined, shaped, sequenced, permutations of shifting screens - herein the true Venetian rococo of my mind, memory. O& has been printed and bound at Blue Heron Press by artist Karen Kunc. Woodcuts are printed relief and intaglio on handmade Roma Moretta.

Each letter began as an original paper-cut and was photo-engraved for the printing of the book. Printed on Masa paper. Binding with pastepaper linings by the artist. Edition of one hundred and twenty-six. University of Utah copy is no. 57.

Miniature book issued in slipcase. Three texts include a legend taken from the Zohar, with drawings by Ben Shahn; "The Divine Alphabet" by Luca de Pacioli; and "Direction for the Construction of the Text or Quadrite Letters" by Albrecht Durer. "The Alphabet of Creation" printed in an edition of one hundred and twenty-five copies. "The Divine Alphabet" printed in an edition of two hundred copies. "Direction" printed in an edition of one hundred fifty copies. University of Utah copy of each is no. 64.

Drawings by Bonnie Sucec. Fine press book from the Red Butte Press, University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library. Printed under the direction of Everett L. Cooley. Issued in a linen-bound case. Edition of 75 copies, signed by poet and artist. University of Utah copies are no. 20 and no. 27.

This two-volume alphabet book contains a series of collages that consist of letters in a variety of fonts. The designs are concerned with letter identity and the formal relationships of the distinctive shapes within the geometry of the circle. In volume one, each page depicts a letter of the alphabet with names and places of World War II, in different types and font sizes. A series of each of the twenty-six letters, in different colors, are inscribed in a circle. Volume two contains descriptions of the names and places listed in volume one and some images. Collage pages printed by silkscreen and letterpress. Paper is mould made Somerset. Printed on a Vandercook Universal III. The leaves are hole-punched and bound in 3-ring binders with printed grey cloth-covered boards, and housed in a slipcase. Edition of thirty-five copies. University of Utah copy is no. 14.

German Ingres covered boards have an inlaid letterpress label and exposed longstitch sewing, cloth spine. The Rives text papers are illustrated with original gouache paintings and letterpress-printed in twenty-seven typefaces, including Bulmer for the text. Edition of 20 copies, three containing original art work. University of Utah copy is no. 3.

Illustrated with acrylic, gouache, and ink. Bound in goat and rabbit with hemp cords and leather endbands.

An alpha-bestiary with woodcuts of animals from Armadillo to Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius) accompanying twenty-six short prose statements. Designed and printed by Peter Koch and Richard Wagener on Zerkall paper. Twenty-six full-page wood-engravings and twenty-six smaller woodcut section titles in red. Bound in quarter red morocco over Fabriano laid paper boards with gilt spine. Title and illustration in brown on front cover. Issued in slipcase with red cover with printed paper label. Edition of seventy numbered copies, signed by the author.

Color copies of alphabets on Japanese and Nideggen papers. Bound and signed by Faye Maxfield.

Housed in box. Title on box shows the letter "A" turning into the letter "Z." Edition of eight copies. University of Utah copy is no. 6, signed by the author.

Accordion-style alphabet book. Edition of twenty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 4.

Accordion-fold paper cover ties with attached gold ribbon.

Illuminated with hand-colored relief etchings by Brian D. Cohen. Typeface is De Vinne. Designed and hand set by Dan Carr. Printed by Julia Ferrari of Golgonooza Letter Foundry and Press in Ashuelot, New Hampshire with wood type from the artist's collection and with type for the poem cast by Swamp Press, Northfield, Massachusetts. Etchings printed on Somerset Book Wove by Brian D. Cohen with assistance from Sara Kazemi at Bridge Press. Prints hand-colored by the artist with assistance of Sara Kazemi and Annie Walter. Cover boards are bird's-eye maple, crafted by cabinetmaker Richard Holmquist. Titling carved by Julie Chen of Flying Fish Press, Berkeley, California. Hand binding completed by Linda Lembke of Green River Bindery, Guilford, Vermont. Housed in portfolio box covered in brown cloth. Production partially funded by the Vermont Council of the Arts. Edition of twenty-six with four artist's proofs. University of Utah copy is lettered "W" and signed by the author and the artist.

Karen Hanmer layers fragments of text and image, evoking personal memory within cultural context. Intimate but strong, her books are designed to be handled, their sculptural elements giving way to the physicality of reading the old-fashioned way, by turning a page.

From the colophon: This zigzag shaped ABC was inspired by the 1st UK Books2eat tea party, held in Thame. Edible Books High/Low Tea was initiated by Judith Hoffberg in 1999 and became international through the artist Beatrice Coron's website. As with the website, the book's contents can be changed. Digital images are from works by party-goers. Collagraphs are from various artists and young people, including friends who meet up to grow food and eat together. Zerkall folded in a double zigzag was letterpress printed in Caslon Open Titling at the p's & q's press in Thame. Interlinked pages are held in a drop side box by Heather Hunter with a cover by Christine Tacq. Collagraphs from the workshops were also relief printed at the Oxfordshire studio. Laser Prints were tipped in. Books2eat ABC was published on April Fools Day 2005 in an edition of 25 copies. University of Utah copy is no. 12, signed by the author.

Edition of one hundred and fifty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 12.

An exploration of the letter "T" - the axis-mundi - including the crucifixion of murderers, the burning cross of the Ku Klux Klan, the tree of life, the Blood of Christ, the Greek letter Theos and Tau, the Semetic "X," the mathematical sign for addition, Thor's hammer, the worldwide sign for flags. Manuscript on half-title and subsequently repeated throughout the book. Leaves and Mylar sheets first printed with wooden type on an etching press. Paper versos printed with etchings. Paste-painting completed on both sides of all paper in many layers. Pages sewn onto a concertina with linen thread. Bound by the author with spine in reddish-orange Harmatan leather with "T" hand-tooled in gold gilt on the spine. Boards are aircraft plywood covered in etchings printed on Japanese paper with multiple layers of acrylic paint and varnish applied to the covers. Endpapers are walnut-dyed Cave paper. Issued in box. Edition of seven copies. University of Utah copy is no. 2, signed by the author.