William Blake's Songs.
2007. New York: Center for the Book Arts, 2007.
Large 8vo, 9 1/2 x 6 1/2 ins., [36]pp., title-page and 12 poems on loose folded sheets, each illustrated in a variety of media and signed on the verso by the illustrator. All contained in an orange folding paper wrapper. Fine.
§ Number 13 of an edition limited to 39 copies in all. A collaborative artist book in portfolio created by eight women students at the Center for Book Arts in New York, under the direction of master printer Barbara Henry, representing in letterpress and illustration twelve poems from William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Each of the nine leaves is signed by the artist-printer.
The poems and their illustrators are: The Garden of Love by Delphi Basilicato; The Fly by Amy Bronstein; A Dream by Bonnie McLaughlin; The Human Abstract by Amber McMillan; The Laughing Song/The Poison Tree by Sarah Nicholls; The Shepherd/The Tyger by Michelle Raccagni; The Blossom/The Sick Rose by Rosie Schaap; Infant Joy/Infant Sorrow by Louisa Swift; Title-page by Barbara Henry.
The poems in the Songs of Innocence and of Experience contrast the spiritual freedom of childhood with the binds and hypocrisies of the adult world and are at once philosophical, political and radical. Blake wrote, engraved, printed, and colored the Songs himself, making him arguably one of the first creators of an artist's book and an excellent subject for these women book artists of the 21st century. Item #123283
Price: $495.00