Recently in Acquisitions Category

A recent search on Amazon.com uncovered 105 books, videos and recordings teaching you how to win at lotto or other types of lotteries. In 1751, when Austria introduced a national lottery, there was a similar outpouring of books teaching the secret of picking numbers.

Based on the lotto di Geneva, Austria’s game consisted of 90 numbers and each one became connected with an animal or an object or an action. A person’s dreams might provide the basis of the winning number. Princeton libraries already hold several dream books used to decode dreams in order to play lotto but recently, we acquired this wall chart for the convenient study and selection of lottery numbers.

The chart has 90 squares and each one offers four images or terms connected to that number, thereby charting 360 symbols. The number 40, for example, might relate to a rooster, a flowering plant, a swimmer, or a letter.

See also:
George Wither (1588-1667), A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne: Quickened with Metricall Illustrations, Both Morall and Divine: and Disposed into Lotteries, that Instruction, and Good Counsell, May Bee Furthered by an Honest and Pleasant Recreation (London: Printed by A. M. for Richard Royston, 1635). Rare Books (Ex) N7710 .W68 1635q

I should let the designers describe this one:
“The book pushes the boundaries of traditional print with its “augmented reality” feature, powered by the Daqri 4D platform. By downloading the free companion app for Android and iOS devices readers will be able to point the camera of their smartphone or tablet at special images and see animated 3D models appear straight from the game. You can test this out by downloading the “Journey AR viewer” and using it with the image from theartofjourney(dot)com, on “The Book” page…”

Looking at the pages through your phone or tablet, the figures move and spin; the buildings jump off the page and allow you move around them 360 degrees; and the landscapes seem to stretch beyond the horizon. I was particularly interested in the designer’s choice to create figures without arms or hands so that they could not fight, which is the usual impulse with gamers.

Bring your own phone, download the app, and enjoy.

John Ford was a bookseller and the publisher of Playford’s Choice Songs and Ayres (1673) in partnership with Thomas Collins. This unrecorded advertisement adds a little to our understanding of his activities, showing him specializing in stationery supplies for musicians. His publishing activities span only a few years, from 1671 to 1673. Ford and Collins’ other publications include Evelyn’s translation of Rapin, Of Gardens and two plays, Shadwell’s The Miser and John Wilson’s The Cheat. —Plomer, Dictionary of Booksellers and Printers 1668-1725, p.119.

See also: A.B. Méguin, Art de la réglure des registres et des papiers de musique: méthode simple et facile pour apprendre à régler: contenant la fabrication et le montage des outils fixes et mobiles, la préparation des encres et différens modèles de réglure: suivi de l’Art de relier les registres, ouvrage utile aux papetiers, imprimeurs, relieurs, etc. [Art of Ruling Records and Music Papers: A Simple and Easy Method to Learn: Containing the Manufacture and Installation of Fixed and Mobile Tools, the Preparation of Inks and Different Models of Ruling: Monitoring Art Link Registers, Useful Papermakers, Printers, Bookbinders, etc.] (Paris: Audot, éditeur, rue des Maçons-Sorbonne, no. 11, 1828). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2012-0696N

In the fall of 1954, the Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank applied to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He asked for a fellowship “to photograph freely throughout the United States and make a broad voluminous picture record of things American.” Frank was successful and in the summer of 1955, set out in a used Ford to photograph America.

Frank drove over 10,000 miles in the next eighteen months, shooting 767 rolls of film. 1957 and 1958 were spent developing and printing the film; selecting shots; finding the appropriate author to write an introduction (Jack Kerouac); and printing the final book, which was called Les Americains (1958) and The Americans (1959).

One of the first photographs Frank made in the summer of 1955 was “Fourth of July- Jay, New York, 1955”. That original negative has been reprinted several times over the years and in 2009 Jon Goodman used it to print 500 photogravure frontispieces for The Limited Editions Club’s printing of the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence. Photograph by Robert Frank; afterword by David Armitage. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 2010. Graphic Arts Collection. Copy 20 of 500.

Print:
Designed by Sir John Gilbert (1817-1897); Drawn by Frederick John Skill (1824-1881) and William Walker the Younger (1791-1867); Engraved by William Walker and Georg Zobel (1810-1881); Printed by J. Brooker. The Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in the Years 1807-8. Published by William Walker, London. 4 June 1862. Stipple engraving. 65 x 111 cm (25 ½ x 44 in). Graphic Arts Collection GA2013- in process.

Book:
William Walker (1791-1867), Memoirs of the Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain living in the years 1807-08 (London: W. Walker & Son, 1862). “Originally compiled for the purpose of accompanying the engraving of The Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in 1807-8, assembled at the Royal Institution, to which the outline at the commencement of this work is intended to serve as a key.” Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process

“We are glad to be able to inform our readers, that a large engraving has just been completed by Mr. Walker, of 64, Margaret-street, Cavendishsquare, in honour of the men of science who have done so much towards the establishment of our present commercial prosperity.”

“This work, which may well be called historical, represents fifty-one illustrious men, living in the early part of the present century, assembled in the Upper Library of the Royal Institution. The picture is divided into three groups, and comprises authentic portraits of our greatest inventors and discoverers in astronomy, chemistry, engineering machinery, and other departments of science.”

“The grouping of so large a number of figures must have been a difficult task; this has, however, been successfully accomplished by John Gilbert, the designer of the original picture, who, by a skilful combination of various attitudes, has given both grace and ease to the figures represented.”

“Among those present are Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), discoverer of hydrogen and the decomposition of water; John Dalton (1766-1844), discoverer of atomic theory; Humphry Davy (1778-1844), discoverer of sodium, potassium, barium, and magnesium; William Herschel (1738-1822), discoverer of Uranus; Edward Jenner (1749-1823), creator of the smallpox vaccination; Count Rumford (1753-1814), the American science teacher named Benjamin Thompson, who founded the Royal Institution; and James Watt (1738-1819), inventor of the steam engine.”

See: Archibald Clow, “A Re-examination of William Walker’s ‘Distinguished Men of Science’,” Annals of Science, xi (1955), pp. 183-93
and the extended essay in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy.princeton.edu/view/theme/97115?backToResults=list=yes|group=yes|feature=yes|aor=8|orderField=alpha

The Graphic Arts Collection received several thoughtful gifts from Lawrence W. Ray in memory of Dr. Marion Brown and Myrtle (Jean) Williamson. Among them is a miniature copy of The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Holy Communion: The Order of Publick Baptism of Infants; The Order of Confirmation; and Form of Solemnization of Matrimony, According To the Use of the Church of England (Oxford [England]: Printed at the University Press; London: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press Warehouse, Amen Corner, 1900). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process.

Here are two explanations of Amen Corner:

Amen Court is a short distance from Paternoster Row, where monks finished their Pater Noster (a Christian prayer) on Corpus Christi Day before walking in procession to St. Paul’s Cathedral. The ritual started at Paternoster Row, with the monks reciting the Lord’s prayer in Latin to the end of the street. When they reached the corner or bottom of the Row they said ‘Amen’.

and in an history of the Oxford Press:

“The publications of the Oxford University Press are familiar in every part of the world, but only the vaguest ideas obtain as to the Institution itself. It was with the hope of gaining more information … I called upon Mr. Henry Frowde at the Warehouse, Amen Corner. … The popular publisher to the University was born in 1841. He entered the service of the Religious Tract Society in 1857, and subsequently had considerable experience in the Bible and Prayer.”

“Book business. At the close of 1873 he was invited by the Delegates of the Press to undertake the management of their London businesses, which included the Oxford University Press Warehouse, at 7 Paternoster Row, and the binding business at Barbican. He entered upon his new duties on March 25, 1874. At that time the learned and educational publications of the Clarendon Press were issued by Messrs. Macmillan, but in June 1880, the Delegates of the Press transferred them to their own warehouse at 7 Paternoster Row, and appointed Mr. Frowde “Publisher to the University.” The publishing business was subsequently removed to Amen Corner, and the binding business to Aldersgate Street, and Mr. Frowde opened wholesale branches in Edinburgh and Glasgow.”
“Publishers of To-Day, The Oxford University Press,” in The Publisher, Volume 10, Issue 63 (1895)

incorporated into the covers lined with endpapers of the editions of the original Mallock book that I used with a base incorporating the spines of two of the old boxes.” Princeton University Library is fortunate to have acquired one of these five special bindings.

Teresia Constantia Phillips (1709-1765) was a notorious London courtesan who wrote several memoirs during her lifetime. A portrait painting by Joseph Highmore became the source for numerous engravings and mezzotints, published as frontispieces and sold individually with great success.

“It is probable that she commenced a life of intrigue at a very early age,” begins her biography in the DNB. “To avoid arrest for debt, on 11 Nov. 1722 she went through the form of marriage with a Mr. Devall, who had previously been married under another name, and with whom she never exchanged a word. According to the ‘apologist’ of Lord Chesterfield, although her amours were soon ‘as public as Charing Cross,’ she married, on 9 Feb. 1723, Henry Muilman, a Dutch merchant of good standing. In the following year Muilman managed to obtain from the court of arches a sentence of nullity of marriage, but he agreed to pay Constantia an annuity of 200l. This was discontinued upon her cohabitation at Paris with another admirer (Mr. B.). Henceforth the sequence of her adventures becomes bewildering.”

“…After many experiences in France, England, and the West Indies, she determined to blackmail her friends by publishing ‘An Apology for the Conduct of Mrs. Teresia Constantia Phillips, more particularly that part of it which relates to her Marriage with an eminent Dutch Merchant.’ A motto from the ‘Fair Penitent’ adorned the title-page of the book, which, in consequence of the difficulty of finding a bookseller, was printed for the author in parts, subsequently bound in three volumes, in 1748. A second edition was called for at once, a third appeared in 1750, and a fourth in 1761.”

See also:
Oxford scholar, The Parallel; or, Pilkington and Phillips Compared: Being Remarks upon the Memoirs of Those Two Celebrated Writers (London: M. Cooper, 1748). Rare Books (Ex) PR3619.P442 Z4683 1748

Teresia Constantia Muilman (1709-1765), A Letter Humbly Addressed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Chesterfield (Dublin: printed by George Faulkner, 1750). Rare Books (Ex) 2007-0519N

Lynda M. Thompson, The Scandalous Memoirists: Constantia Phillips, Laeticia Pilkington and the Shame of Publick Fame (Manchester, UK; New York: Manchester University Press; New York: Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martin’s Press, 2000). Firestone Library (F) PR756.W65 T48 2000

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired a book written by Pierre Le Noble, the pseudonym for an unidentified author and published by Pierre Marteau, a fictitious publisher. Although the title page records Cologne as the place of publication, it is more likely to have been printed in Amsterdam for a French audience, to avoid trouble with the censors.

Françoise d’Aubigné marquise de Maintenon (1635-1719) married Louis XIV (1638-1715) in a private ceremony during the winter of 1685-86. It was the second marriage for both. Although morganatic marriages were not recognized in France, this was a secret, unapproved marriage between two people of uneven rank, barring the passage of the King’s titles and privileges to his wife.

The king’s (well-known) secret marriage was a sensitive topic in the seventeenth century, hence the use of a pseudonym by the author and a fictitious name for the publisher. Neither one wanted to risk their careers being connected to a potentially scandalous book.

Le passe-temps royal de Versailles. ou, Les amours secretes de Madame de Maintenon. (The Royal Pass-times of Versailles or The Secret Loves of Madame de Maintenon) (Cologne, Pierre Marteau, 1695). Originally published under the title La cassette ouverte de l’illustre criole, ou, Les amours de madame de Maintenon (A Ville Franche [i.e. Amsterdam?]: David du Four, 1690). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process. Purchased with funds provided by the Goreff/Neuwirth Charitable Trust in honor of Danielle D. van Jaarsveld, Class of 1995.

See also
M. de Beaumelle, (Laurent Angliviel, 1726-1773), Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon (Amsterdam: Aux depens de l’auteur, 1755-1756). Rare Books (Ex) DC130.M2 L18 1755

Françoise Chandernagor, The King’s Way: Recollections of Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, wife to the King of France: a novel (San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1984). Firestone Library (F) PQ2663.H314 A7913 1984

Jeremie Benoit, Les Dames de Trianon (Paris: Berg International; Versailles: Château de Versailles, 2012). Firestone Library (F) DC801.V57 B46 2012

“Their trade card, advertising the ‘Temple of Fancy’, c.1810, focused on the market in genteel products for ladies, … while a later three-page leaflet was aimed at male customers ….”

“A leaflet, apparently from the Lady’s Magazine, August 1823, depicted Fuller’s shop interior, and gives a good idea of the product range; the business was advertised as ‘Publishers of the greatest variety of Sporting Prints…/ TEMPLE OF FANCY/ S. & I. FULLER,/ PREPARERS OF PERMANENT SUPERFINE WATER COLOURS,/…/ Wholesale Manufacturers of Bristol Boards, Ivory Paper & Cards./ Engravers, Publishers, Printsellers, & Fancy Stationers.’”

Happily, a similar advertisement as been acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection, depicting the interior of the Temple of Fancy.

Sunday Bloody Sunday (Dublin: Irish Republican Socialist Party, 1978). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process

Not all rare books are old or bound in leather. This publication from 1978 commemorated the sixth anniversary of 30 January 1972, known as Bloody Sunday. Only four copies are listed in OCLC and only two in the United States.

The foreword, written by The Chairperson, Comhairle Ceanntair, Derry City I.R.S.P., reads in part, “The pamphlet is in eight parts, and has drawn a great number of sources together to present as far as possible, the events of that date, but also the political background which led up to that march which ended in a river of blood. … Part 7, entitled, There’ll be another day, is taken from the front page of the first edition of the Starry Plough, and is believed to have been written by Nell McCafferty, a Derry journalist working with the Irish Times.”

Angelique Chrisafis, writing for The Guardian said, “Nell McCafferty, a foul-mouthed and fearless social commentator, is one of the great feminist heroes of the liberalisation of Ireland. Part Germaine Greer and part Mae West, she is not a woman you should spurn.”

Part 8 offers Thomas Kinsella’s famous poem, The Butcher’s Dozen, which “expresses the anger and disgust of Ireland’s leading poet. This work, with the sub-title A Lesson for the Octave of Widgery, appeared in pamphlet form in late April 1972. …”

See also Thomas Kinsella, Butcher’s Dozen (Dublin, Ireland: Peppercanister: Sold by the Dolmen Press, 1972 (Printed by the Elo Press)). Gift of Leonard L. Milberg ‘53 for the Milberg Irish Poetry Collection. Rare Books (Ex) PR6021.I35 B87 1972 Milberg Irish

Frank Robbins, Under the Starry Plough: Recollections of the Irish Citizen Army (Dublin: Academy Press, 1977). Firestone DA960.R6

Samuel Dash, Justice denied: a challenge to Lord Widgery’s report on “Bloody Sunday” (New York: The Defense and Education Fund of the International League for the Rights of Man in association with the National Council for Civil Liberties, c1972). Firestone DA995.L75 D374 1972

Baron John Passmore Widgery (1911-1981), Report of the Tribunal appointed to inquire into the events on Sunday, 30th January 1972, which led to loss of life in connection with the procession in Londonderry on that day (London: H.M. Stationery Off., 1972). Firestone DA995 .L75 W5 1972

Nell McCafferty, The Best of Nell (Dublin: Attic Press, 1984). Firestone HQ1600.3 .M32

British satirist John Collier (1708-1786), using the pseudonym Tim Bobbin, “developed his trade as a painter … producing inn signs, painted panels, and grotesque caricatures which were widely distributed, reaching the American colonies via a Liverpool merchant. He promoted and distributed his own work, travelling all over northern England collecting and delivering orders and commissions for books and pictures and consuming the proceeds as he went.

“…In 1773 was published his Human Passions Delineated, an upmarket edition of his caricatures which acted as a catalogue, in which he described himself as the ‘Lancashire Hogarth’…The 1810 London edition of Human Passions systematically softened his caricatures… The Victorian antiquary W. E. Axon thought his pictures ‘execrable … gross and cruel’, while the Dictionary of National Biography found them ‘grotesque’ and ‘absolutely devoid of artistic merit’.”— DNB

Bond Street print publisher Edward Orme (1775-1848) resurrected Collier’s caricatures in 1810 and reissued the set on 27 leaves with the only title on a printed label pasted to the wrapper (not included with this set).

Thanks to the generous donation of Bruce and Suzie Kovner, the Princeton University Library is the proud new owner of the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible, designed and created by Barry Moser [seen above]. Moser spent four years crafting the 232 relief engravings that illustrate this Bible. Printed in a deluxe limited edition by the Pennyroyal Caxton Press, Moser’s Bible is also available in a trade edition released by Viking Studio, which can also be found in Princeton’s collection.

The Holy Bible: Containing All the Books of the Old and New Testaments. Book designed and illustrated by Barry Moser; printed by Bradley Hutchinson and Harold McGrath; bound by Claudia Cohen and Sarah Creighton; and type designed by Matthew Carter. North Hatfield, Mass.: Pennyroyal Caxton Press, 1999. Graphic Arts Collection. Limited edition, copy 142 of 400. Gift of Bruce and Suzie Kovner.

Colophon:
“The Pennyroyal Caxton Bible was designed & illustrated by Barry Moser. It was composed & printed folio by Bradley Hutchinson at his press in Austin, Texas …
The presswork commenced in the spring of 1997 and completed in the autumn of 1999. The text follows that of Frederick Scrivener’s 1873 critical edition of the Cambridge Paragraph Bible of the Authorized English (King James) version….
The paper is Zerkall Bible. The paper for the special copies was made by Kathryn and Howard Clark at Twinrocker Handmade Papers in Brookston, Indiana. The watermarks were designed by the illustrator based on 16th century French models. The illustrations were engraved in resingrave …
The blocks were cast by hand for Mr. Moser by the inventor of the medium, Richard Woodman of Redwood City, California …
The typefaces are Galliard, Mantinia, & Mantinia Greek designed by Matthew Carter of Cambridge, Massachusetts, based on models by Robert Granjon & Andrea Manmets …
The bindings are from the combined workshops of Claudia Cohen and Sarah Creighton in Easthampton, Massachusetts. The prints that accompany the special copies were printed on hand-made Japanese Kitakata by Harold McGrath.”

Watch the documentary A Thief Among the Angels, made by Doug and Jason Kessler in 2001 (Princeton University students can watch the whole film through http://catalog.princeton.edu). “The film tells the story of Barry Moser… a master book designer, illustrator, publisher and virtuoso wood engraver. Now, he has completed the project of a lifetime, a limited edition Bible. It is the only Bible of the 20th century to be illustrated by a single artist, who believes “the problems of good and evil are still to be fought today”. …After being brought up in a southern fundamentalist background, Moser became disillusioned with the church and moved north, studying printing and typography at the Gehenna Press. His own Pennyroyal Press has published books like Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. He also designs for other publishers, such as Arion Press for whom he did Melville s Moby-Dick.”

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the First Bank of the United States stood on South Third Street in Philadelphia. Just down the block, Scottish-born artist William Charles (1776-1820) opened his first American print shop, publishing etchings, illustrated books, and caricatures. Over by the river on North Water Street, the shipping magnate and financier Stephen Girard (1750-1831) operated his trading business and made more money than anyone else in the United States.

When the charter for the First Bank expired in 1811, Girard bought the building and most of its stock, opening his own bank in its place. Charles watched as Girard’s fortune grew and eventually, published a caricature of the banker.

In the print Girard envisions a Spanish Dollar and conjures it to drop into his till. He says: “Surely my eyes do not deceive me—It certainly must be a dollar! I declare I have not seen such a thing since I sold the last I had in my vaults at 18 per cent premium—If thou art a real dollar do drop in my till and let me hear thee chink—As I have been sued for payment of part of my notes in specie I must collect some to pay them for quietness sake or the game would be up at once—”

A sign behind him reads, “Stephen Graspall, banker & shaver. Paper wholesale & retail NB No foreign bank notes taken on deposit except such as are about 5 per cent above par.”

See also Stephen Girard (1750-1831), The Will of the Late Stephen Girard, esq., procured from the Office for the Probate of Wills (Philadelphia: T. and R. Desilver, 1832). Rare Books (Ex) LD7501.P5 G583

The Flatiron Building at 175 Fifth Avenue opened in 1902, one block east of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. If you watch this 1920 film closely you will see both skyscrapers around the middle of the reel. http://rbsc.princeton.edu/pathebaby/node/1629

Born in Anduze, Liquier studied theology and spent three years as a minister in Ardèche before moving to Paris and changing careers. He went on to publish both images and texts, sometimes using the pseudonyms “Trick” and later, “Trock” for his caricatures.

Liquier was only twenty-four, studying in Geneva, when he created this cartoon book about a donkey traveling to Mars, a satire on both Geneva politics and the French. Of particular note is his early use of the cartoon cell and progressive narrative, not unlike the early work of Rudolph Töpffer (1799-1846).

Collège no 1 (Paris: R. Labadie, 1930). Pochoir prints. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2013-0022Q

The Bibliothèque nationale de France and Princeton University are the only institutions with copies of this journal. Each page of Princeton’s copy is stamped with the word ‘specimen’ leading us to believe our copy is a prospectus for a proposed magazine.

The publisher’s imprint “R. Labadie” is taken from the back cover and the art deco “no 1” can be seen at the top of the cover. Our issue is filled with pochoir prints by illustrators Georges Goetz and Stephen Bourgoignon among others. Essays, poetry, and commentary by Jean Albery and Fred Koch are also included.

Dan Kainen and Carol Kaufmann, Safari: a Photicular Book (New York: Workman Pub., 2012). Graphic Arts Collection 2013- in process.

Safari recently joined our collection of optical devices. Photographer and lighting expert Dan Kainen created the plates and Carol Kaufmann, a staff writer for National Geographic, wrote the commentary.

Kainen has a small website, http://www.dankainen.com/index.htm, where he describes his process. “Photicular, also known as Lenticular, or Integrated Photography, was first conceived in the early 20th century, but the basic concept has been around since 1692 when a French painter created paintings that revealed one, and then the other as the observer walked by. The simplest form of it is to cut two images into thin vertical strips and interleave them, placing in front of the composite image a plane of bars, like a picket fence, which only allows one to see one image at a time though the gaps. Instead of bars, lenses can be used, and more than two images - as many as dozens - can be interleaved.”

A lenticular image can easily be made using Photoshop and a number of tutorials are available on the internet. An image is broken into layers that are viewed from slightly different angles, tricking the eye into thinking the image is moving. Here’s one site: http://www.vicgi.net/lenticular-interlacing-algorithm.html

As an interesting sidebar, Kainen is the son of the painter and printmaker Jacob Kainen (1909-2001). In the 1930s, Jacob was a member of the Graphic Arts Division of the WPA and from 1942 to 1970, curator of the Division of Graphic Arts at the Smithsonian Institution. As the divisions of the Smithsonian grew, his collection moved to the Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History).

(left) Edward Ruscha, Twentysix Gasoline Stations. 3d ed. (Alhambra, Calif.: Cunningham Press, 1969).Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2006-2396N.

(right) Sowon Kwon, Dongghab ([Montpelier, VT]: Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2010. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process

point of departure is the discovery that the publication of Edward Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations and the suicide of Sylvia Plath by oven gas both occurred in 1963, the year of Kwon’s birth.

Cued by Ruscha’s seminal work, Kwon unveils an uncanny cosmology of events constellated by the convergence of “1963” with “gasoline” such as the assassination of Medgar Evers (after having lead a successful boycott of white-owned gasoline stations in Jackson, Mississippi) and the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc in Saigon (in protest of the oppression of Buddhists by the Catholic administration of then president Ngo Dinh Diem), among others.

The Korean word dongghab describes a social relationship between people born in the same year, so that the idea of a (self) portrait as socially contingent and historically determined as much as individuated, informs the book.”

New York-based artist Sowon Kwon works in a range of media including sculptural and video installations, digital animation, drawing, and printmaking. Her recent work explores portraiture, perception, and historical memory as our bodies are increasingly submitted to and made accessible through technology.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired twenty-five hand-made books from Ediciones Vigía based in the city of Matanzas to the east of Havana, Cuba. Most have a mimeographed reproduction of a typescript text, wrapped in unique, decorative paper binding. The books are hand-colored, stapled, sewn, glued, folded and in countless other ways constructed into editions of 200, most with a signed colophon.

The Cuban publishing house has been active since 1985 under the artistic direction of Rolando Estévez Jordán and editorial direction of Laura Ruiz. Agustina Ponce serves as the overall director of Ediciones Vigía.

A few of the titles now in the Graphic Arts Collection include Nancy Morejón and Rolando Estévez Jordán, El Río de Martín Pérez y Otros Poemas (Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 1996); Fernández René and Juan Antonio Carbonell Gómez, La Ikú y Elegguá (Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 1994) and Rafael Acosta de Arriba and Hiram Aguíar, Los Signos al Infinito: Una Lectura de la Poesía de Octavio Paz (Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 1992). They will all soon be searchable here.

This video gives you a chance to go inside the artists’ studio in Cuba and see them at work. Well worth the time to watch.