David Greenhood, “The Book as an Aesthetic
Object,” in Fine Print 2:4 (October 1976), 59.
Indeed, the flavor of my collecting interest came to me like a secreted dessert—a treat that has whispered to me and fed me.
I was initially trained in the letterpress and private printing arena. I hold a deep appreciation for typography and a well-set page, but also for the writing and production of an entire book. Eventually my fascination with this led to bookbinding—and as a final path that seemed to hold both printing and binding aloft, to designer binding. My personal aesthetic first led me to the tomes that started my library; growing it has become an unexpected joy. Designer bindings are what I collect, giving Greenhood's nourishment in a sumptuous manner: as a cover to the finest that literature has to offer.
]]>Designer binding by Pierre-Lucien Martin (1954). Illustration by Francis Picabia.
David Greenhood, “The Book as an Aesthetic
Object,” in Fine Print 2:4 (October 1976), 59.
Indeed, the flavor of my collecting interest came to me like a secreted dessert—a treat that has whispered to me and fed me.
I was initially trained in the letterpress and private printing arena. I hold a deep appreciation for typography and a well-set page, but also for the writing and production of an entire book. Eventually my fascination with this led to bookbinding—and as a final path that seemed to hold both printing and binding aloft, to designer binding. My personal aesthetic first led me to the tomes that started my library; growing it has become an unexpected joy. Designer bindings are what I collect, giving Greenhood's nourishment in a sumptuous manner: as a cover to the finest that literature has to offer.
Candida Hӧfer’s “photographs are sober and restrained in feel—the atmosphere is disturbed by neither visitors nor users, especially as she forgoes any staging of the locations. The emptiness is imbued with substance by a subtle attention to colour, and the prevailing silence instilled with a metaphysical quality that gives voice to the objects, over and above the eloquence of the furnishings and the pathos of the architecture….” This crisp description of Höfer’s artistry can be found, along with Trinity College Library Dublin I, in her book of photographs, Libraries (2005).
Aside from the brilliance of this composition, which presents Trinity College Library as a "chambered nautilus" of receding spaces, I responded to this photograph, purchased at a satellite fair of Art Basel Miami Beach, because of the library depicted. My graduate thesis was on the art criticism of Samuel Beckett. A further expansion of the scope of the topic to include a wide swath of the writer's critical output necessitated investigations into the “systems” of Dante, Bruno, Vico and Joyce, among other great thinkers. This photograph is a reminder to me of the great erudition that informs all of Beckett's oeuvre, and the venerable institution that helped foster his imagination.]]>Chromogenic color print, no. 24/100, 9¼ x 11½ in.
Candida Hӧfer’s “photographs are sober and restrained in feel—the atmosphere is disturbed by neither visitors nor users, especially as she forgoes any staging of the locations. The emptiness is imbued with substance by a subtle attention to colour, and the prevailing silence instilled with a metaphysical quality that gives voice to the objects, over and above the eloquence of the furnishings and the pathos of the architecture….” This crisp description of Höfer’s artistry can be found, along with Trinity College Library Dublin I, in her book of photographs, Libraries (2005).
Aside from the brilliance of this composition, which presents Trinity College Library as a "chambered nautilus" of receding spaces, I responded to this photograph, purchased at a satellite fair of Art Basel Miami Beach, because of the library depicted. My graduate thesis was on the art criticism of Samuel Beckett. A further expansion of the scope of the topic to include a wide swath of the writer's critical output necessitated investigations into the “systems” of Dante, Bruno, Vico and Joyce, among other great thinkers. This photograph is a reminder to me of the great erudition that informs all of Beckett's oeuvre, and the venerable institution that helped foster his imagination.A souvenir travel album representing highlights in photography of the major architectural and archaeological sites of southern Italy. Carlo Brogi and his son Giacomo, along with the Fratelli Alinari, were Italy’s leading nineteenth-century documentary photographers and prepared elegant albums of original albumen photographs for purchase by mostly British, American and German tourists.
Depicted is a view of Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background, among the chief destinations for visitors to Naples and environs following Pompeii’s excavation in the mid-eighteenth century.
Collecting travel albums is an adjunct to my interests in photography and European prints, especially of the late Renaissance and Baroque periods.]]>Each photograph approx. 8 x 10 in.
A souvenir travel album representing highlights in photography of the major architectural and archaeological sites of southern Italy. Carlo Brogi and his son Giacomo, along with the Fratelli Alinari, were Italy’s leading nineteenth-century documentary photographers and prepared elegant albums of original albumen photographs for purchase by mostly British, American and German tourists.
Depicted is a view of Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background, among the chief destinations for visitors to Naples and environs following Pompeii’s excavation in the mid-eighteenth century.
Collecting travel albums is an adjunct to my interests in photography and European prints, especially of the late Renaissance and Baroque periods.