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Design Category
Book design, 2007
Design firm
emdash (St. Louis, Missouri)
Collection
(2008) 50 Books/50 Covers of 2007
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My connection to India was formed through the poetry of Mirabai, which I published over 25 years ago, and has continued through publications of poetry about India by Octavio Paz and some of his translations from Sanskrit. As a limited-edition publisher, I print works that I love and that I hope have a unique quality in shape and form. For this edition, a new translation was commissioned and printed in English and the original Sanskrit. One of the primary challenges was to transform my photographic images from India into relief plates to be printed letterpress. The book is printed in a succession of over 20 different blues, each a manifestation of a color of Krishna I found in various forms in India. I chose to exploit a unique quality of letterpress: the ability to draw an image through the sheet by saturating the verso with layers of ink, creating what I came to call the “elusive” image, evocative of these passionate, erotic poems.
Grace and elegance with a superb selection of colors, both in paper and in ink. The rhythm of the book is perfect.