Look Again:
Artist’s Books and Prints
by Deborah Bryan

This online catalog represents a few of the works on display in this exhibition. For details about these works, or for a complete catalog (in pdf format) please contact us.

Bryan states:

For me, the artist’s book provides an opportunity to present my work in a different format, hence the title Look Again.  As a printmaker, I regularly find myself with a completed edition and used, but beautiful, copper plates or endgrain maple blocks.  These matrices can become pages or covers.  Proofs can be recycled and reconfigured as content for books.  

Cirsium, 2011.  The covers of this book are canceled copper intaglio plates from Cirsium and Cirsium Negatives, editions of which were completed in 2010.  Each cover plate is attached to its hinge plate with kangaroo leather, and screw posts join the hinges.  Inside are four concertina pages with photographs of the genus Cirsium, also known as thistles, taken by the artist in Grassy Creek, North Carolina using a Nikon D90 single lens reflex camera with a Micro Nikkor 60mm lens.  The photographs were processed using Capture NX2 (for digital processing of raw files), Silver Efex Pro 2 (for conversion to black and white), and Photoshop CS5 (for printing).  The photographs were printed on Epson Ultrasmooth Fine Art paper using an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 pigment-based large format printer and archival inks. SOLD

Nine Blocks, 2011.  During the summer of 2011, I worked on several wood engravings, in part because I had just finished restoring a Vandercook SP25 Proof Press at my college.  The Vandercook enabled me to print more detailed blocks than those printable on my etching press. I quickly built a collection of carved endgrain maple blocks, and they were used as pages in this book. I opted for a relatively simple construction of brass hinges to hold the “pages” together. On the reverse side of each block a proof print has been attached. Each block was printed in a varied edition using colored chine colle papers that were pre-pasted with wheat paste, dried, printed on the Vandercook, and then attached to damp printmaking paper using an etching press.  The folded book is stored in an enclosure made of ambrosia maple. $350

 Detritus Portfolio, 2010. This book contains the 22 intaglio and wood engraving prints in the Detritus series completed from July of 2008 through July of 2010, plus three earlier prints that formed the basis for the more recent work. The book is constructed using a dos-a-dos format and modified hemp leaf Japanese stab bindings. This side of the book contains prints with a horizontal orientation. The other side contains prints with a vertical orientation. The covers are constructed of binder’s board, book cloth and lokta. Portions of canceled copper plates are inlayed on both covers. A clamshell box in included. $900

From the Detritus series of prints, Indian Pipes (above) and Cirsium (right). More from this series available. Framed to 20x18 with UV plexi. $250 each (framed)

Below is an example of one of the Ethiopian Coptic books Bryan creates. Beautiful examples, they each use a different exotic wood for cover, various sewing patterns and richly textured papers. So, while they are essentially 'blank' the level of craft and thoughtful use of materials allow them to transcend that genre. Full details about the coptics in inventory available on request. $175 each

A Peculiar Ornithology, 1998.  Artist’s book using an across-the-spine sewing to bind several original bird images (watercolor and monotype).  The outside covers and clamshell box use binder’s board, book cloth, Fabriano Roma paper, and mango paper.        $250   

Feathers, 1997. This editioned (3) artist’s book uses a combination of an accordion spine, to which the signatures are attached, and a piano hinge.  The hinge is held closed with a pin made of a bone folder.  Three-color intaglio prints, printed alla poupee, are accompanied by ornithological text.  The covers are made of Daphne paper over binder’s board, the endpapers are unryu, and both text and images are printed on Zerkall Copperplate. SOLD

Drawings and Prints, 2006.  This artist’s book uses an exposed spine sewing that combines the Smith-sewn single-sheets Coptic method with paired-stations Coptic sewing. The text block is attached to the wood covers using the Ethiopian method of sewing through the edge of the covers.  The imagery in the book consists of seven etchings and their accompanying preliminary drawings.  All the etchings use chine colle, and they are printed with a wide variety of papers.  Between each drawing/print pair is a piece of sheet mica,  mined in the Spruce Pine, North Carolina area.  The covers are maple and curly maple veneer, and include an inset cancelled copper plate. SOLD

The Portable Art Experience, 2006. This book consists of the Portable Viewing Device and several images collected in a slipcase. The viewing device and slipcase are made from binder’s board and archival mat board and are covered in Iris book cloth. The Portable Art Experience also uses mango paper, Fabriano Ingres paper, sheet mica, plexiglass, a multi-prismatic plastic lens, kangaroo leather, copper rivets, bone clasps, copper wire, and industrial knobs.  The imagery consists of portions of intaglio prints completed by the artist from 1999 through 2006. The birds depicted are Great Blue Herons, a Great Egret, Common Crows, European Starlings, a Pink Flamingo, a Peacock, a Magpie, Ostriches, Roseate Spoonbills, a Sage Grouse, and Hammerkops. $350

Favorite Dead Birds, 2010.  The covers of this book are constructed from sycamore, sheet mica, acrylic sheet, two very old bird wings, and linen thread. The hinge pin is a walnut dowel, which connects the front and back of the book with linen thread, and the closure is kangaroo with a brass pin.  The text block consists of original inkjet prints on an accordion of Magnani Pescia cream paper. $350