𝙎𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩… “𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙨”

𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘳𝘦 𝘥’𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦 (𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵’𝘴 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬)

An artist’s book is a medium of artistic expression that uses the form or function of a book as inspiration, acting as a work of art in itself rather than a container for other art. 𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵… “𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴” is a limited edition artist’s book of 150 numbered copies.

This book really had its beginnings almost three quarters of a century ago as my family settled into a small rural town in northeast Ohio surrounded by countless acres of woods, fields, farms and marshes. Photography became a companion to another passion, that for hunting, as the latter kept me outdoors and engaged with nature through the fall and winter. Photography, especially throughout the spring and summer, provided yet another perspective through which to observe life and contemplate my own seasons as years passed.

The origin of “Still Point,” the eponymous title for this book as well as the name we adopted for our art gallery in 2009, was appropriated from the poem, “Burnt Norton,” the first of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, an ode to the metaphysical nature of time as a paean to transient beauty. It has provided a guiding principle for my approach to photography as an art form and a way to envision the world.

The intention for this book always was to produce something more than a traditional book, a work of art that I had hoped would integrate my writing and photography. In that spirit I have endeavored to create an artwork in book form, something often referred to as a 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘳𝘦 𝘥’𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦 (artist’s book).

Although the term didn’t emerge until the early twentieth century, the use of books as an art form dates to the Middle Ages (for example, the Book of Kells) and was reinvigorated later at the end of the eighteenth century by Romantic poet William Blake and his wife Catherine as they made use of the format to write, illustrate, print, color and bind books. Merging handwritten texts and images was further popularized during the twentieth century as it connected self-publishing and distribution with the integration of text, image and form, all central principles for the artist’s book.

With that somewhat tedious expounding, it was nonetheless the governing principle for the creation of this work as I cobbled many of my favorite images and prose into a book in which I have been intimately involved through design, binding and pigment ink printing of each page and image as well as the printing of each book jacket on archival stock.

𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻

Font: Sabon

Pages: 100lb text

Cover: Strathmore Wove

Jacket: Rives

This special issue of the first edition of 𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵… “𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴” is limited to 150 numbered copies.

Signed by the artist.

Six copies are reserved for the author and his family.