|
Circle
Press
~ England |
|
Alphabet Books |
|
| The Burning of the Books A poem sequence by George Szirtes based on Elias Canetti's novel 'Auto da Fé' |
|
illustrated by Ron King. 10.25 x 14"; 15 etchings (13 full page, one double spread, and one quarter page. Text letterpressed printed in Walbaum type from polymer plates. Housed in solander box. Prospectus: "Back in 1971 Ron King at the press in Guildford tried to obtain permission from the publishers to illustrate Elias Canetti's great novel Auto da Fé. Permission was denied to him, as to all others who had requested it, as the author did not wish his work to be illustrated or made into a play or film. In 1981 the novel won Canetti the Nobel prize for literature but still the writer would not release his tight grip on the copyright. Canetti died in 1994 and ten years later King took it on himself to persuade George Szirtes winner of the Eliot prize for poetry 2004, to make a book with him on the theme of Auto da Fé. Within a short time poem after poem of a powerful sequence directly related to or inspired by his re-reading of the book, the poems living as it were, in the crevices of Canetti's text, arrived at the press from Szirtes." George Szirtes, Introduction: "The sequence is titled 'The Burning of the Books' since that is what happens at the end of Auto da Fé. The scholar's library burns in anticipation of the Nazi book-burnings to come. The poems are fuel for King's visual symbiotic-organisms, joining them in a mutual homage-cum-conflagration." |
 Click image for more |
Anansi Company 45 x 34 x11cm. Made up of 15 colorful unbound sections with thirteen screen printed removable wire and card puppets. All loosely inserted into card wraparound and held in large colour-blocked solander box. Each book involved over 500 hand workings. Introduction and accompanying verse printed letter-press in 14 & 18 pt Walbaum. This is the seventh collaboration of King & Fisher. The content was derived from Walter Jekyll's 'Jamaican Song & Story 1907,' a contemporary rendering of some familiar tales central to Caribbean culture, brought by slaves from Africa, concerning Anansi the spiderman and his company of friends.
|
|
The Song of Solomon 6.5 x 9"; 76 pages. Four color lithography. Casebound in red bookcloth with gilt stamped illustration. Laid in an illustrated cardboard box with unattached lid. Prospectus: "This is the first four colour litho reproduction book published by Circle Press. The book comes with commentary by George Szirtes. Gold blocked as the original. ... Included with the book is an eight page leaflet (Artists and Books in the 20th Century) written by Pat Gilmour, art historian and critic." Introduction: "Whatever the origin and purpose of The Song of Solomon, whether considered as an allegory, an idyll, a book to celebrate human love or as recently defined, a collection of songs rooted in the cult liturgies of Pre-Israelite Canaan, it contains some of the most lyrical poetry in existence. In 1968 Ron King divided the text from the King James version of the Bible into eighteen songs or poems and interspersed them with forty hand-printed designs of 'pagan splendor and beauty' in a limited edition of one hundred and fifty books. Those books are now in museum and book collections all over the world. Here, for the first time, is the book reproduced and made available to a wider audience." |
|
| Through the years Ronald King has produced several alphabet books in pop-up form. The first was "Scenes from the Alphabet" in 1978. In 2007 he produced three new versions. | |
The White Alphabet 5.25 x 11.5" with colophon letter-press in 14 pt Gill Light – 56 pp – 29 x 14 cm in canvas box and slip-case. With title in gilt capital letters across spine. A double-sided concertina alphabet book, without text, cut onto RWS hand-made paper and bound between inlaid wood boards. "The elegant simplicity of this work comes about through sophisticated and refined paper engineering that takes subtle heed of texture and tone. Through thoughtful variations on the theme of white paper, King explores the idea of emergent form in its avatar of a sculptured alphabet: this, while three-dimensional, shares with its self-frame a smooth (i.e., worked on), texture that contrasts with the rougher matte of the fuller page background and, ultimately, the deckled - 'unfinished' - lower edge. Two wood covers, sensuous to the touch, call to mind the creation of paper from wood, and are designed, front and back, with forms of positive and negative relationships. Since alphabets ordinarily contrast in color with paper in order for words to be read, through an intriguing irony, the title opens the mind toward appreciating other kinds of contrasts." [Beyond the Text: Artists' Books from the Collection of Robert J. Ruben by Yvonne Korshak and Robert J. Ruben]
|
 Click image to enlarge |
Ronald King produced three new double-sided concertina alphabet books in 2007. Circle Press: "Each is artwork, typographical experiment, and feat of paper engineering. They utilise delightful pop-up techniques in tribute and meditation on the alphabet, the visual DNA of languages...." |
|
ALPHABETA CONCERTINA 56 pages, 16.5 x 11 cm. A red and white double-sided concertina alphabet book of 26 pop-out capital letters. Cut and creased onto Heritage Book paper and glued to silk screened Heritage Museum Board. Circle Press: "A new version of ALPHABETA CONCERTINA, King's classic capital letter 1983 version, reprised here to correct its long 'out of print' status and updated with newly modified designs for some of the letters."
|
 Click image for more |
alphabeta concertina minuscule 56 pages, 16.5 x 11 cm. Blue and white double-sided concertina alphabet book with 26 pop-out small letters. Cut and creased onto Heritage Book paper and glued to silk screened Heritage Museum end-boards. Circle Press: "alphabeta concertina minuscule with its gently unfolding letters is in a sense a 'reply' in lower case form to the original 'cap' version published in 1983."
|
 Click image for more |
little but often 56 pages, 16.5 x 11 cm (6.5 x 4.3"). A red and white double-sided concertina alphabet book with the new miniscules (designed for alphabeta concertina miniscule) combined with Richard Price's poem. Cut and creased onto Heritage Book paper and glued to silk screened Heritage Museum end-boards. Circle Press: "... a collaboration with poet Richard Price. It pairs King at his most elegantly minimalist and sculptural with a new suite of love poems by Price at his most witty and tender."
|
 Click image for more |
| Wire Embossed Books | |
Les Bijoux 7 x 11” closed. Letterpress printed in two colors and "drawn" in wire on blue-black Khadi handmade paper. Board covers and handmade paper wrapper. With a "free variation" in English by Kenneth White entitled "The Lady of the Jewels." The text of the poem and Ron King's wire-pressed illustrations are printed on alternating panels. The accordion-fold book opens from the top to reveal the translation and images. Then the book opens further, into a triptych in which the bejeweled lady fills the large central panel. Side panels are printed in French and show the reversed images from the English side. |
 Click image for more |
Turn Over Darling 20 x 15cm. Designed and drawn in wire on Khadi pure rag-made paper. Six drawings when folded and juxtaposed in sequence, make for eleven reclining nude images which change position from front to back view. In slipcase. Embossed and debossed images of a womanly figure reveal themselves as the reader dips through each page. Wire forms were pressed into the dampened sheets of each spread to create a delightful and lighthearted erotic sequence. "The female nude, that favored subject of art, is given a whole new twist - several of them, in fact - in Ron King's 'Turn Over Darling,' wordless and all in white. The initial intaglio image, the upper part of a woman, reverses with a turn of the page and, now in relief, joins with a facing lower body to form a classic image of a reclining nude but ... another turn of the page and the lower part, in intaglio, meets a new upper part, forming a new view of the nude. The pages turn and for each upper half of the body, there is a lower half that then becomes the lower half for the next upper half, with ongoing reversals between relief and intaglio. Take a guess at the final image. With the use of a wire impressed in the paper pulp, the figures are drawn with Matisse like clarity. Sensuous, classic, witty, filled with movement - in 'Turn Over Darling,' the artist finds a new way to love that darling woman, and a new way to express profound appreciation for the beauty of the female form." [Beyond the Text: Artists' Books from the Collection of Robert J. Ruben by Yvonne Korshak and Robert J. Ruben] |
|
Circus Turn 20 x 15cm, with 24 pages embossed onto hand-made paper on an etching press. Six drawings in wire, folded & juxtaposed in sequence make 11 changing circus scenes. In blue paper covered slipcase. The embossed and debossed images of circus scenes and animals create playful pages. |
 Click image to enlarge |
Echo Book 20 x 8cm. Drawn in wire & blind-embossed on an etching press. White pages and dark blue cover. Pamphlet stitched. Long, narrow format. The words echo book are embossed into substantial handmade rag paper so that the impression gradually grows "quieter" as you advance. (3 x 7.5 inches with a play on words 'Echo Book' which reversed in capital letters 'Book Echo.' The impression fades as the pages are turned in sequence.
|
 |
| Shakespeare & Chaucer | |
Antony & Cleopatra 40 x 32cm. Designed and produced by Ronald King with notes & introductory essay 'The Elusive Absolute' by Keith Please. Text in 10 pt Baskerville. Paper is pure rag-made 250 gsm. Velin Cuve Rives Blanc. 11 eight-page unstitched sections contained in a specially designed canvas cover portfolio. Production involved over 200 hand printings. In beige & blue folding box designed by Paul Haskell. A beautifully rendered edition of Shakespeare's play with King's own marginal notes and lustrous contemporary illustrations.
|
 Click image for more |
Macbeth 50 x 35 cm, 60 pages in 15 unstitched four page sections. Printed on J. Green mould-made paper. Housed in a natural canvas covered folder and black slipcase. Ten silk screen mask designs, all titled and initialed with the entire text of the play printed letter-press in 14 pt Plantin. William Shakespeare's tragedy with King's illustrations make a wondrous combination. |
 Click image to enlarge |
| Books about Circle Press | |
Tabernacle 33 x 23 x 23 cm., seven-drawer black cabinet. Designed to celebrate seven generations of printing in the King family. Case I: "Hole", a bound book with verse, graphics, and history concerning the first three generations and a foreword by George Szirtes (44 pages, signed , 28 x 21 cm). Case II: "Horse", a double-sided folding print with verse, graphics and history covering the remaining generations (in 16 sections, 71 x 54 cm). Cases III & IV: Contains two sets of magnetized letters one black (50 magnetized letters reproduced from the original 'found' box of type onto a 10mm base) and one red (60 magnetized letters reproduced). Case V: Contains a set of rubber-stamp letters (64 rubber-stamp letters cast from the originals and glued to a solid base 16mm high for printing with dye ink or oil paint). Case VI: A Folding double-sided metal-based display and storage box for use with the magnetized letters. Case VII: "Hell-box", a folding display box for one of 56 unique montage designs made from left- over material. |
|
| Poetry | |
Mirrors 11.75 x 8.5" 8 pages with foil head shaped insert. Szirtes' poem reflects on what it will be like to be 98. The poem is accompanied by a reflection by Ron King. The mid section of the book opens to a foil silhouette of a head. An open eye is on the left page which is reflected in the silhouette to show a pair of open eyes. On the right page is a closed eye so that the reflection then shows a pair of closed eyes. The reflecting silhouette is non-gender. When I am ninety-eight I shall listen to music Whether I will be man or woman then Mirrors, by George Szirtes, winner of the Eliott prize 2005, designed and produced by Ron King. |
 |
Delicious Babies 30 x 20cm (11.8 x 7.9"); 16 pages. Eight blind-embossed illustrations carved from linoleum. Letterpress printed in blue and red in 12 pt Baskerville. Printed on 250 gsm Somerset rag-made paper. Sewn into a thick card cover with handmade paper wrap-around. Ron King in Cooking the Books: "Willow [King's wife] heard this poem read by the poet on a radio programme and, obsessed with babies as she is, wrote to the author for permission to illustrate her text. My wife can never resist drawing babies, especially new-born ones, and has modeled and carved them ever since we had our own. Someday, someone perceptive enough will give her a show on the baby theme." Poem was taken from Taxing the Rain (1992) by Shuttle with the permission of the poet & publisher (Oxford University Press).
$150 |
 Click image for more |
Claim Claim Claim 30 x 25 cm (11.8 x 9.8"); 60 pages. Six original screen prints. Printed letterpress in 14 pt Modern by Des Jeffery in Suffolk. Printed on Glastonbury Book paper. Sewn into card cover with a green paper wrapper. Welsh poet Anthony Conran supplies the poetry, Ron King the images. Ron King, Cooking the Books: "My first collaboration with a contemporary poet whom I met through Ian [Tyson] (after an exhibition at Bangor University where Conran taught)." We recede from each other. The child distinguishes, the lover withdraws, the man of decision is afraid. $125 |
 Click image for more |
| Collaborative projects | |
A Book of Postcards 15 x 10 cm (5.9 x 3.9"); 17 leaves. Paper: thick card stock. Concertina structure. Printed offset lithography. Wraparound cover attached to first leaf. This multicolored concertina book with 17 tear-out postcards featuring colored stripes is a co-publication of Circle Press and artist Sophie Smallhorn. Smallhorn, a British artist specializing in sculptural pieces, studied furniture design at Brighton College and uses colored off-cuts from her designs to create her art. Sophie Smallhorn: "[My} work explores the relationships between colour, volume, and proportion" |
|
Daily Translating System 29 x 21 cm (11.4 x 8.2"); 40 pages. Cards letterpress printed in three colors. Printed on buff laid paper. Specimen cards tipped in. Stapled into brown card wraparound cover with printed label. Signed and numbered by the artist. Ron King in Cooking the Books: "Our first conceptual book." Circle Press: "Conceived and designed by the artist, with 12 specimen cards tipped onto the pages, each assigned to a different day of the week, with suggested rules and comments page." Howe begins with seven procedures for his "Daily Translating System." In his summary comments he concludes: "The foregoing rules are intended for performance by anyone interested. ... This translation may be regarded as the changing, transformation, or conversion from a notated condition to an active physical one or, conceivable a passive meditative one if that is involved in a particular task." |
 Click image for more |
| As with many artists King uses left over materials and cast away work to produce new art work. | |
Matisse's Model 23 x 17cm, with mirror-foil, sprayed pages, and a removable freestanding figure in collaged cardboard box. One of a series of recycled books designed by King, cut by laser, assembled & painted by hand. A figure cut from the cover becomes a free leaning figure.
|
 Click image to enlarge |
Circle Press Out of Print Title: |
|
Heart Book VI 7 x 9 x .75"; 78 pages. Altered book. Painted covers. The text block has been cut in a half-heart shape. Signed by King. Cooking the Books: "A range of Heart Books were made as original items for the V&A [Victoria & Albert] gift shop for Valentine's Day. Discarded books of different size and thickness were cut right through with a jig-saw. Some hearts were hand-painted inside and outside and are removable from the main book block." This Heart Book uses a discarded Song of Solomon trade edition (Circle Press, 1990) as its base.
|
 Click image for more |
The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales 111 x 16"; 72 pages. Letterpress printed in Monotype Plantin seires 110. Printed on paper 190 gsm Queen Anne Antique White. Screenprints printed on Bockingford 190 gsm. Bound in blue cloth with slipcase. Original print of "The Nonne" in separate paper folder. The original edition of King's "The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" was first designed and printed in 1966 by the artist for Editions Alecto in a limited edition of 125 unbound books. This was the first publication of Circle Press. A facsimile edition of 5,000 was printed in 1978 (approximately 1500 copies were rejected due to faulty binding). At the same time 250 copies were set aside to include a newly designed print and specially written poem segregated in a separate folder. Ronald King, Cooking the Books: "This second edition was produced for Martin Ackerman of Sovereign Arts to be given to colleges and collections across the U.S. The budget was originally set for ordinary four-colour reproduction. I volunteered to produce a facsimile edition in silk screen and letterpress for the same price. Marty was so pleased with the result that extra folders with prints were added to make the production even more special." Kevin Power, "Introduction" [to this Prologue]: "Ron King's illustrations make no attempt to convey the psychological aspects of each pilgrim but deal with their function in society. He blends symbolism and mediaeval heraldry to give us the mask they wear. It's an intriguing idea to use the African mask since many of its rituals revolve around notions of social balance, of how a person can function both as an individual and as part of a tribal unit. Being a person is also being mystical, being endowed with a rightful thirst for the transcendence of human limitations. The masks set out to maintain the balance between the real and the transcendent. This, indeed, was the aim of the strict hierarchies within Chaucer's own society." |
|
Page last update: 08.16.11
Home | About Us | Contact Us | New Arrivals | Fine Press & Artists' Books | Broadsides | Miniature Books | Resource Books | Order/Inquiry
Copyright © 2008 Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers, LLC. All rights reserved.