Even Hoshen Press ~ Israel
(Ido Agassi & Uzi Agassi)

David and Goliath
Samuel 17:49
By Ido Agassi
Ra'anana, Israel: Even Hoshen Press, 2007. Edition of 10.

Housed in 56 x 13 cm (20.9 x 5.1") T-shaped clamshell box covered in blue and gold cloth. 3.25 x 3.8" pamphlet slips into pouch in lid of clamshell box. Brown leather slingshot (20.5 x 3.5") with stone laid in the clamshell box.

Joe Eskenazi, in a review that appeared in j: the Jewish news weekly of Northern California: "A few meters away ... is the oddest shaped book I've ever seen. ... It is a wallet-sized square attached to a long, thin rectangle, that resembles a banjo when Agassi lifts it up. He opens it, revealing a hollow, yellow interior and a leather strap with a biblical verse from Samuel 17:49 embossed on it in Hebrew and English:

And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground.

"This book is titled David and Goliath. And, notes Agassi with a smile, 'it is armed.' He lifts the fat end of the sling to reveal a smooth, flat stone —- which he picked up at the Ha'Ela Valley, where the battle between David and Goliath purportedly took place."
$620

Mein Blaues Klavier
By Else Lasker-Schüler
Ra'anana, Israel: Even Hoshen Press, 2007. Edition of 30.

39.5 x 32.5 cm (15.5 x 12.8"); 30 Sundance 118 gr. paper strips, 20 Fabriano Ingres black paper stripes. Black and white stripes form a piano keyboard. Book structure fashioned as a grand piano. Text in Hebrew and German. Housed in clamshell box.

Else Lasker-Schüler, a Jewish poet born in Germany, was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist movement. Hounded by the Nazis she fled to Zurich in 1933 and later to Palestine. Her melancholy poem speaks for a generation:

Ich habe zu Hause ein blaues Klavier
Und kenne doch keine Note.

I have at home a blue piano
but cannot play note.

Es steht im Dunkel der Kellertür,
Seitdem die Welt verrohte.

It’s been in the shadow of the cellar door
Ever since the world went rotten….

Joe Eskenazi, in a review that appeared in j: the Jewish news weekly of Northern California: "Agassi pulls the piece de resistance out of a rectangular box the size of a small laptop computer. The 'book' within is a tiny blue grand piano. It cannot play, but is equipped with a keyboard cover and a top that opens to reveal taut strings. On its removable paper 'keys,' Agassi has printed in Hebrew and German a poem by the German writer Else Lasker-Schüler titled, 'Mein Blaues Klavier' ('My Blue Piano')."
$2,400

A Walk in Iona
By Meir Wieseltier
Ra'anana, Israel: Even Hoshen Press, 1996. Edition of 77.

9.85 x 10.24" (25 x 26 cm); 28 pages, numbered in Hebrew letters. Text in Hebrew printed on 160 gr. ivory wove arches. Printed letterpress by M. Fuerst on a Heidelberg 1/8. Five aquatint illustrations (including wrapper) by Sidon Rotheberg. . Type: Hebrew, Frank-Ruehl 10 pt. Paper wrapper of 300 gr. cream wove Fabriano. Slipcased with cover and design by Uzi Agassi.

Meir Wieseltier, poet, translator, editor, Russian-born but long-time resident of Tel Aviv, was in 2000 awarded the Israel Prize, the country's highest honor for lifetime achievement, “by the Israeli establishment to its most anti-establishment poet.” (Shirley Kaufman quoted by Israel Poetry International Web).

Uzi Agassi (founder of Evan Hoshen Press): "About our book A Walk in Iona, it is a book of one 'long' poem. It was his first book !!!! (1963). He wrote it for a special literary evening named: Kiltartan- a group of modern poets and artists. He printed only 200 copies to sell in this evening but he managed to sell only 50, some others were given to friends on that evening, the rest of the copies were lost in the moving of his apartment.

"For Israeli poetry this book is as important as the first book of T.S. Eliot, or Ezra Pound .....

"Iona is an imaginary city (in Hebrew it came from Nothing, Naught and even in Hebrew it is a very rare name). The name of Iona sounds like a Greek name and the names of the characters are pseudo-Greek as well. The fragments of life images created from his reminiscences of Archeological sites he used to visit as a child. Nevertheless, no doubt some of his significant experiences behind this 'long' poem came from his first encounter with Jerusalem (coming from Tel Aviv) in the 60's. The divided city, as he would have seen it: a city of stones sinking under the burden of the past and the future is quite nebulous. But Wieseltier emphasized in the epilogue of the book: Iona is not Jerusalem!

"It is a quite important book as this rare first poem was not included in the books published after"
$480