Grenfell Press ~ New York

A Beehive Arranged on Humane Principles
By Gilbert Sorrentino
1986. Edition of 15 special copies.

8.5 x 10.75" with 22 pages. One of 15 special copies bound in full morocco of an edition of 100, SIGNED by author and artist. Binding by Claudia Cohen. Tan-orange morocco with red inlay on which is embossed a gilt spoke design with two smaller black onlays. Decorative blindstamp on bottom left resembling a sitting figure. In dark gray cloth clamshell case with matching morocco strip on spine with stamped titles. Four linocuts by David Storey in black & white with color added by hand.

Toby Warner in reviewing Sorrentino's writings said: "Sorrentino has an acute social awareness, which lends itself well to satire. He is at his best when he has the raw material of a human relationship to chew on, dissect and celebrate. Some of his more freeform stories slump into dated experimentation that is a little wearying. Yet even these display a seemingly endless capacity to invent off-kilter images. This tendency is best realized in “A Beehive Arranged on Humane Principles,” a cunning piece written entirely in rhetorical questions: “But what wise man said that the dream is a rebus? And yet, what is the nature of a rebus? Is it flesh, blood, globe, or desk? Or all three? Joseph Cornell knew precisely what a rebus is, but who else knows, or even once knew? Must I return to the beginning then? To the world of the empty page?”
$1,200