Helfgott, Gloria ~ California

3 x Eva
By Gloria Helfgott
2005. One-of-a-Kind.

5.25 x 10" 22 pages including flyleaves with four fold-out pages. Binding by Helfgott in purple leather with a brass rods design in center of the front board. Laid in purple suede clamshell box. Helfgott's purple paste papers line the box.

Helfgott was influenced by the art of Eva Hess, the sculptor. Hess, a minimalist, used cards and thread, and wire in her work.
$1,800

L'Chaim
By Gloria Helfgott
2002. One-of-a-Kind.

Uses a reverse leather binding. In blue cloth box.

Helfgott uses paper cutting to spell out Good Luck in Hebrew, reading right to left as in traditional Hebrew texts.
$750

Le Vase
By Henri de Régnier and Gloria Helfgott
Pacific Palisades, California: 1999. One-of-a-Kind.

7 x 4.5 x 4.5". Eight pages (one for each line of the original French-language version of the poem) of cut-paper strengthened with acrylic paint in see-through plexi box. The pages hang from plexi dowels that fit into notches in the box. Each line is handprinted across the top of the dowel from which the page hangs. The entire structure housed in a gray cloth box with snap closure.

This visual presentation of the poem by French Symbolist Henri de Régnier (1864-1936) is an attempt to present the poem visually and, more or less, at one time. While you may extract each line and admire its colorful cutout rendition singularly, you can also look through the clear box from front, back, or sides to see the pages/cutouts from many perspectives at a glance. In addition, the structure invites you to hang the pages in any order, offering new visual and literary combinations and possibilities.

Gloria Helfgott (from her introduction to So-CALLed Books: diversity in artist’s books from southern California, an exhibition she curated in 1999): "As both fine art and sculptural literature, the artist’s book is a vehicle of discovery and as visually challenging as any painting, sculpture or other form of art, both for the creator and the viewer. The main difference is that the artist’s book is manipulatory and the iconography is not seen all at once."
$1,200

Warren Woods
By Gloria Helfgott
Pacific Palisades, California:2004. Edition of 25.

9 x 15". Paper-covered boards with twig construction on front board. Boards open to reveal six overlapping woodcuts on each inside board. The six woodcuts come from a single woodcut printed on twelve sheets of 5 x 5.5” Johannot paper in 5 colors of waterbased ink. When arranged by the “reader” these woodcut pages, hinged so they can circle back and tuck into themselves, become cylindrical – or, more aptly, trunk-like. Hence, when book is open and pages are arranged or constructed, Warren Woods is revealed. In cloth covered clam shell box.

Gloria Helfgott had happy memories of her time in Connecticut, especially of the city park, Warren Woods. This artists’ book is intended to invoke those soft memories.
$650

Cairn
By Gloria Helfgott
2002. Edition of 5.

5 x 6.5". Ink drawings on Fabriano Ingre Paper. Bound in yellow leather boards. Housed in black cloth clamshell box.

Here, Helfgott based the text on the hieroglyphics found in the Cairns of Ireland. The center section opens to display a miniature panoramic seven spirals which illustrate the artist's version of an interior. Evidently, the spirals represent the phases of the moon and sun, a very visual premise among the prehistoric tribes.
$650