 The Water Department By Gail Watson Golden, Colorado: Birdwood Press, 2008. Edition of 20. 5..5 x 6.5 x 1.5"; 20 pages, which are actually aluminum specimen containers each of which contains a vignette. Letterpress printed from polymer plates on an 1887 Pearl platen press. Set in Myriad by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly Archival inks and pigment. Text printed over inkjet-printed photographs using archival inks on Crane’s Lettra, 110# cover, which has been die cut into 1.25” circles. Seventeen of the containers contain short accordion books, which pull out with the help of a ribbon; three containers have text only on one circle, which does not come out. Housed in hinged metal container with bandoleer of cloth-covered board with a polymer casting affixed, metalized and rusted to look like the seal of a municipal water company. Hand-bound. Personal history recorded in nineteen memories involving tears, the human water department: "A routine procedure for the doctor who was surprised at the tears streaming down my face as he probed my right breast with a long needle. He was unaware that my mother died from breast cancer 25 years ago." (This is the second work completed under the imprint Birdwood Press. Previous titles by Gail Watson were created under the Zuni Press imprint.) |