
Epithalamium
By Paul Muldoon
designed and illustrated by Debra Weier
Princeton, New Jersey: Emanon Press, 2011. Edition of 50.
7 x 10”; 24 pages.
Colophon: “Epithalamium, a wedding poem by Paul Muldoon, was designed, printed, and bound by Debra Weier of Emanon Press. Conceived and produced over a period of two years, 45 copies were created in Princeton, New Jersey. Bodoni Book 12 point was handset on Arches Cover and Canson Mi Teintes and printed on a SP20 Vandercook Proof Press. Debra marbled the endpapers on Thai Unryu, which accompany the poem with seven collagraphs, tow embossments, nine popouts, a linocut and a line plate.”
Non-adhesive exposed spine binding with white paper over boards. Embossed knot on the front cover. Laid in blue cloth dropback box. Signed and numbered by both artists.
An epithalamium is a wedding poem, often in praise of the bride and bridegroom and praying for their prosperity. This version by Paul Muldoon is accompanied by pop outs and string designs by Debra Weier.
Each of the seven verses claims its own page and is nestled in its own pop out, and each pop out symbolizes its respective verse through its structure. The idea of a marriage blessing begins with the embossed wedding knot on the cover. The thread weaves in and out of the popups, holding them in place as well as being an extension of the binding.
www.paulmuldoon.net: "Paul Muldoon web site: Paul Muldoon was born in 1951 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, and educated in Armagh and at the Queen's University of Belfast. From 1973 to 1986 he worked in Belfast as a radio and television producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Since 1987 he has lived in the United States, where he is now Howard G. B. Clark '21 Professor at Princeton University. In 2007 he was appointed Poetry Editor of The New Yorker. Between 1999 and 2004 he was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, where he is an honorary Fellow of Hertford College."
His awards include the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Pulitzer Prize.
$2,700