Loom
Wood Engravings by Richard Wagener
Poem by Alan Loney
2016 Winner: Carl Hertzog Award of Excellence in Book Design
Out of Print
Richard Wagener is a California printmaker and book artist specializing in wood engraving. His meticulously executed work is in the Special Collections departments of over seventy-five public and private institutional libraries. Richard has always been enamored of looms, and one day he arrived at a question—how many threads does it take to make a weaving? While completing his "Sierra Nevada Suite" for The Book Club of California, the artist started a series of drawings exploring threads on a loom. They were unlike anything he had done before. He then began to engrave.
Alan Loney is a poet, writer on the nature of the book, and publisher. He is also a handpress printer, currently proprietor of Electio Editions in Melbourne, Australia. He has published over 50 books of his own work and that of other poets through his various Presses. Richard Wagener approached Alan one day with three engravings he had finished, exploring the beauty of connection and disconnection as seen in loom work and in life. He asked Alan if he would respond to these, and other engravings to come, with his poetry. He agreed and wrote a poem for what would eventually become a series of sixteen extraordinary engravings.
The edition is published in two states:
Deluxe: 16 Copies. The binding is hand sewn on linen tapes and laced into a limp paper case made of Handmade PC4 Blue from Timothy Barrett at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. The book is housed in a Japanese cloth covered four-flap enclosure, secured by rare earth magnets. A paper chemise holds one of the 16 prints from the book, with no version containing the same print, another print designed for the deluxe edition, and creative process remarks from both the artist and poet. Each book is foil stamped on the spine, signed by the artist and poet, and lettered A-P.
Publication price: Out of print.
Slipcased: 30 Copies. The binding is hand sewn on linen tapes and laced into a limp paper case made of Handmade PC4 Blue from Timothy Barrett at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. The book is housed in a Japanese cloth covered slipcase with a printed label on the spine. Each book is foil stamped on the spine, signed by the artist and poet, and numbered 1-30.
Publication price: Out of print.
Watch a video of the making of LOOM.
