1wcarter
Fables of Aesop - ARION PRESS LAUREATE LIMITED EDITION 2024
A PICTORIAL REVIEW
No. 183 of 250 copies
Signed by Kiki Smith and Daniel Handler.
Introduction by Daniel Handler.
Printed by letterpress on 100% cotton papers mould-made in France at the Arches mill.
41 individual loose folios each imprinted with a select fable and modern moral by Daniel Handler.
Fifteen different artists with images rendered letterpress in multiple colours and various mediums.
Art works by Sandow Birk, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Enrique Chagoya, Kenturah Davis, Marcel Dzama, Natalie Frank, Tim Hawkinson, Audrey Niffenegger, Barry Moser, Michele Oka Doner, Clare Rojas, Alison Saar, Joel Shapiro, Vincent Valdez, Richard Wagener, and Kara Walker.
Title lettering and custom letterform ornaments created by stone-carver, Christopher Stinehour, adorn those fables without artist prints.
A 32-page companion paperback volume nests below the folios in a depression with a book-lift ribbon, and includes essays by John T. Hawk and Alix Christie, a publisher’s note, a bibliography, and indices of artists and prints.
"Belling The Cat" presentation box conceived by Kiki Smith features a life-sized cat stamped in silver foil with an inset miniature cast metal mouse perched on its tail.
Silver bells, stowed away inside the box, ring out when the book is handled.
36x27.6cm.
US$2000
This is an absolutely fabulous production done in a very unusual style and with great craftmanship. At the time of posting copies were still available from Arion Press here.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the this series can be viewed here.
A PICTORIAL REVIEW
No. 183 of 250 copies
Signed by Kiki Smith and Daniel Handler.
Introduction by Daniel Handler.
Printed by letterpress on 100% cotton papers mould-made in France at the Arches mill.
41 individual loose folios each imprinted with a select fable and modern moral by Daniel Handler.
Fifteen different artists with images rendered letterpress in multiple colours and various mediums.
Art works by Sandow Birk, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Enrique Chagoya, Kenturah Davis, Marcel Dzama, Natalie Frank, Tim Hawkinson, Audrey Niffenegger, Barry Moser, Michele Oka Doner, Clare Rojas, Alison Saar, Joel Shapiro, Vincent Valdez, Richard Wagener, and Kara Walker.
Title lettering and custom letterform ornaments created by stone-carver, Christopher Stinehour, adorn those fables without artist prints.
A 32-page companion paperback volume nests below the folios in a depression with a book-lift ribbon, and includes essays by John T. Hawk and Alix Christie, a publisher’s note, a bibliography, and indices of artists and prints.
"Belling The Cat" presentation box conceived by Kiki Smith features a life-sized cat stamped in silver foil with an inset miniature cast metal mouse perched on its tail.
Silver bells, stowed away inside the box, ring out when the book is handled.
36x27.6cm.
US$2000
This is an absolutely fabulous production done in a very unusual style and with great craftmanship. At the time of posting copies were still available from Arion Press here.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the this series can be viewed here.
2GardenOfForkingPaths
>1 wcarter: Wow, what a great range of attractive artwork! Thank you for posting.
What do you think of Lemony Snicket's morals for the fables?
What do you think of Lemony Snicket's morals for the fables?
3abysswalker
Seems like Arion is going for the lowbrow/highbrow contrast in a lot of recent work. Pooh, The Nose, the Patti Smith thing, Lemony Snicket, the unbound sheets here.
4chase.donaldson
Not sure I would call this one lowbrow or the Winnie the Pooh. I hate what they did with the Winnie the Pooh volume but mainly because of philosophical issues instead of the production itself. My understanding is that there were some feasibility issues with this volume in terms of their workflow but the finished product, even if unbound sheets, still looks very polished and probably of the more interesting productions they have done in the last few years.
5A.Godhelm
Maybe it's risking the wrath of the connoisseurs to even ask, but would such a bundle of loose leaves be able to be bound up at all? Since they won't form regular signatures they'd need to be sewn as they lay pretty much. And would it be sacrilege to do so? I'm imagining some open backed butterfly stitching like the Suntup Blood Meridian.
6abysswalker
>4 chase.donaldson: the lowbrow angle in this release is the juxtaposition of Aesop (classic) with Lemony Snicket. I don't mean that necessarily as a criticism, as there are some commonalities, and it might help modern readers to approach Aesop in the way that ancients did. And the high/low contrast has been a big part of modern art at least since Warhol and other "postmoderns" (for lack of a better term). Not really my thing, but definitely a somewhat influential trend.
7David_Mauduit
>5 A.Godhelm: about the sacrilège part most likely yes. But in general it is not recommended to sew sections of only one sheet because the paper would risk tearing when binding and later during handling. Or you would need very heavy paper (e.g. >180 gsm)
9blinks112
>8 astropi: It's fun to read them this way and leaf through and feel the individual folios, but it's also a format that means I don't look through it as much as I perhaps would otherwise... it requires setting the box down, opening it, finding the ones you want to read while keeping everything in order, and taking a bit of time to line them back up in the box again when done.
According to this article (https://www.printmag.com/publication-design/arion-press/) it was done this way to give flexibility in a year when they had to move locations:
"We wanted to create something that would appropriately commemorate the press at this inflection point, while also accommodating the move. A year and a half ago, we didn’t exactly know what the move would entail other than it would happen within a six-month period and be completely disruptive and unpredictable. So we had to design a project that could somehow be modular and flexible enough to absorb this unexpected future."
"Also, because the morals are each self-contained in their way structurally, that allowed us the freedom that we needed to treat them individually. We could be printing each individual folio, which is how we will be presenting them, so that if production was interrupted, we could finish that one folio, pack it aside, move the operation, and pick up with the next folio. It also separated the binding from the printing. Typically when we finish the printing of a book, we have another three months of hand book-binding before the book can be released. But issuing it in a box as a collection of individual folios gave us the elbow room we needed."
According to this article (https://www.printmag.com/publication-design/arion-press/) it was done this way to give flexibility in a year when they had to move locations:
"We wanted to create something that would appropriately commemorate the press at this inflection point, while also accommodating the move. A year and a half ago, we didn’t exactly know what the move would entail other than it would happen within a six-month period and be completely disruptive and unpredictable. So we had to design a project that could somehow be modular and flexible enough to absorb this unexpected future."
"Also, because the morals are each self-contained in their way structurally, that allowed us the freedom that we needed to treat them individually. We could be printing each individual folio, which is how we will be presenting them, so that if production was interrupted, we could finish that one folio, pack it aside, move the operation, and pick up with the next folio. It also separated the binding from the printing. Typically when we finish the printing of a book, we have another three months of hand book-binding before the book can be released. But issuing it in a box as a collection of individual folios gave us the elbow room we needed."
10wcarter
>2 GardenOfForkingPaths:
I have no idea who Lemony Snicket is, but it is quite a clever piece of writing.
I have no idea who Lemony Snicket is, but it is quite a clever piece of writing.
11dpbbooks
Pen name of a children's book author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemony_Snicket
Daniel Handler is his real name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Handler
Daniel Handler is his real name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Handler
12howtoeatrat
Anyone have thoughts on the 2025 Arion line up?
13venkysuniverse
Thanks for the pics!. For some reason I thought the morals could have been worded better maybe?. For example, Moral 29 could have been, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"?. Not sure where I would use Moral 14 as well :).
14Folio_and_Fine
>12 howtoeatrat: I’m very excited about the 2025 releases. Arion has been producing a lot of home runs for me lately, including Aesop and also Sea of Cortez, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Poe’s Phantasia, and Pooh. Another diverse lineup this year and particularly looking forward to the Barry Moser woodcuts for Gilgamesh. Haven’t read Mrs. Dalloway before but had the paperback on a wishlist from my local bookstore and happy to strike that copy off the list and read the Arion copy instead! Asimov is an exciting choice for the press and you can preview some of the art here, which I think looks very fitting: https://www.alaebtekar.com/works/nightfall
