Al-Mutanabbi
Dikko Faust & Esther K Smith, USA
| Al-Mutanabbi;
Dikko Faust & Esther K Smith, Purgatory Pie Press, USA, 2013 Time is no object at Purgatory Pie Press, but this project was on a tight deadline, so Dikko Faust and I collaborated in a different way. Dikko became interested in Square Kufic in Islamic architectural mosaics, researching Non-Western Art History and Typography, which he taught at CUNY City University of New York. The mosaic tiling process is similar to setting up real type with leading, spacing, and furniture on a press. Dikko hand-set and relief-printed Al-Mutanabbi in a Square Kufic inspired typographic illustration, tiling Roman letters of TDF Alpha-Blox metal type. My initial response to the al-Mutanabbi tragedy was a flashback to the destruction 11 years earlier of our local Lower Manhattan neighbourhood bookstore. Our bookworm daughter Polly and I would visit the delightful children's section. Just days before, we stood before the shelf of Oz books wishing we could buy all those gorgeous hardbacks and finally settling for a paperback Ozma of Oz. Those lost Oz books became my symbol of that unspeakable incomprehensible horror. At first I thought we would distress Oz books for this project. But I could not bring myself to destroy more books. So we worked with Papier Refusé - the recycled magazine paper that Dikko uses to clean our Vandercook press - resulting in a gorgeous random Decalcomania (a Surrealist technique). To repeat Dikko's typographic image in a chant-like keening wail, I worked with a version of Hedi Kyle's flag book. I tore and collaged the prints, making 4 unique books. Several are vertical, to hang on a wall or suspended in a space. One is horizontal and more complex, its torn pages collaged onto whole Decalomania/distressed papers. Too delicate to stand, it lies open in a vitrine. Edition: 4+ unique books: artist's proofs; Size: 7" x 6" closed, open to 21"; Media: handset metal type ATF Alfa-Blox relief printed onto letterpress/decalcomania Papier Refusè, torn, collaged flag books. Dikko Faust is the founder, hand-typographer, and printer at Purgatory Pie Press, New York City, where he works with designer, Esther K Smith, author of How to make Books and Magic Books and paper Toys (Random House). Faust and Smith collaborate with other artists and writers, making artist books and limited editions. They have had solo exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Group exhibitions include the 2012 Artists' Alphabets exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. The Getty, the Whitney, the Tate, the Walker, and the National Gallery of Art also collect Purgatory Pie Press. Faust teaches letterpress at School of Visual Arts. Smith teaches Artist Books at Cooper Union. www.PurgatoryPiePress.com |