Graminoids 3: Fifteen Maine Grasses; Five Maine Rushes; Cyperaceae
Freeport, ME: Rebecca Goodale, 2002, 2004, 2005. Near Fine binding. Item #10183
9" x 9" x 2-3/4." Limited editions, each number 4 of 10. Signed by Goodale. Fifteen Maine Grasses is in a compound binding, both codices and accordion with mixed media prints. Boards are covered in Japanese grass paper with a braided raffia tie for closure. This is remarkably tactile and its binding speaks to the subject matter, as all these bindings do. Five Maine Rushes is an according binding with ink on paper and cut-outs. The boards are covered in cloth and woven Japanese grass paper, with patterned pastepaper endsheets. The cut-outs offer a fleeting sense of the threatened and endangered grasses depicted and described. And the very pale ink on white paper reinforces this sense of ephemerality. Cyperaceae comprises hand colored gelatin prints in an accordion binding with boards covered in papyrus and a braided raffia tie at the spine securing the boards but allowing sufficient flexibility to leaf through the accordion binding or display it in a variety of ways. Members of this family of monocot flowering plants illustrated in this book are threatened or endangered in Maine.
Originally, these three were issued separately between 2002 and 2005, but given the relationship of between the subjects a few were sequestered by the artist and presented together in a cloth-covered box with tiered stair to account for the varying widths of the books. All share the same height. Poignantly presented work from Goodale's Threatened and Endangered series, which presents the threatened and endangered flora and fauna of Maine.
Price: $1,750.00