Brooklyn Bridge: A Love Song
Cleveland: Foolsgold Studio, 2002. Quarter Leather. Fine binding. Item #9101
Folio. 28 pp. Limited edition, this is #40 of 60 copies (10 being held hors commerce). Signed by Glaister at the colophon. Backed in gray Nigerian goatskin with sanded aluminum sides, as issued, in felt-lined aluminum box with aluminum label. Prospectus, with minor soiling, laid in.
A fine copy of this visually stunning artist book. Glaister describes the production in the prospectus: 14 leaves of 10 mil aluminum, attached to paper hinges. The book opens with an 18-line poem by Glaister in Avant Garde and is silkscreen printed on sanded aluminum. This is followed by five page-spread paintings of the bridge, seen from different angles, times of day, and times of year. Alternating between the paintings are sets of abstract studies, nine in all, that explore the essence of bridgeness. They are likewise made of sanded aluminum with acrylic paint, wire, aluminum tape, laminated polyester film and sand. The studies are mounted onto the aluminum pages. A visually striking celebration of the Brooklyn Bridge. The artist describes this best in the prospectus: "The story of the Bridge is one of opposites. The story of huge mass and lacy delicacy, of ancient and modern, of vitality and disease and death, of honor and corruption, of social vision and common greed. It is the story of links. The linking of East to West, of the agrarian past to the industrial future, of stone to steel, and of course of Brooklyn to Manhattan. Brooklyn Bridge: A Love Song visually and emotionally tells this story. The book is truly a love song. It sings of the elegance, power and invention of this great American icon."
This is the first artist book by Glaister who is one of the foremost design bookbinders practicing today. Glaister carved a path blending classical European bookbinding technique while exploring unexpected and untraditional materials and expression. His bindings appear in private collections throughout North American and Europe and in many of the most important institutions.
Price: $7,500.00