Publication planned
for
13 February 2010
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Work on this new title proceeds, if rather more slowly than we had hoped. An
update on progress is long overdue . . .
The artist Hugh Buchanan was born in Edinburgh in 1958 and educated at Edinburgh
College of Art. After completing post-graduate studies ‘with distinction’ in
1981, he was awarded travel scholarships to the Middle East and, later, North
Italy and the Balkans. Since then he has travelled regularly throughout Europe
to visit and paint in watercolour buildings and interiors from the Renaissance
to the Baroque. His commissions have included work at Balmoral, Highgrove, and
the Palace of Westminster, and amongst his exhibitions one can list those at the
Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao, the Lincoln Centre in New York, the Palace of
Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Queen’s Gallery in London, and a major retrospective
by the National Trust at Petworth House.
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1,600 A2 sheets of
Somerset paper arrived a while back and we have started printing Hugh's watercolours. Each sheet needs to be individually fed to the latest
Epson printer to find itself attached to my PC. So things go slowly. But once the
watercolours have been laid down I can start the letterpress.
The author of the
texts, Peter Davidson, is Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of
Aberdeen. His prose book The Idea of North published by Reaktion in 2005
was widely and positively reviewed. Carcanet published his collection of verse
The Palace of Oblivion in 2008. He and Hugh have collaborated before: in
1994 they published The Eloquence of Shadows, a volume of architectural
meditations.
Peter's two text
narratives run in parallel through the book, one against the watercolours
and the other independently. Having done some trial settings, I decided that the former texts will be in Stephenson Blake 18pt
Caslon Old Face, and the latter, longer, texts in the 14pt. It's nice to get the
foundry type out again. Hand-setting a text is more than arranging the letters
in the right order and tweaking spacing: the text moves slowly through your
fingers and through your head as you mentally pick up a phrase, and then dissect
it into words, and then into letters to be physically picked up from the case.
When we read a text we scarcely see individual letters or even some words; when
we set a text we are s.l.o.w.e.d r..i..g..h..t u...p, in this case giving time
to absorb Peter's evocation of 'rooms never meant to be heated, chambers of
stillness and frost, light which hardly rides clear of the horizon. Light
striking upwards, snow light, refraction. Shadows of glazing-bars, ladders of
winter light across panelling and floors. Silence and the frosty sun moving
about the rooms.'
I have had a trial binding done at Ludlow Bookbinders - a small image should be
visible above. (For a closer (2.5MB) look, just click on it.) I have chosen a
crushed skin in a cool acqua colour with a highlight in silver and the title
blocked on the spine in silver as well. Grey silk ties bring the heavy outer
boards together. The main purpose of the trial was of course to see how the
structure works: inner folds allow the book to be opened to give the four-page
spread you should see below - remember that each page is A3 (nearly 17 in. tall
and 12 in. wide - are my books just getting bigger and bigger?):
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I shall of course have
the trial binding on display at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair this coming
weekend (see below). Hugh's watercolours are beautifully observed, and, to
increase my enjoyment at least, most portray a book or paper somewhere in
the scene.
There will be 100
copies for sale with a further 25 not for sale. We are offering a pre-publication price
of £220 (€270, US$370) for those who would like to be sure of a copy and are happy to pay now.
The price on publication will be £275 (€330, US$450). Subscribers to the Press will
receive their usual 15% discount on either price. (Shipping is charged extra at
cost as usual. Euro and dollar prices might change with exchange rate
fluctuations.) I hope to send out a small brochure shortly.
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