Saucymorons, Volume I

From the introduction: “Blame it on the stimulus package. How could something so potentially exciting as a stimulus come to be married to something so banal as a package and carry any meaning?”

This investigation into saucymorons, a wink beyond the more standard-issue oxymoron (jumbo shrimp, et al.), plays on 11 pairs of words, from “television journalist” to “natural food,” presenting them in typefaces ranging from American Uncial to Zebra.

Edition of 25, 2012
4 1/8 x 3 5/8 x 1/4 inches, 14 pps
letterpress printed on a variety of papers including Fabriano Elle Erre and Rosaspina
$30, plus $3 for shipping

A Tango Diary

Whether it’s used for writing down the dances to remember, recalling perfect tandas, or making class notes, A Tango Diary ably plays the roles of confidante and resource. Designed to slide easily into a pocket or shoe bag, A Tango Diary comes hand-bound in durable linen bookcloth (on right) with images of Portland’s storied Viscount Ballroom, where thousands of tangueros danced, on the front and back covers.

Inside the covers are two pockets for milonga handbills, notes, and business cards. The text features letterpress printing and Nideggen mouldmade paper from Germany. Limited to an edition of 50, each copy of A Tango Diary is numbered and stamped with the binder’s seal.

One need not be a tango dancer to cherish and use A Tango Diary.

Edition of 50, 2009
5 1/2 x 4 1/4 x 1/2 inches, 20 pps
letterpress printed
ISBN: 978-0-9670264-3-5
$45, plus $3 for shipping

A few copies of A Tango Diary were bound in Moroccan leather (top photograph, on left).
$55, plus $3 for shipping

Bahia Night

Expats and Brazilians mix it up in an open-air bar in Salvador, where flirtations percolate like a samba beat and a foolproof dating method is put to the test.

A true story of international intrigue and mischief, Bahia Night details South American sensuality in cinematic takes.

The organic feel of the story is captured in Bahia Night’s 26 pages, which were originally hand-lettered in Lloyd Reynolds “Oregon” italic, the calligrapher’s hand created by the popular Reed College professor.

Bahia Night also features a sewn daifuku cho Japanese ledger binding, photographs, and self-enclosing cover papers.

Edition of 50, 2003
8 1/2 x 4 5/8 x 1/4 inches, 26 pps
paper, linen thread
ISBN: 0-9670264-1-5
$45, plus $3 for shipping

Of Bahia Night, writer Bill Donahue says: “This is very sweet and magical — perfect for the handwritten, handmade book. I like how it is all about a kiss and how sex shimmers under the surface but never takes center stage or brings the story into a sordid, hungry place from which it cannot escape.”

Slice of Time (broadside)

Denali National Park in Alaska could be one of the last frontiers of the Last Frontier. For one Midwest traveler, it’s the loneliest place in the world.

Edition of 50, 1992
20 1/4 x 14 3/4 inches
Letterpress on Arches
$50, plus $5 for shipping

Written by Margaret Davis during a summer working in Alaska, Slice of Time takes a tourist’s encounter with a piece of cherry pie and makes a bittersweet daydream of it.

Ma Nao Books regrets that a real piece of cherry pie was harmed in the making of this broadside.

Artists Book Works, the Chicago print collective where Slice of Time was printed, had a lot of type, but not enough in each font to print the full text. So the type had to change with each paragraph, providing a chance to print some of the more unusual display type. It was fun applying old lead to words like “sproik.”

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