The Library of America Goes Wordless: The Novels of Lynd Ward

In what just might be one of the publishing surprises and hi-spots of 2010, The Library of America will release a 2 volume boxed set featuring the six woodcut novels of Lynd Ward.

God's Man, Ward's first book published on the eve of the stock market collapse of 1929, was the first wordless book-length novel to be published in the United States. By the end of 1937 Ward would publish five more novels in woodcuts:

 Madman's Drum (1930) 
Wild Pilgrimage (1932) 
Prelude to a Million Years (1933) 
Song Without Words (1936)
Vertigo (1937)

If one is looking for the origins of the graphic novel in the United States one must begin with Ward. His work has influenced a generation of artists, poets and illustrators and continues to inspire those seeking justice and equality for all.

The Library of America edition is edited by Art Spiegelman who also contributes an essay "Reading Pictures." The edition also includes nine essays by or about Ward. All the images reproduced are taken from prints pulled from the original woodblocks or first-generation electrotypes.

Though due out in October, you can pre-order the set at the Library of America website. They are currently offering 20% off and free shipping.

And don't forget the Library of America offers you the tax-deductible opportunity to buy this important book and gift it to a library of your choice.

Lady Masereel: Marta Chudolinska's Wordless Novel 'Back + Forth'

Noted illustrator, wood engraver, printer and book designer George A.Walker encourages his students at the Ontario College of Art & Design to "embrace 19th century linocut printmaking techniques to create extended  visual narratives."

One of the fruits of his labor is this stunning book by Marta Chudolinska. Chudolinska, who immigrated to Canada from Poland in 1991, cites Frans Masereel, one of the titans of the wordless novel, as her inspiration for the book.

"Masereel's style is vivacious, focused more on expression and energy than on completely accurate representation" says Chudolinska. His "characters are still alive on the page a hundred years later; their sorrow, anger and joy jumps vividly off the page just as strongly as when the blocks were first engraved." Marta also credits Roland Barthes’ essay 'The Death of the Author' as a significant influence.

Back + Forth is a coming-of-age tale of a young woman set in the urban environments of Toronto and Vancouver.

The  specific landscape, structure, weather and people of a cityscape  combine to create a unique culture of place; a `place' that can define  us as succinctly as we might like to think we control our own  definitions of self. Aviation allows many of us to live, almost  simultaneously, in distant places and to indulge in the complexities of  multiple lives. Back + Forth examines the attendant possibility of  entrapment, between two such distant places and two, very different,  times.
Back + Forth examines what it means to belong, to  assimilate, to be distant, and to challenge the constraints of time and  space in the juggling act that we all call life.

 Back + Forth is both a homage to place and a powerful depiction of a young  woman's search for love and belonging in the modern landscape. The character cycles  through a series of relationships, a couple with not so happy endings, that in the end seemingly free her of the pursuit and leave her alone and content as the road unfolds before her.

Details:
Published by The Porcupine's Quill. Typeset in Gill Sans. Printed on acid-free Zephyr Antique laid. Smyth  sewn into sixteen page signatures with hand-tipped endleaves, front and  back. $20. Available here

The project was funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

Finalist for the 2010—Doug Wright Award  and the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year.

Display of the entire 90 linocut sequence 

Interview with Marta Chudolinski at Books on the Radio 

Profile of Marta at The Fabler

Previously on Book Patrol:

George A. Walker's Nightlife

Library Graffiti

In the summer of 2007 Quinn Dombrowski started documenting the graffiti she encountered on her visits to the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. She began posting the images on Flickr and by 2009  she had amassed a collection of over 700 pieces of graffiti.

In the summer of 2009 the project got helped along by a story on Jacket Copy, the book blog of the Los Angeles Times, and by the time time the year was out Quinn published Crescat Graffiti, Vita Excolatur: Confessions of the  University of Chicago, a book containing many of the highlights of the collection.

The Flickr set is broken into sections to help you quickly find the graffiti that best suits your mood. From Advice to Sex, Drugs to Despair, Politics to Logic; all the bases are covered.

This begs for some sort of national competition.

"Books are Art Too": New Paris Gallery Mixes it Up

 The inaugural exhibit at the new Paris gallery/bookshop Le Pied de Biche (“The Crowbar”) is titled “Art, Ink and Rock and Roll" and features the work of three tattoo artists.

Supplementing the the exhibit is the gallery's bookstore which is loaded with underground cartoons, rare books, fanzines, theatrical  jewelry and toys for adults. The gallery will also publish, print and display limited edition books.

Tiffany Khalil, founder of Le Pied de Biche, believes “Books are art too,” and hopes her gallery is "a move away from the classical, sanitized gallery. The  aim is to create an uninhibited space, and put forward young, sprouting  creativity.”

Image by Nicoz Balboa, one of the three tattoo artists featured

And why the name "The Crowbar" - “It is a metaphor about creeping into a crack and forcing your way in,” says Khalil.

Story in The New York Times, Art Means Books and Tattoos at New Paris Gallery

Thanks to @lbgilbert for the lead 

The Argentine Book Tank: Bookmobile for the 21st Century?

Meet my new hero.

Raul Lemesoff, an Argentine art-car artist, has taken a 1979 Ford Falcon that used to belong to the Argentine armed forces and turned into a 'Weapon of Mass Instruction.'

Armed with 900 or so books Lemesoff travels the streets of Buenos Aires and beyond offering free books to all.

He sees his 'Weapon of Mass Instruction' as a "contribution to peace through literature."

Lemesoff has traveled throughout Argentina including remote parts where "literature cannot be found"

His goal is to build new 'Weapons of Mass Instruction' all around the world.

Just think of all those tanks he could transform if the world was at peace.

Here is a video of Lemesoff at work from AFP



Previously on Book Patrol:
The Rebirth of a Bookmobile
Bookmobile 2.0
Bookmobile Heaven
Who Needs a Bookmobile?
The Kenyan Literary Express

Fridge Poetry Moves Online

We've all seen those cute little magnets that turn our refrigerator into a blank page. Well, now there is an online version thanks to Seattle-based isnoop.net.

Magnetic Words 3.0 allows you to virtually recreate your  fridge poetry experience while in the presence of kindred fridge poets from around the world.


Thanks to harriet, the blog from the Poetry Foundation for the lead

California's Budget Drought Threatens Water Archive

The Library budget-slashing epidemic of 2010 shows no signs of letting up. Seems not a day goes by without news of some incredibly difficult challenge facing a library due to a budget shortfall.

The Contra Costa Times is reporting that California's seminal water history archive that is housed at the University of California in Berkeley is in danger of being moved or broken up due to budget issues.

Founded in 1958 by a special act of California Legislature the Water Resources Center Archive consists of a library which houses 120 years of material in a variety of formats including a strong web-based component that is continuously adding digital content to the archive. 

"One water expert compared  the demise of the archive to the destruction of the Library of  Alexandria more than 2,000 years ago."

Peter Gleick, president of  the  Pacific Institute, and an expert  on the world's water resources says:

"It only takes a little  while at the water archives to discover not only is not everything  online, but some of the most interesting things are not online — old  photographs and interviews, the letters and diaries of people involved  in California's water history,"

"It's found nowhere else in the  state."

And it is in danger. Who would have thought that California  would run out money before parts of it ran out of water?


Thanks to @librarystuff for the lead

Russia Wants More Readers

Ot mraka k svetu. Ot bitvy k knige. Ot goria k  schast'iu. [Book with slogan: From darkness to light, from battle to  boo...]   (1917-1921)

"Discover new things!"

"Be guided by knowledge"

"Fill in the gaps!"

These are just a few of the slogans in the new advertising campaign launched by the government of  Moscow  to encourage and promote reading. The campaign, which is targeted at young people, also includes 100 billboards placed around the city by the Moscow Writers Union emblazoned with the words "Read Books."

Gramota - put' k kommunizmu. [Literacy is the road to communism.] (1920) 

 Alexander Gerasimov, spokesman for the Moscow Writers Union, says that experts are  witnessing an "alarming tendency" for people to read less, especially the classics.

Though Russians are reading more of their news online, Gerasimov is concerned that they are developing "an apathy toward reading serious literature, thick books written  not only by contemporaries but by classic writers as well," and that "such indifference can lead to erosion of entire cultural layers, to  depletion of knowledge about literature, to the loss of national  self-identification,"

Just last month, during a joint meeting of  the state councils on science and culture Russian  President Dmitry Medvedev said "We should encourage reading in  all forms, including the latest, the most  modern, as long as our young people want to read," He also admitted  that his son found books less interesting than the Internet.

The campaign expects to extend to other parts of Russia next month.

Kniga nichto inoe kak chelovek, govoriashchii  publichno.[A Book Is Nothing a Man Speaking Publicly]                               (1920). 

More at RiaNovosti:
Moscow ad campaign urges Russians to read more books
Russian president says reading should be encourages in all forms
All images via the New York Public Library's amazing digital gallery:
"Posters  of the Russian Civil War, 1918-1922" 
  

Thanks to booktrade.info for the lead

The Half-Life of Dan Brown and John Grisham

Tim Spalding over at LibraryThing did some number crunching from the various book swap sites that are integrated with LibraryThing to find out what the Top Wanted and Unwanted books are.

 Dan Brown not only took home the dubious honor of the book most people want to get out of their lives with the Da Vinci Code but he also secured the 2, 3, and 7 slot of the top twenty-five with his books Angels & Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress.

But the award for the most books on the list goes to John Grisham with an astounding 13 titles on the top twenty-five.

Granted the print runs for the books of both these author's are in the millions making them more susceptible to disposal but it does reiterate the fleeting nature of the 'popular' book. Also, the resale value of these books is practically nil making them ripe for swapping and eventually recycling.

On the wanted side Michael Pollen's The Ominvore's Dilemma leads the pack with over 5,500 people desiring a copy.

Spalding notes "Perhaps the unwanted books represent who we are, and the wanted are who we want to be."

Full list here

Inside Donald Judd's Library

The Main Library at Donald Judd's La Mansana de Chinati residence in Marfa, Texas.

It has been sixteen years since the passing of Donald Judd. Though known as one of the foremost minimalist painters of the 20th century Judd was also a serious bibliophile. He claimed to have read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica as child which, given his minimalist leanings, is quite a feat. And wherever in the world his art took him he bought books and had them sent back to Marfa.

Library Details:

13,004 books in the library on 576 shelves.
40 languages represented.
2286 duplicates - for Judd was fond of buying multiple copies of some titles so he could share with friends.
3129 Art books.
Judd personally shelved and arranged each book.

Now, thanks to the Judd Foundation, we get a first hand virtual look at his library which remains intact at his noted La Mansana de Chinati residence in Marfa, Texas. Shelf by shelf one can browse Judd's entire library. You can also search the library.

More, including an interview with the executive director of the Judd Foundation, Barbara Hunt McLanahan, about the project and Judd's love for books at ARTINFO