Homosexuality in the 1990s

Bawer, Bruce.
A Place at the Table: The Gay Individual in American Society.
New York: Poseidon Press, 1993.

Written in the early 90s - "this moving, eloquent work - both meditation and manifesto - on the nature of homosexuality is Bawer's attempt to set things right. He strips away the misconceptions that underlie homophobia, critically scrutinizes the lockstep mentality of the extreme gay subculture, and defines the complex moral predicament of the gay individual" (jacket flap). Very good in very good jacket with white title to grey spine panel. 8vo. 269 pages. (#11280)

Price: $20

A Poetic Homoerotic Experience in a Machine Shop
Letterpress Printed & Bound in Metal Covers

[Blackbird Press]
Fairchild, B.H.; Jean Gillingwators, book artist; Anna Alquitela, illustrator.
Beauty.
Upland CA: Blackbird Press, 2007 [Distributed in 2010].

Number 40 of 100 copies. Signed by the poet, the book artist, and the illustrator. A poem about the word and concept of "beauty", which is applied to a homoerotic experience witnessed in a machine shop. Writes Gillingwators, "When I first read B. H. Fairchild’s poetry collection The Art of the Lathe, I knew I wanted to publish the opening poem “Beauty” as a letterpress limited edition book. The poem has book characteristics–narrative structure and four, chapter-like divisions–and its visceral, lyrical appeal motivated me." Fairchild's poetry has been widely published and he has been the recipient of numerous awards. The Art of the Lathe was described in the LA Times as "a contemporary classic...finely crafted and perfectly pitched."

The book artist continues: "I knew from the initial reading that my book edition would have metal covers, reminiscent of the corrugated-metal buildings that often house machine shops [where the poem takes place]. The making of the book took three years as the book artist and illlustrator learned how to make the tiny metal hinges for the book and how to age the thin aluminum used for the book covers. Each step required research, test trials, and practice. Printed with Centaur and Arrighi monotype on Zerkall Book paper, with linocuts by Alquitela. Housed in a grey clamshell box with title and author in red to spine. In fine condition. 7 x 11". Unpaginated. [11 pages]  (#28076)

Price: $750

Gender Transition - Book Artist's Personal Experiences
Letterpress Printed

[Blue Rose Press]
Taxman, Emilee.
Genderless.
Madison, WI: Blue Rose Press, 2023.

Small (about 15 copies) unnumbered edition. A documentation of the artist's personal journey with gender and transition. Bound in blue cloth covered boards over pink cloth covered spine with paper title label to front board. Letterpress printed in Bodoni MT on Mohawk Superfine paper at UW Madison with screenprinted decorative papers. 39 pages.

According to the artist: "My art is an exploration of emotion: my own, those of the people I am close to, and those of the communities I belong to. I use my books and prints to illuminate frequently underrepresented subjects. I explore the subtleties of how people think, feel, remember, or identify, drawing on major life changes that influence identity and ideas of the future. In navigating these subjects, I engage in a deeper form of self-expression. I represent my thoughts, my fears, the emotions that keep me up at night."

Emilee Taxman (b. 1997) is an artist and printmaker best known for their interactive letterpress printed books and broadsides. Their work explores major life changes that influence identity and ideas of the future, primarily through the lenses of mental illness and transgender experiences. Taxman has worked at Distinctive Bookbinding, Center for Book Arts, and San Francisco Center for the Book, and received the Hamilton Wayzgoose Academic Merit Scholarship in 2022. Their books are in library special collections across the country, including in Yale University’s Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library and the University of Iowa’s main library. They recently completed their first solo exhibition, “Bound,” exploring combinations of book art and installation. They have recently completed their M.F.A. in Studio Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fine. (#37291)

Price: $250

Interviews & Portraits of 18 Transgender People
Transgender Book Artist

[Blue Rose Press]
Taxman, Emilee.
Patchwork Voices.
Madison, WI: Blue Rose Press, 2023.

A small open edition. An interview with 18 transgender people, recording their answers to the question: What was a defining moment of your transition? Each interviewee is also documented with a print of an original portrait of them drawn in ink and colored pencil by the book artist. This book was made at UW Madison. Bound in pink cloth boards with blue spine and white silkscreened title and gender symbol to front board. A drumleaf binding printed digitally with elements in color.

According to the artist: "My art is an exploration of emotion: my own, those of the people I am close to, and those of the communities I belong to. I use my books and prints to illuminate frequently underrepresented subjects. I explore the subtleties of how people think, feel, remember, or identify, drawing on major life changes that influence identity and ideas of the future. In navigating these subjects, I engage in a deeper form of self-expression. I represent my thoughts, my fears, the emotions that keep me up at night."

Emilee Taxman (b. 1997) is an artist and printmaker best known for their interactive letterpress printed books and broadsides. Their work explores major life changes that influence identity and ideas of the future, primarily through the lenses of mental illness and transgender experiences. Taxman has worked at Distinctive Bookbinding, Center for Book Arts, and San Francisco Center for the Book, and received the Hamilton Wayzgoose Academic Merit Scholarship in 2022. Their books are in library special collections across the country, including in Yale University’s Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library and the University of Iowa’s main library. They recently completed their first solo exhibition, “Bound,” exploring combinations of book art and installation. They have recently completed their M.F.A. in Studio Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Unpaginated. [38 pages.] Fine. (#37407)

Price: $200

Nonbinary Book Artist
Catalog of Artwork with Letterpress Printing, Original Illustration, Block Print, etc.

[Careless Press]
Es, Ayin (Carol), book artist.
1-SELF.
San Pedro, CA: Careless Press, 2005.

Number 22 of 50 copies, deluxe edition. A catalog of the artist's drawings and mixed media paintings with a brief biography and two essays about the artist and her work by art critics Shana Nys Dambrot and Kristina Newhouse. This catalog takes the form of an artists' book with the additions of handmade papers, letterpress quotations from the artist, an original watercolor drawing, stitchery on the covers, a block print insert, and other hand-done accents. According to the book artist: "The 1-SELF title suggests a dule meaning of both intimate self-expression and the artist's pattern-making background. Garment patterns were often marked '1-self' in manufacturing."

Bound in handsewn stiff grey paper wrappers with letterpress printed black title and author to front wrapper along with a die-cut. Includes an original watercolor on the title page and fourteen archivally printed pages in full color. Features handmade papers, a block print insert, hand-cut collar pattern endpapers, and letterpress printed quotes by the artist throughout. Housed in a white gift box with block printed illustrated label on top lid. A tissue garment pattern piece lines the box. Light rubbing to edges and cover of box, else in fine condition. Unpaginated. [33 pages.] Size: 8.5 x 8 inches.

Contemporary abstract artist, Ayin Es was born and raised in Los Angeles. They identify as nonbinary or genderqueer. Known primarily for their unusual mixed media oil paintings and artist's books, their work is considered raw and highly personal. At a glance, brightly colored surfaces suggest children's art, but upon deeper inspection there is evidence of abuse, disability, queer and transgender subject matter, family dynamics, and other thought-provoking themes. Widely collected, Ayin's imaginative artworks reside in museums such as the Getty, Brooklyn Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Centre Pompidou, and more. A two-time recipient of ARC Grants from the Durfee Foundation, they've also won a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, the Wynn Newhouse Award, an Artist Achievement Award from the National Arts & Disability Center, and the Bruce Geller Memorial Award from the American Jewish University. Los Angeles Art Critic, Peter Frank wrote: "An autodidact, Es has long embodied their interests and their struggles - in painted and drawn and even sculpted and sewn imagery - darkly whimsical forms and figures whose deft fluidity have the eye "going for a walk with a line" (in the words of Paul Klee, who strongly influenced Es) but aggressively trouble the mind." Fine. (#37949)

Price: $400

Nonbinary Book Artist
Autobiographical Artists' Book

[Careless Press]
Es, Ayin (Carol), book artist.
All Done But None.
San Pedro, CA: Careless Press, 2007.

Number 20 of 20 copies, signed and numbered by the book artist. Contemporary abstract artist, Ayin Es was born and raised in Los Angeles. They identify as nonbinary or genderqueer. Known primarily for their unusual mixed media oil paintings and Artist's books, their work is considered raw and highly personal. At a glance, brightly colored surfaces suggest children's art, but upon deeper inspection there is evidence of abuse, disability, queer and transgender subject matter, family dynamics, and other thought-provoking themes. Widely collected, Ayin's imaginative artworks reside in museums such as the Getty, Brooklyn Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Centre Pompidou, and more. A two-time recipient of ARC Grants from the Durfee Foundation, they've also won a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, the Wynn Newhouse Award, an Artist Achievement Award from the National Arts & Disability Center, and the Bruce Geller Memorial Award from the American Jewish University. Los Angeles Art Critic, Peter Frank wrote: "An autodidact, Es has long embodied their interests and their struggles - in painted and drawn and even sculpted and sewn imagery - darkly whimsical forms and figures whose deft fluidity have the eye "going for a walk with a line" (in the words of Paul Klee, who strongly influenced Es) but aggressively trouble the mind."

Handbound in hardcover, this inventive and engaging artist's book offers up true-to-life stories as various options for the book's ultimate direction and revelations on a dysfunctional family life, all while maintaining the artist's humorous spirit. The book was painstakingly handwritten and hand-illustrated on Artistico Fabriano papers in watercolor and ink. Every page is original, making each book an original work of art. The book also features a two-color etching, a dry point print, a solar-etched print, and letterpress handmade endpapers from Nepal. The green starched linen covers includes custom stamping of a humorous figure from the text. The book is housed in a green cloth slipcase with the book's title visible from the spine. Accompanied by the prospectus. In fine condition. Measures 7 x 11.75 inches. Unpainted [32 pages]. (#37934)

Price: $1,500

Nonbinary Book Artist
Manifesto on Making Artists' Books

[Careless Press]
Es, Ayin (Carol), book artist.
Today's Quandary.
San Pedro, CA: Careless Press, 2013.

Number 24 of 50 copies. A mini-manifesto about making artists' books in which the author casually discusses her creative process, setbacks, financial considerations, frustrations, lack of support, artistic choices, and more. Humorous, insightful, and highly relatable.

Bound in hand sewn stiff white paper wrappers with letterpress printed title, author, and illustration to wrappers. Includes an original, colored pencil drawing on the second page. A commercially printed book with black and white reproductions of the artist's pen drawings. Printed by Bill Roberts at Bottle of Smoke Press in Dover, DE. Unpaginated. [28 pages.] Size: 8.5 x 5.5 inches.

Contemporary abstract artist, Ayin Es was born and raised in Los Angeles. They identify as nonbinary or genderqueer. Known primarily for their unusual mixed media oil paintings and artist's books, their work is considered raw and highly personal. At a glance, brightly colored surfaces suggest children's art, but upon deeper inspection there is evidence of abuse, disability, queer and transgender subject matter, family dynamics, and other thought-provoking themes. Widely collected, Ayin's imaginative artworks reside in museums such as the Getty, Brooklyn Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Centre Pompidou, and more. A two-time recipient of ARC Grants from the Durfee Foundation, they've also won a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, the Wynn Newhouse Award, an Artist Achievement Award from the National Arts & Disability Center, and the Bruce Geller Memorial Award from the American Jewish University. Los Angeles Art Critic, Peter Frank wrote: "An autodidact, Es has long embodied their interests and their struggles - in painted and drawn and even sculpted and sewn imagery - darkly whimsical forms and figures whose deft fluidity have the eye "going for a walk with a line" (in the words of Paul Klee, who strongly influenced Es) but aggressively trouble the mind." Fine. (#37950)

Price: $100

Nonbinary Book Artist
Collection of Pen and Ink Drawings

[Careless Press]
Es, Ayin (Carol), book artist; Michael Phillips, foreword.
Carol Es une Monographie de Lignes (A Monograph in Lines).
San Pedro, CA: Careless Press, 2014.

Number 19 of 30 copies. A collection of pen and ink drawings by Carol Es. According to the artist: "Some of these drawings are brand spankin' new. Some of them have been published before. Some of them might look familiar, but they have been newly redrawn. Together, they are supposed to tell a story about me, Carol, to reveal a little window into my overall art-making process ... I had one kind of mantra I said to myself while I created these drawings. If I could put it into words, it would go something like, 'be yourself through this pen and tell your story'."

Handbound in quarter black cloth over white paper covered boards with letterpress printed title and illustration to both boards. The commercially printed interior features sixty-five reproductions of pen and ink illustrations. Each copy includes an original, colored pencil drawing by the artists on the third page. Unpaginated. [70 pages.] Size: 8.5 x 8.5 inches.

Contemporary abstract artist, Ayin Es was born and raised in Los Angeles. They identify as nonbinary or genderqueer. Known primarily for their unusual mixed media oil paintings and artist's books, their work is considered raw and highly personal. At a glance, brightly colored surfaces suggest children's art, but upon deeper inspection there is evidence of abuse, disability, queer and transgender subject matter, family dynamics, and other thought-provoking themes. Widely collected, Ayin's imaginative artworks reside in museums such as the Getty, Brooklyn Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Centre Pompidou, and more. A two-time recipient of ARC Grants from the Durfee Foundation, they've also won a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, the Wynn Newhouse Award, an Artist Achievement Award from the National Arts & Disability Center, and the Bruce Geller Memorial Award from the American Jewish University. Los Angeles Art Critic, Peter Frank wrote: "An autodidact, Es has long embodied their interests and their struggles - in painted and drawn and even sculpted and sewn imagery - darkly whimsical forms and figures whose deft fluidity have the eye "going for a walk with a line" (in the words of Paul Klee, who strongly influenced Es) but aggressively trouble the mind." Fine. (#37953)

Price: $250

Nonbinary Book Artist
Story of an Imaginary Healing Animal - "Dan"

[Desolate Press]
Es, Ayin, book artist.
Medicine Dan.

Joshua Tree, CA: Desolate Press, 2024.

Number 7 of 8 copies. Signed by the artist. According to the artist's statement: "'Medicine Dan' is a story about a special animal who heals ... [He] was 'created' by the artist, Ayin Es. This happened at the end of 2009, after the loss of both of their parents. Dan just appeared in a sketchbook after a long artist's block and depression."

A quote from the book: "As the story goes, long before the birth of Dan coming into physical existence, he lived in a parallel universe called Dantasia. He lived there with insects and colors, and things that resembled trees, but once he found out that this parallel land doesn't physically exist, Dan got upset and became a staunch existentialist. He now has many other interests, such as upside down rainbows, roller skating, black holes, flowers, and turpentine. He knows he can't exist on Earth without some amount of turpentine, but he prefers Turpinoid Natural. He is much less smelly that way, not that he would notice since Dan is usually on Xanax."

Handbound in grey blue stiff paper wrappers with exposed buttonhole binding using waxed linen thread imported from Ireland. Hand-cut silhouette of "Dan" and hand-embroidered white title to front wrapper. White ribbon closure adorned with a button and a wild turkey feather. The interior is digitally printed in full color with reproductions of the artist's original sketches, watercolor, and ink illustrations. Each signature is wrapped in imported papers of Thai Marbled Mulburry, Thai Mango, Thai Unryu, Lokta Bloom, and Aitoh Japanese paper, some with custom rubber stamping. Includes two hand-stitched felt pages, paper pocket of imported Khadi Indian paper holding colorful stickers of Dan. Housed in a custom hinged Plexi Box measuring about 8 x 7 inches. Unpaginated. [60 pages.] Book Size: about 7.5 x 6 inches.

Contemporary abstract artist, Ayin Es was born and raised in Los Angeles. They identify as nonbinary or genderqueer. Known primarily for their unusual mixed media oil paintings and artist's books, their work is considered raw and highly personal. At a glance, brightly colored surfaces suggest children's art, but upon deeper inspection there is evidence of abuse, disability, queer and transgender subject matter, family dynamics, and other thought-provoking themes. Widely collected, Ayin's imaginative artworks reside in museums such as the Getty, Brooklyn Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Centre Pompidou, and more. A two-time recipient of ARC Grants from the Durfee Foundation, they've also won a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, the Wynn Newhouse Award, an Artist Achievement Award from the National Arts & Disability Center, and the Bruce Geller Memorial Award from the American Jewish University. Los Angeles Art Critic, Peter Frank wrote: "An autodidact, Es has long embodied their interests and their struggles - in painted and drawn and even sculpted and sewn imagery - darkly whimsical forms and figures whose deft fluidity have the eye "going for a walk with a line" (in the words of Paul Klee, who strongly influenced Es) but aggressively trouble the mind." Fine. (#37952)

Price:   $1,500

Book Artist's Journey of Physical Transition to Nonbinary

[Desolate Press]
Es, Ayin, book artist.
Queersition.
Joshua Tree, CA: Desolate Press, 2023.

Number 28 of 30 copies. According to the artist: "'Queersition' is a printed transqueer / LGBTQIA+ book about the artist's gender-affirming transition as nonbinary ... It is a visual reminder of how trans people run into various roadblocks when getting their surgery and changing their names. It can be a challenging, humiliating, painful, and exhausting experience to live out the gender you were not physically born with and live life authentically."

Perfect bound in stiff paper wrappers with title and author to front wrapper. A combination of the transgender and nonbinary flag colors are printed on the wrappers. Illustrated with reproductions of pen and ink illustrations and original watercolors in color and black and white. Unpaginated. [36 pages.] Size: 7 x 9 inches.

Contemporary abstract artist, Ayin Es was born and raised in Los Angeles. They identify as nonbinary or genderqueer. Known primarily for their unusual mixed media oil paintings and artist's books, their work is considered raw and highly personal. At a glance, brightly colored surfaces suggest children's art, but upon deeper inspection there is evidence of abuse, disability, queer and transgender subject matter, family dynamics, and other thought-provoking themes. Widely collected, Ayin's imaginative artworks reside in museums such as the Getty, Brooklyn Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Centre Pompidou, and more. A two-time recipient of ARC Grants from the Durfee Foundation, they've also won a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, the Wynn Newhouse Award, an Artist Achievement Award from the National Arts & Disability Center, and the Bruce Geller Memorial Award from the American Jewish University. Los Angeles Art Critic, Peter Frank wrote: "An autodidact, Es has long embodied their interests and their struggles - in painted and drawn and even sculpted and sewn imagery - darkly whimsical forms and figures whose deft fluidity have the eye "going for a walk with a line" (in the words of Paul Klee, who strongly influenced Es) but aggressively trouble the mind." Fine. (#37951)

Price: $48

Oscar Wilde - Gay Author, Persecuted and Imprisoned for His Sexuality
Characters from The Importance of Being Earnest with Volvelles Featuring Quotes from the Play

Martin, Emily, book artist; Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde: In Earnest and Out.

Iowa City: Emily Martin, 2020. Number 14 of 25 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. In this inventive work, Emily Martin uses the words of Oscar Wilde to make some observations that are still true today. Martin earned an MFA degree in painting from the University of Iowa in 1979 and made her first artist’s books at that time. She joined the faculty of the University of Iowa Center for the Book in 1998 where she teaches artists books, paper engineering, and traditional bookbinding classes. Martin makes limited edition artists books, first as the Naughty Dog Press, now using her name only. She has produced over fifty artist’s books, often using movable and/or sculptural paper engineering techniques. Martin’s books are included in public and private collections throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Meermanno Museum, The Hague, Netherlands; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago; the Tate Britain, London, England, the Library of Congress and others.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. A close observer of society, Oscar carefully honed his epigrams in conversation before putting them in the mouths of the various characters in his plays. While making his audience laugh, he brought them face to face with his very astute observations on human behavior. Shortly after The Importance of Being Earnest opened, a scandal and subsequent trial resulted in Oscar being arrested, put on trial, and convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons". Sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison, Oscar emerged in broken health, impoverished and cut off from his family. He exiled himself to France and died three years later in Paris. His plays have never gone out of print and are regularly staged in theatrical productions and films. Oscar Wilde’s pointed observations are as apt now as when he first put pen to paper

This work comprises a set of five volvelles portraying five faces of characters from Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest. The characters portrayed are Miss Prism, Lady Bracknell, Jack, Gwendolyn, and Algernon. The characters appear as large faces that are in fact volvelles with inner wheels that turn to allow the reading of lines from the play and other of Wilde’s writings. The volvelles were hand assembled and are held in place by cotton thread, paper circles, and PVA glue. It is letterpress printed using polymer plates from Boxcar Press on four different shades of BFK paper. Each volvelle is housed in a white paper folder with the name of the character on its front. The set along with with an introductory loose page with several line citations is enclosed in a red cloth covered clamshell box with a paper title label on the spine. In fine condition. Measures 9.25 x 13 inches.  (#37297)

Price: $950

Unrequited Homoerotic Love - a 16th Century Poem
Letterpress Printed with Engravings

[Old Stile Press]
Barnfield, Richard; illustrated by Clive Hicks-Jenkins; Dr. Peter Wakelin, essay.
The Affectionate Shepheard.
Monmouthshire UK: The Old Stile Press, 1998.

Number 160 of 200 copies. Signed by the artist and essayist. From the Press: "When The Affectionate Shepheard was first published, in London in 1594, its author was 20 years of age and immediately became a celebrity -- although he ceased to write six years later. In the centuries since, however, both poem and poet have largely disappeared from sight. Printings have been few and this one is thought to be the very first to be accompanied by images. The poem followed the rich tradition of pastoral poetry and was influenced especially by the second Eclogue of Vergil, taking unrequited love as its theme and, as its subject, the love of a shepherd, Daphnis, for the young man, Corydon. An essay, putting the work fascinatingly in its historical and literary context, has been specially written by Dr. Peter Wakelin for inclusion in this edition. If the poem is an unusual and worthwhile rediscovery, so is the printmaking technique employed by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Involving glass and a layer of pigment, it is more akin to line engraving on, say, metal than to any form of drawing. This publication is also remarkable for being the first of our books to be printed entirely on paper handmade by Frances McDowall at The Old Stile Press."

Printed in Bulmer types on McDowall's handmade paper.Illustrations on each page produced from autographic relief images using a variant form of cliché verre. Bound in vegetable parchment hand toned by the printer, illustrated on both covers with outline designs printed in grey, black spine titling. Special endpapers handmade by Frances McDowall. Scattered foxing to some pages. Housed in a folding slipcase covered in burnt orange cloth, lined with blue Ingres paper. Octavo in near fine condition. 58 pages. (#29413)

Price:   $260

Transgender Poet & Activist
Poetry on Water
Letterpress, Silk Screen Printing, Hand Painting, and Color Pencil

Wang, Shu-Ju, book artist; Emily Newberry, poet.
Water.
Portland, OR: Shu-Ju Wang, 2014.

Number 2 of 40 copies. This lovely artist's book of two poems is a collaboration between Portland poet and transgender activist Emily Newberry and book artist Shu-Ju Wang. Shu-Ju describes the book: "Water...changes between liquid, solid, and gas relatively easily. In the first poem Newberry celebrates the two forms - rain and snow - that have a very direct impact on our physical well being and survival. But beyond these direct references, the fluidity with which water changes can also be interpreted as a metaphor for the complexity and fluidity of identifies and ideas...addressed more succinctly with the second poem."

Designed using the meandering structure with hexagonal pages, allowing the book to form a whirlpool when fully opened. The first poem is letterpress printed. The second is silkscreen printed. Each book has a unique hand-painted front cover and hand-colored text block. The book uses Print Gocco, gouache, colored pencils, and cold wax on Rives and Nepal Heavyweight papers. In fine condition. Measures 5.5 x 4.75 inches when closed and 21 x 25 inches when opened. Unpaginated. [14 pages]  (#35066)

Price: $400