Priscilla Spitler
La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation
Size of binding
372 x 205 x 18 mm (14.625 x 8.125 x .75 in)
Materials
Main cover: Full yellow Harmatan goatskin leather, assorted colored goatskin onlays, Arches Text Wove paste-paper liners, colored foils for décor and tooling. Bound pamphlet or Colophon book: Quarter green Harmatan goatskin leather, sides of decorated Arches Text Wove paste-paper, yellow Bugra endpapers, blue foil stamped spine title on green goatskin. Clamshell Box to house both bindings: Case: aqua Japanese bookcloth; trays: green Brillianta bookcloth, pale yellow felt-lined trays, green leather, stamped label on box spine in silver foil.
Description of binding
While traveling east from Moscow by train (du transsibérien), passenger la Petite Jehanne repeatedly asks if they are getting closer to Paris. The accordion folded text slips into a yellow, full leather case decorated with multi-colored onlaid and back-pared leather designs. Imagery loosely illustrates this poetic journey in a spirit inspired by Sonia Delaunay’s original art for Cendrars’ La Prose. Paper flaps on the recto side of case hold the accordion in place, yet allow for its removal. Paste-paper liners created by the binder. Colophon text bound in a sewn-boards binding with green quarter leather on spine and matching pastepaper sides. Bindings housed in a cloth-covered drop-spine box constructed with a special compartment for the Colophon binding.
Artist bio
Priscilla Spitler studied printmaking at the California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland (BFA 1975), craft bookbinding at the London College of Printing (Certificate 1981), and design binding with James Brockman at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin in 1987. She is the 2009 and 2015 winner of the Helen Warren DeGolyer Award for American Bookbinding, and a 2017 Silver Prize winner of the Designer Bookbinders’ Heroic Works Exhibition held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. In 2015, the Guild of Book Workers honored Priscilla with a Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
Price
$5900
Prospective buyers: please contact Kitty Maryatt at twohandspress@gmail.com. Books purchased will be delivered to the purchaser at the end of the touring exhibition.