The titular house, located in Minnesota’s beautiful St. Croix River valley, provides more than a honeymoon cottage for the recently married Bruce and Elaine who have rented it for the first fragile season of their reconciliation. The story is a dramatic meditation on the possibilities of forgiveness and the indelible claims of memory.
Bound in a traditional codex form, The Summer House is available in deluxe, standard, and chapbook editions designed by Michael Lizama under the direction of Mary Jo Pauly; deluxe and standard editions are signed by the author amd include ten illustrative prints executed by book artists/printmakers nationally recognized for their interpretive vision and technical skill. Text in all editions is letterpress printed from monotype Joanna on Mohawk Superfine under the supervision of MCBA Printing Artist-in-Residence Harold Kyle.
The Deluxe Edition (lettered A through Z) is a modified ‘French door’ structure comprised of two single signatures, one rendering text and the other carrying ten tipped-in prints signed by the artists. Sections are half-leather bound in hard covers, with goatskin spine and fore-edge, cloth sides, and snapped leather strapping to secure closure; the book is housed in a light card wrapper measuring 7-1/4″ x 10-1/4″ x 3/4″. Deluxe edition binding and chemise is designed and fabricated by Dennis Ruud, with hand-made endsheets and title labeling by Cave Paper.
The Standard Edition (numbered 1 through 125) includes text and ten accompanying signed prints as above in a two-section (modified ‘French door’ structure) non-adhesive binding, pamphlet stitched into stiff paper cover of Canson Mi-Tientes wrapped with Japanese moriki paper. The whole is encased in a multicolored slipcase measuring 7-1/8″ x 10-1/8″ x 3/4″, all designed and executed by Jill Jevne.
The Chapbook, or reader’s edition, presents the text in a single-signature pamphlet sewn binding with embossed cover or Curtis Exotics Natural Crepe die-cut to reveal a printed illustrative endsheet.
Text by Patricia Hemple
Illustrations by various artists
Designed by Michael Lizama under the direction of Mary Jo Pauly
Printed under the direction of Harold Kyle
Standard binding by Jill Jevne
Deluxe binding designed and bound by Dennis Ruud
Hand-made paper by Cave Paper