ArtBookTalk

New From Qualibre

2015-08-24T09:44:00.001-07:00

Here are some new projects that I am particularly proud of.

TURQUOISE, WATER, SKY from The Museum of New Mexico Press:

REFLECTIONS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, from the University of South Carolina Press:

WINELANDS OF THE CAPE, from South Africa:

VICTORIA SAMBUNARIS, from Radius Books:

Update: Dogs and Duotones

2010-03-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

A good photo makes all the difference!

Author and photographer Michael Crouser wrote me a very kind email in response to my blog post, Dogs and Duotones (see blogpost of February 24), which featured his book Dog Run. He also had compliments for our new pup, Luke -- thanks Michael!

And here is a new and improved book shot of Dog Run, which does the cover image more justice.

The Lazy Goat

2010-03-03T16:52:00.000-08:00

A full day of driving through South Carolina. Highlight of the day was meeting with a group of super enthusiastic, creative restauranteurs in Greenville. They want to launch a collection of cookbooks, highlighting the specialties of each of these fabulous eateries.

After our meeting I asked about having lunch at one of the restaurants, and chef Victoria Moore directed me to her establishment, The Lazy Goat. I had the most delicious pommes frites known to man, and a muffuletta fried in some sort of herb infused olive oil ... Incredibly good. There goes my diet.

Traveling Again

2010-03-02T06:11:00.001-08:00

On my way to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia.

Is there supposed to be snow?????

Dogs and Duotones

2010-02-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

I love this book of photos, beautifully reproduced as duotones, by Michael Crouser, Dog Run. Published by Viking Penguin, the book was printed in Barcelona through Imago.

I grew up with dogs, and shared the last 8 years of my life with an unforgettable dog named Forest, who died an untimely death of cancer this past Spring. Once you have shared your life with a dog, you know all about dogs playing: the best kind of fun is when the fur is flying, bodies are racing around, teeth are bared, and everyone gets covered with mud.

I love Crouser's photos for this raucous, down and dirty, real life view of what it is like to play like dog.

Crouser himself notes that these are "the first pictures of my life that actually make me laugh."

Just before Christmas, we made the decision to bring another dog into our lives.

Its a hard decision, because you love them so much - a dog enters your life and changes it - and the time you have with them is so brief.

And ...

it is an easy decision ...

because ...

... it is not a good life if there is not a dog in it.

Photos of me and Luke by James McEntee (www.JamesMcEntee.com)

An Artist, A Collector, A Museum

2010-02-12T20:44:00.000-08:00

I spent this past week trying to close some deals, drum up new business, and put some trips together to Georgia, The Carolinas, Tennessee, Santa Fe.

In the middle of this, I took a break and went up to The Boca Museum of Art which has a new exhibit of the works of M.C. Escher. I love the fantastic buildings and mazes and landscapes where you think you are getting somewhere but in fact you are getting nowhere. Or - looked at another way - maybe you ARE getting somewhere, but it is somewhere strange and mysterious, somewhere you could only get to in a dream.

I happen to meet up with collector Rock J. Walker, whose collection of Escher's works forms the basis for the Boca exhibition. Walker was prowling the hallways of the gallery - perhaps checking to make sure all the works were hung to his satisfaction. "You know Escher don't you?" he barked. I answered that indeed I did - but I was fascinated to see all the other kinds of works, all the other subject matter, which I hadn't previously associated with Escher. Walker travels the globe, from Amsterdam, to London, to New York, to California buying and selling contemporary artworks. "It's not as glamorous as it sounds" he rumbled. Hmmmm. I wonder.

The exhibition is titled The Magical World of M.C. Escher and runs through April 11, 2010.

We Don't Just Print Books (Part 3) - Creative Gifts

2010-02-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

Here are some magnets to take away from your visit to The National Gallery in London. I love how all the pieces are odd-sized, and work on their own, or create a bigger picture:

And from The Royal Shakespeare Theatre:

Produced by Imago.

We Don't Just Print Books (Part 2) - Products for the Ecologically Minded

2010-02-03T21:36:00.000-08:00

And now for something more PC.

Worried about that big ole' carbon footprint you're leaving all over the place?

This "CO2" eraser, produced by Imago, can take care of some of the dirty work.

We Don't Just Print Books (Part 1) - Great Packaging

2010-02-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

Oh No! Promoting cigarette smoking?????

Yes. And let me tell you, if you had a cool rubberized case like this to carry your butts in, you'd do it.

Produced by Imago.

Winner of the Caldecott Medal

2010-01-25T13:22:00.000-08:00

It's a pleasure to report that the winner of this year's prestigious Caldecott Medal, The Lion and The Mouse, was produced by Imago Singapore.

This retelling of Aesop's classic fable, in which the tiny mouse finds a way to help his majestic friend the lion, was written and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. It was published by Little, Brown a division of Hachette.

Production Director Shari Lichtner of Hachette had this to say:

“You guys did an awesome job on this book. I hope you let EVERYONE know how grateful we are. The pre-press, printing, entire package is incredible. I know how difficult his artwork can be ... and whoever handled the on press quality is to be commended.

This title first printed in Spring 2009 and is now on its fifth reprint, so IMSing has been working quite hard to keep it in print!”

John Baldessari - Catalogue Raisonne

2010-01-15T22:54:00.000-08:00

Copies of this new title are just arriving in the U.S.: John Baldessari: A Catalogue Raisonne of Prints and Multiples 1971-2007.

It is the definitive study of print work of Baldessari's prolific career, spanning nearly 40 years.

I am really proud to have been a part of this project, which printed in Barcelona through Imago this past fall. Published by Hudson Hills Press, it will likely be one of the most important books on a contemporary artist published this year. The project was designed by Skolkin+Chickey.

This hefty volume, which is 540 pages and features a cool acetate jacket, will accompany the exhibition: John Baldessari: Pure Beauty.

The exhibition will run at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona through March 16, then travel to the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, and end up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from October 17 through January 9, 2011.

A Visitor

2010-01-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

Temperatures below freezing???? But - this is Florida!

During this past week's cold snap, I picked this little lizard up off the sidewalk, where he lay - apparently frozen - having fallen out of a tree.

I brought him inside into my office, and a few days later, he was good as new. He showed a surprising amount of interested in books and publishing, as his alert expression clearly demonstrates.

By Thursday, temperatures were getting back to tropical normal. After a brief chase around my office during which he morphed in and out of various shades of brown and green, this little guy was delivered back outside and darted into a palm tree. Shortly thereafter, he settled down into a nice shade of chartreuse.

I Never Noticed All These Books!

2009-12-18T12:23:00.000-08:00

A visit to Washington before Christmas had me staying at my favorite hotel.

My meetings were with book publishers and in fact a good portion of my life revolves around books - what's in them, how to make them, and how to make them more interesting - so how is it that, after all the times I've stayed at the Tabard, I never really took a closer look at all the: BOOKS?

Every room I have ever stayed in, as well as the hallways and sitting rooms, have one if not several bookshelves overflowing with books.

Perhaps I was never really curious about what I would find on the shelves because I always travel with at least TWO of my own books (in case I am not in the mood for one or the other). But this time I was traveling light, and before getting into bed decided to explore what was on the bookshelf in my room.

Were these books simply bought as a lot and placed here to look picturesque? Were some of them left here by previous guests, traded for another book on the shelf that the guest decided to pinch ... ?

Here's what I found:

The Plays of John Galsworthy
The Art of Rapid Reading, a 1929 instructional.
A Legislative Reference

Triumph and Tragedy
A volume on Roses

A three-volume text on Lincoln, from 1889, by "his friend and law partner William Herndon." I liked Herndon's dedication:

"To the men and women of America
who have grown up since his
tragic death, and who have yet
to learn the story of his life,
this record of
Abraham Lincoln's career
is faithfully inscribed."

But in the end I curled up with Memories, Dreams, Reflections:

"Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality, too, desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and to experience itself as a whole."

C.G. Jung (at 81 years old)

I did not, however, wake up the next morning to report any especially interesting dreams or manifestations from the unconscious. Which was slightly disappointing.

Art Basel Miami

2009-12-10T16:36:00.001-08:00

It's great to be attending the show.

But I'd really rather arrive in one of these

Some of the interesting guests:

Some of the art we liked:

Bejewelled stag.

Giant sized, glowing, weird flat head. Everyone wanted to have their picture taken next to it. Did I mention that "cameras are not allowed." How absurd.

My jewelry box, times a thousand, dumped out on a canvas.

Maid of the sea.

Annie Lebowitz Alica-in-Wonderland Fantasy. (Alice's adventures in Wonderland: May 4. Also my birthday).

Looks kinda vegetably - but comfortable.

Michael Jackson art was everywhere. We liked this one. "After Prince Philip".

Lunch on South Beach with my niece Amanda, photographer and magazine publisher-to-be ....

Where I stayed, What I ate

2009-11-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

I think I could probably be happy forever if I could just live here:

And eat like this:

Breakfast

Lunch

Those French

2009-11-24T15:32:00.001-08:00

Yes we may think the French are difficult - but isn't it really because they eat, drink, and smoke cigarettes and still stay thin and live to be 100???? How do they do that???

Difficult or not, the consensus at Imago seemed to be that the French come up with some of the most stylish and innovative designs, even for something like a CD collection. Here is one I really liked:

Cool Stuff

2009-11-24T15:08:00.000-08:00

So, one problem is this: as this was my first time visiting my colleagues in the UK, and further more as I did not want to come off as an obnoxious American, I was too timid to stick my camera in people's faces and take their pictures for my blog!

Instead, I snapped shots of some of the many cool products and some projects in development. Here are a few of interest.

Cool Cover Treatments:

A detail of that black cover:

I love these two notebooks, and how they are held shut:

Want to keep your book's identity a secret ... try one of these:

What about a nice felt slipcase:

Or a fancy cloth book satchel:

Imago HQ

2009-11-24T14:25:00.000-08:00

My first thought, driving up the country hillside to the Imago Headquarters, which is located in a converted old farmhouse outside of Oxford University: "People Work Here?" (Followed quickly by: I could easily work here!).

It is just lovely. And possibly because I am so tired after waking up at 4:30 am in Barcelona, or because the weather is rather magically balmy and blustery, OR because a pair of pheasants stroll across the field in front of us - it feels a bit like being in a dream.

Behind the offices, this ancient church ....

My two days at Imago headquarters are packed with meetings. Everyone from the managing partners, to individual managers, to the members of the sales and production teams seems to me to be bursting with enthusiasm for what they are doing, curious about what my opinions might be, and eager to show off new products as well as new ideas in development.

Of which there are dozens! There are books of course, of every size, shape, dimension, and in dozens of different languages. And electronics. And toys. And unusual packaging and materials - fabric, wood, rubber, felt. Lenticulars, magnet sets, pop-ups, things that make noise, things that fly around. My dear UK colleagues please do not be annoyed if I say that in some way I felt as if I had dropped in to Santa's Workshop!

Barcelona Wrap Up

2009-11-18T13:51:00.000-08:00

And before we knew it, we were finished!

The press sheets looked beautiful, and this was by far the easiest press check I've ever done.

During the three days I spent at the plant in Barcelona, I noticed a few things that I really liked: The plant is family owned and in the office, the owner of the company - Bernardo - and his brother work right alongside the rest of the staff, right in the same big open office space. He doesn't have some fancy office space cut off from the rest of the staff. He is not the kind of guy who shows up once a year for the Christmas party. (Admittedly, he does have a nicer car than anyone else, but hey, I guess there are some perks to being the boss). This means decisions get made quickly, and also that there is an atmosphere of open communication.

Second, during a tour of the binding portion of the plant I noticed that at every station someone was pulling books off the line and really looking at them: shaking them, peering into and around them, flipping pages. There wasn't just some guy at the end of the line checking books - everyone was checking the quality of what their particular operation was producing. Later Bernardo told me that each time a customer comes to them with a new and higher quality requirement they adopt this procedure for the entire plant, for all their titles. And I don't think this was just hype, I saw it in action.

Having finished the press check, David and I had lunch with Jose and Bernardo at a wonderful seaside cafe. Late in the afternoon, David and I had a chance to explore Barcelona a little bit on our own. We admired a Gaudi facade.

And wandered around through la Boceria. After two hours of exploring, and getting lost in strange passageways off Las Ramblas, my feet began to hurt. So we wound our way back to the great tapas restaurant Bernardo had taken us to, two nights before, and tried our hand at ordering our own tapas. The food was still good, but it was not the same as Bernardo ordering those special treats that seemed to have something like cream cheese in them; or the ones with anchovies or the roasted eggplant and red peppers.

I'll be up tomorrow morning at 4:30 am, in order to get to the airport in time for my flight to London. Painful.

Barcelona Day Two

2009-11-17T01:42:00.000-08:00

My one complaint is that so far I have only seen Barcelona in the dark: it is dark in the morning when we take a cab to the plant, and dark at night when we get back for dinner - AT 10 PM! (which is normally my bedtime).

Starting

To

See Spots

The day ends with dinner by the sea at Suquet de l'Almirall, a restaurant frequented by the likes of Woody Allen and Lou Reed.

And us! Here I am with my friend Maria Eugenia, from Barcelona (photo courtesy of David Skolkin). And that's Maria Eugenia above, with the owner of the restaurant Quim Marques and a sketch by Woody Allen.

Barcelona Day One

2009-11-16T09:31:00.000-08:00

I arrive in Barcelona Sunday night, more wired than exhausted. David Skolkin and I meet in the lobby bar for a "Welcome" glass of champagne. Just as I am trying to figure out if the best idea after traveling for 20 hours would be to go to sleep, Bernardo and Jose from Grafos show up and whisk us off to a wonderful dinner of:

Pork - which, in Barcelona, is "good for you because the animals are happy living in the mountains eating acorns"
Artichokes - "they are in season!"
Monkfish with borage sauce - "a typical dish of Barcelona"
And cheese! - "have some dessert Christina!"
Followed by another espresso - "I don't think this will keep me up, do you?"

The next day - today - we are at the plant by nine for the first press sheet.

It is a really nice switch to actually be working on a project, to be on press, rather than just arriving for a bunch of meetings. And this is a BIG project: a 540 page catalogue raisonnee of the work of John Baldessari.

So far so good. We're printing on the big KBA presses - 20 to view - and the work looks fantastic. I love these big presses, what a change from the days of 8-to-view on the little Heidelbergs! With a little luck we will get through over 200 pages today, something that could have taken 3-4 days in the old days of printing.

There's David hard at work with Export Director Jose and Press Supervisor Pedro

A quick (well, not that quick) break for lunch, at a great no-frills restaurant overlooking the vegetable market. First course: broiled roasted red peppers and eggplant topped with goat cheese.

Then, back to work.

Check out all these wild mushrooms at the market!

En Route - Layover at Heathrow

2009-11-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

Miami Book Fair 2009

2009-11-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

Now in it's 26th year, The Miami Book Fair is taking place this weekend in downtown Miami. Mitchell Kaplan, owner and founder of the renowned Books & Books in Coral Gables, and co-founder of the Miami Book Fair, credits the growth of Miami's literary community to this annual event.

I attended the Fair on Friday, and as always there was the sense of carnival in the air. However, it was clear to me that there were far fewer exhibitors this year, and most of the exhibitors seemed to be bookstores or used bookstores. Many of the publishers I'd seen in the past were missing.

However, I had a nice chat with the folks at Pineapple Press and I am ever hopeful that one day I will get to work with them. As I usually do each year, I walked away from their stand with a STACK of books - Birds of Florida, The Storm Gourmet (so we can figure out what to eat in a hurricane), and River of Grass by Florida author and environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

When I discovered that Ms. Douglas went to Wellesley, as I did, and apparently lived to be 108, I also bought her autobiography Voice of the River. How does someone live to be 108? Having a consuming passion helps - Douglas was a committed environmentalist and passionate about the Florida Everglades. She also appears to have been somewhat of a crank, was single most of her life, refused to learn to drive, and lived with a passel of cats!

I enjoyed chatting with the publisher of Akashic Books about their motto "reverse gentrification of the literary world" which to me sounded like just another way of saying everyone in publishing is losing their jobs. We also discussed their Noir series and I ended up with copies of Miami Noir and New York Noir. I got the low down on the latest styles in bible design from one of the several Christian publishers/distributors at the fair.

Today I am packing, and then it's off to Barcelona, where Imago's European printing partner is located, for a press check with designer David Skolkin.

The Power of Color

2009-11-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

I've been writing about texture and design lately. This past week, I was also thinking about the significance of color.

Working in the visual arts, I am keenly aware of the impact that color has on my moods, my state of mind.

I was recently reading Lee Eiseman's blog (Pantone's color guru), and found this interesting exercise involving color to help reduce stress, and even the pain of more serious illness. With the unemployment rate now over 10% (just reading that in the Times today stressed me out), its hard not feel some measure of anxiety these days - and we might use our enjoyment of the power of color to take things down a notch.

Try this out when it looks like stress and anxiety are threatening to take over your day (or week):

Find a quiet place where you can close your eyes for 10 minutes. Then, breath slowly and deeply into the belly while focusing attention about two inches below the belly button. Be sure to exhale deeply and completely. Ask yourself about your stress, your discomfort:

What color is it?

What shape is it?

How heavy is it?

Take another deep breath and ask yourself those questions again.

Dark, sharp, and heavy is often how we will experience stress. By repeating this breathing exercise, and the questions, we can often begin to imagine the answers changing to "light in color, round in shape, light in weight". By imagining lighter colors - or colors that we associated more with calmness (such as blue) or love (such as pink) we can actually let go of the stress and find ourselves in a more calm, relaxed, optimistic mood.

Now that's a much better way to start off the week, isn't it?

Paintings by Melissa Moss, the artist who introduced me to Lee Eiseman's work on color psychology.

Melissa's paintings are shown in galleries throughout the country; her work is also reproduced as prints and pillows and sold through Urban Outfitters.

Gladness, top.

Isn't it Beautiful?, bottom.

Vampire Dreams

2009-11-01T22:18:00.000-08:00

According to an informal survey, Vampires were one of the top three preferred disguises for Halloween this year.

And what better way for a vampire to record his or her dreams and midnight musings than with this set of four Twilight Journals, complete with their own ornately decorated case (casket?).

Produced by Imago, and under top secret security until they hit the market just two weeks before Halloween, these journals and their accompanying tin were produced in co-edition, in 10 different languages.

Over a million copies were produced, and publisher Little, Brown is back for more reprints, in several languages.

Admittedly, the set is beautiful, but what about some of these for future reprints .....?