That title will make sense in a few paragraphs...
An update
from the studio: publication of Josh Bell’s poem Sci-Fi Violence has
been pushed back to early 2026, to give Briony Morrow-Cribbs more time to work
on the aquatints. I’ll include a progress update in the December post.
This opened
a window to complete another project that was waiting in the wings: the
epilogue to H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, with two photo-etchings
by Scott Morgan. I have been interested in printing extracts from longer works,
fragments I think stand on their own from a narrative perspective, or maybe are
simply engagingly ambiguous when removed from their original context.
Scott is primarily known as the recording artist loscil, and has released more than two dozen albums over the past 25 years (depending how you count LPs, EPs, digital only & etc.), all of which have received heavy rotation at HM. His live shows are accompanied by his original videos, many incorporating photographs or videos he’s shot (see here). The first ones I saw were from his 2014 Sea Island tour. There have been some recurring images and elements in his videos, particularly the inclusion of geometric negative spaces in the screen’s center. Wells’ epilogue ruminates on how terrible events inflicted on earth and humanity might affect the decisions we make for our future; I thought it somewhat apropos. I asked Scott if he might want to contribute one or more original images, and luckily he shared my enthusiasm for the text.
His first
question was what? and his second was how? The first was easily
answered. For the second I took him to meet Peter Braune at New Leaf Editions.
The two images Scott settled on started as (film) photos, which he then digitized
and adapted using the same software he uses for his videos. So basically we had
two monochrome images with tremendous tonal detail. Rather than using the
traditional copper plates, Peter recommended printing from intaglio polymer
plates, also known as polymergravures. These are essentially the same as a metal plate, the main difference being in how the tonal effect is achieved. Rather than paraphrasing others, I’ll quote from Keith Taylor’s 2020 blog post on the topic:
“[Polymergravure] involves printing the image directly on a plate using the front manual
feed of the [inkjet] printer. The microscopic dots from the printer’s stochastic
pattern acting like, and replacing the need for, an aquatint screen.”
A polymergravure plate for one of Scott’s images is shown at the top of this post. In edition to Taylor’s post, an excellent illustrated article describing the process can be found here.
Once the plates were made we assembled at New Leaf to pull some proofs and consider ink variations. Both the text and etchings are printed on Barcham Green’s Royal Watercolour Society handmade paper, the text on a NOT (i.e. slightly rough) sheet, the prints on a hot pressed sheet. Neither is pure white. Some of the proofs were pulled on sheets closer to pure white, and the difference slight variations in a paper’s hue had on the result was significant. This isn’t news but we briefly discussed pulling a few sets of proofs on five or six different white sheets, simply to illustrate how the paper affects the printed image. Sort of like PSNABW but for intaglio.
The two
prints book-end the text, one a frontis, the other facing the last page of
text. The text was set by hand in 18-pt Perpetua and printed with a second
color on the title page epilogue opening. The edition (7.5 x 11 inches, 8 leaves) of 30 numbered copies (+
six hors commerce), all signed by Scott, will be uniformly cased in boards, but
some of those details are still being hammered out. I’m not sharing images of
the prints here, but I’ll add an image or two to this post when a dummy is
completed.
If
interested in receiving a notice when the edition is offered for purchase (some
time in October), send HM an email with War of the Worlds, or loscil,
in the subject line.
For anyone
in Europe reading this, Scott will be on a short tour over the next few weeks.
His shows are always engaging, contemplative and sonically immersive events,
highly recommended.
AND ANOTHER THING!
Barbara
Hodgson’s Byzantium imprint will be launching a new web site this fall, to
coincide with publication of its latest book, Textile Designs on Paper: An
Archive from Early 19th-Century France. I’ll add a link when it’s up and
running.
Briony Morrow-Cribbs currently has a show of new works at Next Stage Arts, in Putney VT, for the next two months. Some of the new works have been added to her site’s home page.
I’ve always felt slightly baffled by being human—as if this form came too soon, and I should’ve had at least one more round as a gopher, a wren, or maybe a fox. By making work based on animal forms, I’ve found a way to try on their shapes, slip into their skin, follow their instincts, and experience the world through their eyes. These animal-based images let me explore alternate incarnations—and facets of myself otherwise eclipsed by the human experience. In creating these creatures—sometimes real, sometimes imagined—I find a place to remember what it feels like to move through the world with certainty and grit. – Briony Morrow-Cribbs
