An Alliterative Alphabeastiary. Animals, activities, names & nonsense.
[Los Angeles:]: Printmaker Press, [ca. 1988]. One of 135 copies. Numbered by Marion Baker on the colophon. This alphabet book is dedicated to Edward Lear, “whose effortless, enchanting, alliterative allusions, from ‘Abstemious Ass’ to ‘Zealous Zebra,’ have elicited this edition.”. With a title-page vignette and a large linocut printed in red for every letter of the alphabet. Typeface is Garamond, hadset and printed by Marion A. Baker on a Vandercook SP15 press. Paper is Mohawk Superfine Text. A fine copy. Buff stiff paper wrappers printed in red. 8 in. x 8 in. 64 pp. Item #17341
Marion Baker developed her skills as a printer and illustrator (using linocuts and wood engravings) during the 1960s and 70s, taking courses in printmaking at Scripps College Press and the Women’s Graphic Center. Baker established Printmaker Press in the early 1980s and was a founding member of the Women of Letters, a Los Angeles-based letterpress printing group that has also counted Kitty Maryatt, Bonnie Thompson Norman, Johanna Drucker, and Farida Baldonado Sunada among its members. In the exhibition catalogue for Women Over 25: Printing Letterpress for Over a Quarter of a Century, which was held at Scripps College, Baker listed a variety of her inspirations: Sheila de Bretteville, Susan King, Claire Van Vliet, and her Women of Letters co-members Norman and Maryatt. Other Printmaker Press books include A Touch of India (1999), The Store 5-10 & 25 cents (2001), and Fans & Fronds (2009), all of which were written and illustrated by Baker.
Maryatt, Kitty and Judy Harvey Sahak, curators. Women Over 25: Printing Letterpress for Over a Quarter of a Century. Claremont, California: Scripps College, 2011.
Price: $500.00