Imaginary Burden
[Sherman Oaks, California: Ninja Press, [1990]. One of 137 copies. With a two-page title with two large printed decorations (including an ens , an empty circle, a design common in the Japanese Zen painting tradition). Printed in three colors in handset Garamont Light on yellow kozo kusaki and kyousei papers handmade at the Fuji Paper Mills Cooperative in Tokushima, Japan (the kozo kusaki paper is no longer available). Designed and executed by Carolee Campbell. A fine copy. Accordion bound in vermilion kyoseishi over boards. 4 in. x 9 in. Item #17400
Imaginary Burden is the first book of Michael Hannon’s poetry printed by Carolee Campbell. She also printed Burn Down the Zendo (2004) and Pruned Boughs (2008), as well as ephemeral pieces featuring Hannon’s poetry. In Dispatches from the Lizard Brain: A Descriptive Bibliography of Ninja Press, Carolee Campbell writes, “When Michael gave me the manuscript to print, it consisted of twenty-three poems titled The Wine Poems…Over the months, as is Michael’s wont, he kept paring them down, word by word, until at last he was left with a single long poem that he titled Imaginary Burden.”.
The present work is inspired by zenga, the Japanese Zen painting style. The decorations on the cover and spine are reminiscent of the calligraphic strokes used in zenga. Of the ens design used on the title-page, Campbell writes, “The ens is considered one of the most profound images in zenga…It is just a circle, completed with one brushstroke in a single long, exhaled breath. It can mean everything and nothing, representing paradoxical statements with no fixed meaning. It carries a web of thinking that cannot be replaced by a single English word.” Dispatches from the Lizard Brain: A Descriptive Bibliography of Ninja Press, A8.
Price: $500.00