Byopia Press ~ Canada
(Cathryn Miller)

Alphabet & Counting books by Cathryn Miller
Do-it-yourself books
Life's little adventures bookworks
Nature bookworks by Cathryn Miller

Sredni Vashtar
By Saki
Illustration by Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2008. Edition of 12.

3.5 x 3.5"; 20 pages. Typeset in Garamond Premier Pro. Text and original illustration digitally printed on 100% recycled paper. Housed in a plastic case.

This Saki (pen name of H. H. Munro) satire of Edwardian mores has the expected macabre elements. The title character, a ferret, becomes the avenging god in a young boy's repressed world.

The tight, crisp presentation – small page size, straightforward design, basic black-on-white palette, the plastic case – mirrors Saki's signature style.
$35

White Rock Board Walk
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2006. Edition of 22.

5 x 5" closed, extends to 68.5"; 16 pages. Accordion structure. Giclée printed onto Legion Domestic Etching paper. Typeface: Adobe Myriad Pro.

Gentle propaganda for the benefits of walking supported by images of walkers and quotations by Soren Kierkegaard, Charles Dickens, and Max Beerbohm.

Cathryn Miller, colophon: "This book is based on a series of photographs taken from a coffee shop in White Rock, overlooking the Board Walk above the beach. All photographs have been extensively modified in Photoshop CS2 and if any individual portrayed can prove their identity, I will give them a free copy of the book."
$40

Joyride
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2004. Edition of 20.

3 x 4" closed, extends to 32"; 8 pages. Accordion structure. Photographs from a Canon PowerShot 5330 camera giclée printed onto Canson Mi-Tientes paper by an Epson 2200 inkjet printer. Typeface: KIDS. Housed in open ended sleeve with title printed on one side.

Cathryn Miller: "The photographs [of bicycle skid marks on asphalt] were made at a viewpoint above Lake Okanogan in September, 2003." The book is dedicated to Sandi Hamm, "who wants to learn how to make every kind of mark."
$25

A is for Apple
By Cathryn Miller
Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2011. Edition of 6.

4.25 x 6 x 4" wooden slat structure resembling an apple crate. Removable top. Variant of an altered book. Papier maché with digital graphic design. Materials: dictionary pages, Styrofoam, coated wire, recycled spruce timber, brass tacks, 100% cotton rag paper, PVA/starch paste mix. Ink jet printing.

Cathryn Miller: "The apple is made from random pages ripped from a decaying dictionary and adhered to a Styrofoam core. The 'excelsior' packaging inside the crate is coated with PVA/starch mix, cut, and curled from "A" pages of an antique dictionary, including the pages listing hereditary apple varieties. The apple is a recurring theme in both European mythology and Christian history: a long time embodiment of both learning and danger, sometimes it is just as simple as an apple for the teacher."
$300

L is for Lettering
By Cathryn Miller
Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2011. Edition of 26.

6.25 x 6.25"; 50 pages. Hand bound codex. The book was hand drawn, then scanned and resized in Photoshop. Test is Caflisch Script Pro. Laser printed on acid free paper, hemp paper covers. Hand annotated in red pencil.

An alphabet book based on the artist's personal struggle to become a practicing artist.

Cathryn Miller: "The trials and tribulations of the art education process as recalled from a satisfactory distance after the author learns that everything is useful after all."
$45

G is for Geography
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2010. Edition of 36.

5.5 x 7 x .25"; 28 pages. Laser printed on acid free paper. Typeset in Century Schoolbook. Paper covered boards with cloth spine.

This is a pamphlet edition of Miller's original sculptural book from 2008 of the same title. That edition of 4 is now out of print.

An alphabetical recounting of a childhood fondness for stamps and maps.

Each page has a map corresponding to the appropriate letter (e.g.
Afghanistan, Bolivia, Congo...) with an autobiographical narrative about the artist's fascination for maps.

Zanzibar, with the gentle
zephyr breezes wafting
the scent of exotic flowers
and spices over me.
And it still makes me smile.

$45

1 2 3
Illustrations by Mary Romanuck
Book design by Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2009. Edition of 25.

6.25 x 3.25";10 pages. Accordion structure. Original linocut and collaged illustrations giclée printed on Legion Domestic etching paper. Housed in printed paper sleeve.

From 1 sleeping fish through 5 flying fish (over the moon) to 9 canned sardines, artist Mary Romanuck and book designer Catherine Miller take us from 1 to 9, simply and with a smile.
$25 (Last two copies)

J is for Janet: An Alphabetical Biography Complete with Pictures
J is for Janet: A Paper Doll
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2007. Edition of 24.

Two books — An Alphabet… and A Paper Doll —in a dos-à-dos structure. Alphabet: 5.5 x 5.5"; 38 pages. Paper Doll: 8 x 10"; 5 leaves. Typeset in Bookman Old Style. Giclée printed on Cougar Cover and Weyerhaeuser First Choice.

On Christmas when four year old, Cathryn Miller received a doll, which she named Janet. Janet survived the years — cuddled, dressed, and investigated (see "E is for Embroidery Scissors" for details of the internal exam) — and now is reformatted as a paper doll with an alphabetic history. The paper doll book produces Janet with a stand and four outfits and includes details of how each came to be.
$55

Starry Night: An Astro Logical Nomical Alphabet
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2004. Edition of 20.

6 x 6" closed, extends to 18"; 3 leaves. Tri-fold. Giclée printed. Enclosed in two paper sleeves.

A tribute to Van Gogh's Starry Night in the form of a straightforward alphabetic roam through the heavens — Ares to Zodiac.
$30

no skateboarding
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2005.

3 x 3 x 3" boustrophedon variant (folds into a box and comes with instruction sheet), giclée printed.

Cathryn Miller: "no skateboarding is a book, a puzzle, a box, a photographic essay about surfaces. Text takes second place to visual images in this piece. The few words involved function primarily as graphic elements, but also lend context to the primary idea of the work: the limitations that one part of society may attempt to impose on another."
$40 (Last Copy)

Feathers
By Cathryn Miller
Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2011. Edition of 8.

2.5 x 3.25"; 8 pages. Accordion. Laser printed on acid-free paper, papyrus, acid free card stock. Bound with cotton cord. Housed in 2.5 x 8 x .75" two-part paper construction with grouse tail feather. Laid-in wrap aroun illustrated paper box with cord closure.

Cathryn Miller: "A very short story about finding feathers illustrated with an assortment of scan and altered images of feathers. Includes one tail feather mentioned in the story. "

$32

Snowy Owl
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2009. Edition of 24.

4.75 x 6.5"; 8 pages. Accordion structure. Giclée printed on Legion Domestic Etching paper. Bound with reverse folded covers and house in a paper slip case.

Cathryn Miller: "Digitally created images and a poem in pantoum form about a Snowy Owl hunting in winter."

Note: The pantoum, a poetic form something like a villanelle, is a series of quatrains with the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next.

A ghost from the North:
sudden as a blizzard wind
he arrives, silently,
as a single snowflake falls. ...

$40

Datura
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2007. Edition of 24.

6 x 6" closed, extends to 36"; 6 pages. Accordion fold. Typeset in Caflisch Script Pro. Giclée printed on Legion Domestic Etching and laid into a giclée-printed paper envelope folder.

Cathryn Miller: "My work often reflects my life long interest in the natural world. The individual books are usually small, conceived as a personal connection between maker and viewer/reader.They can be held in the hand, and are thus more intimate than a large folio."

Datura celebrates this night bloomer, opening as "the evening light fades," perfuming the air until the "moths are giddy."
$40

Skunk Cabbage Board Walk
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2007. Edition of 5.

8.5 x 8.5"; 26 pages. Giclée printed on 100% cotton rag paper text block. Also Canson Mi-Teintes paper. Laid in hard wrapper of board covered by Indian leaf print papers and secured with blue grosgrain ribbon.

Cathryn Miller: "The images in the book lead the viewer on a short journey through a wetlands nature preserve in autumn."

Skunk Cabbage, found in wet areas of the Pacific Northwest, has a distinctive skunky odor. Mount Revelstoke National Park in British Columbia is home to the Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk.
$175

Four Seasons In A Dry Year
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2005. Edition of 40.

5 x 5" closed, extends to 29.5"; 6 leaves. Accordion structure. Calligraphic design giclée printed onto Arches 90 lb. hot pressed paper. Tipped in handmade paper collages. Housed in two part handmade paper sleeve. Calligraphy, digital manipulation, papermaking, printing, and assembly by the artist.

Cathryn Miller: "The foundation of Four Seasons In A Dry Year is language. The calligraphic landscapes include 10 First Nations and 60 immigrant languages for seasons (part of living in the northern hemisphere at this latitude) using the prairie landscape as a visual framework.

"If one lives outside a city, as most people used to (and many still do), the weather and the seasons are a way of measuring time. I hoped to reflect in this work both the multicultural aspect of Canada as a country and the importance of the natural world: length of day, amount of rain, when the bugs come, when the harvest is ready. It also refers to the threat of climate change. Weather patterns are not what they once were: storms are more violent, droughts more severe, and last for more years than Environment Canada (or anyone else) can correctly predict.

"The book was created after Saskatchewan had suffered a prolonged period of drought. In some areas it was drier than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. And this year [2005], of course, we have suffered from torrential downpours and flooding.

"Language is the way people define their universe: it was raining so hard that...; it was so cold that.... And where I live in the central part of the country, weather (and the seasons) are extreme. "
$40 (Last Four copies)

redpoll & RAVEN
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2005. Edition of 10.

11 x 7.5"; 5 leaves. Typefaces: Verdana, Palatino, and Times Roman. Printed with an Epson Stylus Photo 2200 onto acid-free papers: Strathmore, Canson Mi-tientes, and Ginwashi. Layered tri-fold with tabbed closure.

Text is from The Catalogue of Canadian Birds, ed. John Macoun, Canada Department of Mines: Geological Survey Branch, 2nd edition, 1909. Haiku and illustrations by the artist.
$40 (Last Copy)

Three Months
or
Twelve Weeks
or
Eighty-four Days
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2009. Edition of 4.

6.25 x 5 x 2" clamshell box one book and one shadow box. The book (laid in): side stitched, 5.75 x 4.5", 12 pages. Attached to front cover at spine is a used syringe. Shadow box (attached to interior of clamshell box): 5 x 4.5 x 1.25" with drop down lid contains 11 used syringes. Other materials: physician drug information sheets, mulberry paper, Indian cotton paper, book board, foam core, sheet acrylic, cotton cord. Giclée printing. Font: Stone Sans Sem ITC TT.

Cathryn Miller: "Text of the book deals with the repetitive process of trying new medications until one works. Cross printed in red over drug information sheets, the story is hard to read which engenders a sense of frustration reflecting the feelings of the author while waiting for drugs to work."
$500

A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of Her Former Self
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2006. Edition of 24.

6 x 4"; 12 pages. Typeface: Papyrus. Giclée printed onto Legion Domestic Etching paper. Sewn text block. Bound in Tanabata paper overlapped with tabbed closure.

12 photographs of the artist's shadow, always in the same stance and taken from the same angle. Only the background is different. Literature and folklore are replete with example of a man/woman without a shadow. Is there an opposite?
$40

A Beachcomber's Molluscalphabet
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2004. Edition of 20.

6 x 6" closed; 6 x 18" open. Reverse gatefold structure. Giclée printed with illustrations from old natural history books. Typeface: Bodoni Book. Printed on Arches paper with an Epson Stylus Photo 2200 printer. With a 2"-wide bandoleer sleeve.

An alphabet of molluscs printed in swirls and lists against a background of shell illustrations from natural history books.
(SOLD)

A Birdwatcher's Colouring Book Alphabet
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2005. Edition of 30.

6 x 6.5"; 28 pages. Sewn text block. Giclée printed on acid-free paper.

A straight forward alphabet for birdwatcher's, no frills, just names — from A is for Anisodactyleous (American Robin) to Z is for Zygodactylous (Downy Woodpecker) — and images.
(SOLD)

Digital Memory
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2004. Edition of 16.

2.75 x 2.75"; 20 pages. Miniature. Sutured text block. Giclée printed. Housed in sleeve.

This humorously presented not-so-humorous personal story chronicles the adventures of the artist (who deals with rheumatoid arthritis) from the onset of a shooting pain in her hand, through the vagaries of modern medicine, to a successful ending, of sorts. Final score: 6 not-so-goods to 1 this-is-not-bad. Less is more.
(SOLD)

Forest
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2007.
One-of-a-Kind.

9 x 6 x 3"; altered book. Materials: Davey board, Thai tamarind paper, Canson Mi-Teintes paper, cotton cord, leaf buttons plus one altered copy of The Forest (Peter Farb, Time-Life, 1961). Housed in six-sided drop down case with button and cord closure.

Tiny pieces of The Forest, mostly quarter-inch squares, in a six sided case. A reinterpretation of the original book's subject matter.

Cathryn Miller: "This work deconstructs an existing book and turns it into a new set of structures that still reflect the original content."
(SOLD)

G is for Geography
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2008. Edition of 4.

3.75 x 3.75 x 2.25"; 26 pages, attached/hinged with eyelet grommets. Giclée printing. Materials: Indian 100% cotton rag paper, map and stamps, Eterno board, grosgrain ribbon, eyelets. Housed in drop-back case covered with red ribbon tie closure.

Cathryn Miller: "An alphabetical story of my childhood fascination with maps and stamps."

One side of each page has a map corresponding to the appropriate letter (e.g. Afghanistan, Bolivia, Congo...); the other is an autobiographical narrative about the artist's fascination for maps.

Zanzibar, with the gentle
zephyr breezes wafting
the scent of exotic flowers
and spices over me.
And it still makes me smile.

(SOLD)

Grid Road Poems
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2006. Edition of 20.

4 x 8" closed; 6 leaves. Giclée printed on 90 lb Cougar Cover paper. Housed in a matching giclée-printed sleeve.

Cathryn Miller: "There's nothing like a walk on a hot summer day, and Grid Road Poems takes you on one. Ten haiku on twelve pages that can be assembled in a variety of ways, the entire work reflects prairie grid roads."

Dark on the gravel,
My shadow stretches ahead.
Where will it lead me?

(SOLD)

Tower of Babel
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2009. Edition of 5.

3 x 2.5 x 2.5"; 135 pages. Notched loose 2" square cards. Block and giclée printing. Materials: acid-free papers and card stock, Davey board. Housed in paper covered clamshell box.

Cathryn Miller: "Slotted pages are printed with a selection of words from political, marketing, business, and military jargon. The pages may be used to build a Tower of Babel. The structure will be unstable, reflecting the instability of social structures dependent on the use of such jargon."
(SOLD)

Universe/A Hitchhiker's Guide
By Cathryn Miller
Grasswood, Saskatchewan, Canada: Byopia Press, 2008.
One-of-a-Kind.

9 x 6 x 3"; altered book. Materials: Davey board, Japanese paper, grosgrain ribbon, plus one altered copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe. Housed in six sided black-and-silver paper-covered case with ribbon tie closure.

The universe cut and folded into several hundred (that's a guess) Froebel stars and placed in a box. A reinterpretation of the original book's subject matter.

Cathryn Miller: "I have had a lifelong fascination with paper. I enjoy not only making it, but 'playing' with it to create unusual 3-dimensional structures. I consider [paper] to be not just a support material for other processes, but an interesting thing in itself. The sculptural possibilities appear to be limitless."
(SOLD)