Crab Quill Press ~ Washington
(Ian Boyden)

A Carousel at Birth
By Ian Boyden and Frank Boyden
Portland, Oregon: Salient Seedling Press, 1997. Edition of 25.

6.25 x 5.75" with 64 pages. The drypoints were printed by Thomas Prochaska and Martha Pfanschmidt at Atelier Mars in Portland, Oregon. Typography, letterpress printing, and binding by Kathy Kuehn and Ian Boyden. The text was set in 14 point Bembo, and printed on Hahnemühle German Etching. Each volume is signed by the poet and artist and presented in an elegant Solander box.

Ian Boyden: "As far as we know, this is the only contemporary collaboration between father and son to be conceived of on a train while traveling through the Gobi Desert and later finished in the wet rains of Oregon. While on a grant in China studying Chinese calligraphy, Ian Boyden began to research various calendrical systems used throughout Chinese history. Choices of words, sounds, and images in this poem and accompanying series of prints derive from a twelve-part cycle of paired animals and/or signs of the Chinese and European zodiacs (modified to signify twelve two-hour periods of a single day, twelve equally spaced points on a compass, twelve colors, twelve musical notes, and so on)."
$1,200

Evidence of Night
By Jennifer Boyden and Frank Boyden
Portland, Oregon: Crab Quill Press. Edition of 15.

15 x 8.5" with 48 pages. The text is set in Centaur and printed letterpress on Hahnemühle Copperplate; end pages are Japanese taiten; and the sewn-boards binding features wooden covers of dyed pomele sapele and a leather and linen drop-away spine. Each book is signed by the artist and poet, and presented in a silk- and cork-lined Solander box. Designed, printed, and produced by Ian Boyden.

Ian Boyden: "Evidence of Night features a collection of eleven poems by Jennifer Boyden, and ten prints (variously copperplate drypoints, aquatints, sugarlift, and line etchings) and three original drawings and watercolors by Frank Boyden. The pacing and organization of this volume was inspired by the sonata form, the melody instruments in this case being the language of the poet, the images of the artist, and the blank page. The poems and images engage in a series of conversations with each other, shaping a meditation on the darknesses that inform and sing through us. While the text and prints are identical in each copy, the suite of drawn/painted images by Frank Boyden renders each book in the edition unique."
$6,000