Even Hoshen Press ~ Israel
(Ido Agassi & Uzi Agassi)

The Raven
By Edgar Allen Poe
Hebrew translation by Ze'ev Jabotinsky
Ra'anana, Israel: Even Hoshen Press, 2010. Edition of 66.

9.25 x 13.5"; 40 pages. Dos-a-dos structure. Bilingual edition: Hebrew and English. Printed letterpress on Bavaria-Bütten paper. English text handset in Alt-Mediäval typeface. Hebrew text set in Margalit typeface. Illustrated with five paper cuts by Ido Agassi. Illustration of the raven between the two translations is constructed from four layers of paper: two white and two black. Bound in full black goatskin with onlay work, hand sewn headbands, and leather joints. In cloth covered slipcase.

American author, poet, editor and literary critic, Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. "The Raven," a narrative poem, was first published in the New York Mirror on January 29, 1845.

Ido Agassi: "The translation is by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He was a very famous man in Israel, a politician and a man of words. His translation of Poe was a millstone for generations that studied this poem by heart in school. This book was made as a tribute to him 70 years after his death.

"Accompanying this book are paper cuts made by me. There are 5 of them. The Raven in the middle of the book made from 4 layers of paper, 2 white that were cut out and 2 black that you can see above the title of the book both in Hebrew and English, and there are 2 hidden inside the book.

"The book was hand set in Alt-Mediäval in English and Margalit in Pointed Hebrew. To produce the Pointed Hebrew [I] set every line in the text in 12 pt then a 2 pt space and then I set the points separately! So much work as you can imagine."
$1800

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David and Goliath
Samuel 17:49
By Ido Agassi
Ra'anana, Israel: Even Hoshen Press, 2007. Edition of 10.

Housed in 56 x 13 cm (20.9 x 5.1") T-shaped clamshell box covered in blue and gold cloth. 3.25 x 3.8" pamphlet slips into pouch in lid of clamshell box. Brown leather slingshot (20.5 x 3.5") with stone laid in the clamshell box.

Joe Eskenazi, in a review that appeared in j: the Jewish news weekly of Northern California: "A few meters away ... is the oddest shaped book I've ever seen. ... It is a wallet-sized square attached to a long, thin rectangle, that resembles a banjo when Agassi lifts it up. He opens it, revealing a hollow, yellow interior and a leather strap with a biblical verse from Samuel 17:49 embossed on it in Hebrew and English:

And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground.

"This book is titled David and Goliath. And, notes Agassi with a smile, 'it is armed.' He lifts the fat end of the sling to reveal a smooth, flat stone —- which he picked up at the Ha'Ela Valley, where the battle between David and Goliath purportedly took place."
$620

In Everyone There Are Four Sons
By Nilly Dagan
Ra'anana, Israel: Even Hoshen Press, 2007. Edition of 54.

21 x 23.5 cm; 64 pages. Printed on Sundance cream paper 118gr. Includes music CD. Original metal cutout by David Gerstein. Two leather bound books. Red marbled end pages and pastedowns. Laid in green cloth-covered clamshell box designed by Ido Agassi. Housed in red cloth slipcase. Bi-lingual edition: English and Hebrew. English translation by Susann and Ed Codish.

Even Hoshen Press: "This is Dagan’s first book of poetry, simultaneously appearing in both Hebrew and in English. The two books are accompanied by a CD featuring readings of selected poems to guitar improvisations by Amos Ever-Hadani. Opening and closing musical motifs are by David Elharrar, arranged by Ken Burgess. The Hebrew reading is by actress Tami Spivak and the English reading (in the translation of Susann and Ed Codish) is by actress Gilya Stern.

"In Everyone There Are Four Sons is predicated on elements of multiplicity and variety. Every poem speaks in several voices, and the series of transitions surprise. Nilly Dagan weaves the high and the low, street slang and ancient sources, images and symbols from all over the world. All of these elements introduce one another and interchange, and associatively create the multi-vocal lyrical flow that is uniquely hers.

"In the Jewish tradition, the four sons in the Passover Haggadah are viewed as archetypes of people, and parallel to the four elements which were viewed as the stuff of which all matter is comprised – water, fire, dust and air. The wise son is like pure water, the wicked like consuming fire, the simple like dust of the earth, and the son who doesn’t know how to ask like restless wind. Just as their faces differ, so do their opinions, says the Talmud, by which it seeks to tell us that a multiplicity of facets, faces, voices, and colors constitutes a blessing for a fuller and richer multi-dimensional world.

"Nilly Dagan came to poetry relatively late, having spent many years in the world of business. She has been writing poetry since 2005. Her poems have been published in the literary supplement of Yediot Ahronot and in Hebrew literary magazines such as Moznayim, Iton 77, Shvo and Gag. Just as she appreciated the insight at the core of In Everyone There Are Four Sons, so she envisioned four modes of expression participating together in a four-way artistic conversation: poetry, translation, music and reading. And so, the point at which other poets might feel that they have completed their task, was turned by Nilly Dagan into a new beginning. She contacted translators, composers, musicians and actresses, to become part of a project whose shape emerged, step by step, and swept them all into a collaborative artistic creation.

"The project In Everyone There Are Four Sons includes:
1. A book of poetry in Hebrew, accompanied by a CD with readings by Tami Spivak.
2. A book of poetry in English, translated by Susann and Ed Codish, accompanied by a CD with readings by Gilya Stern.
3. A limited dual-language collector’s edition, numbered and signed, hand-bound, accompanied by metal cutting by artist David Gerstein. To be accompanied by a CD with readings by Aviva Marks.
4. An English-language CD with Gilya Stern reading eight sections of the book. David Elharrar composed original music for each of the eight segments, and the music and dramatic reading interweave to create a spoken-word/musical experience.
5. This CD represents a preview of a collection called A Poetry Concert in Four Voices to be released in four languages – Hebrew, Arabic, English and Spanish."
$ 2200

Review Frankfurt Book Fair 2008, In Everyone There Are Four Sons

Mein Blaues Klavier
By Else Lasker-Schüler
Ra'anana, Israel: Even Hoshen Press, 2007. Edition of 30.

39.5 x 32.5 cm (15.5 x 12.8"); 30 Sundance 118 gr. paper strips, 20 Fabriano Ingres black paper stripes. Black and white stripes form a piano keyboard. Book structure fashioned as a grand piano. Text in Hebrew and German. Housed in clamshell box.

Else Lasker-Schüler, a Jewish poet born in Germany, was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist movement. Hounded by the Nazis she fled to Zurich in 1933 and later to Palestine. Her melancholy poem speaks for a generation:

Ich habe zu Hause ein blaues Klavier
Und kenne doch keine Note.

I have at home a blue piano
but cannot play note.

Es steht im Dunkel der Kellertür,
Seitdem die Welt verrohte.

It’s been in the shadow of the cellar door
Ever since the world went rotten….

Joe Eskenazi, in a review that appeared in j: the Jewish news weekly of Northern California: "Agassi pulls the piece de resistance out of a rectangular box the size of a small laptop computer. The 'book' within is a tiny blue grand piano. It cannot play, but is equipped with a keyboard cover and a top that opens to reveal taut strings. On its removable paper 'keys,' Agassi has printed in Hebrew and German a poem by the German writer Else Lasker-Schüler titled, 'Mein Blaues Klavier' ('My Blue Piano')."
$2,400

Bejuquero
By Humberto Ak'abal
Ra'anana, Israel: Even Hoshen Press, 2003. Edition of 23.

10.6 x 8.1" (27 x 20.5 cm); 104 pages. Printed on Fiesta 160 gr. Grey deckle edge. Bound in Arches 250 gr. hand sewn with red cotton thread in pattern. Handmade slipcase. Two woodcuts on handmade paper by Ittai Altshuler. Text in Spanish and Hebrew. Signed by the poet and artist. Hebrew translation by Susana Navon and Ittai Altshuler.

There are 21 different Mayan dialects in Guatemala. The history is oral rather than written; therefore, this volume is a translation from Ak'abal's Maya-Ki'iche' dialect to Spanish as well as Hebrew.

Poetry International website: "Ak’abal holds a special position because he writes in his own Mayan language, Mayaquiché, in a country which has a tradition of repressing, rather than applauding, its indigenous population.

"Translations of Ak’abal’s work have appeared in France, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Italy, and Denmark, and his poems have been included in several anthologies.

"In 1993 he received the Quetzal de Oro from the Guatemalan Association of Journalists. In 1997 he was awarded the Swiss Blaise Cendrars prize, and in 1998 the Premio Continental Canto de América, from UNESCO in Mexico.

"Mayaquiché is the language of a people whose culture dates back to long before the Christian era. Ak’abal describes it as 'a poetic, guttural language, rich in onomatopoeias.' In his work, trees, leaves, animals and things have the gift of speech. 'The trees grow / without thinking of the axe.' The Quiché language has no word for poet; he is called 'singer.'

"Ak’abal did not heed his grandfather’s warning not to touch any books ('Books can make you lose your mind'), becoming a poet instead. He left his village, where he had earned a living as a shepherd and weaver, to try his luck as a street vendor and porter in the market place of Guatemala City. In the 1980s he began to write in Quiché. He translated his own poems into Spanish, but it was not until 1993 that he found a publisher willing to print his work. He has since returned to his village, where he now devotes himself exclusively to writing."
$1,250

A Walk in Iona
By Meir Wieseltier
Ra'anana, Israel: Even Hoshen Press, 1996. Edition of 77.

9.85 x 10.24" (25 x 26 cm); 28 pages, numbered in Hebrew letters. Text in Hebrew printed on 160 gr. ivory wove arches. Printed letterpress by M. Fuerst on a Heidelberg 1/8. Five aquatint illustrations (including wrapper) by Sidon Rotheberg. . Type: Hebrew, Frank-Ruehl 10 pt. Paper wrapper of 300 gr. cream wove Fabriano. Slipcased with cover and design by Uzi Agassi.

Meir Wieseltier, poet, translator, editor, Russian-born but long-time resident of Tel Aviv, was in 2000 awarded the Israel Prize, the country's highest honor for lifetime achievement, “by the Israeli establishment to its most anti-establishment poet.” (Shirley Kaufman quoted by Israel Poetry International Web).

Uzi Agassi (founder of Evan Hoshen Press): "About our book A Walk in Iona, it is a book of one 'long' poem. It was his first book !!!! (1963). He wrote it for a special literary evening named: Kiltartan- a group of modern poets and artists. He printed only 200 copies to sell in this evening but he managed to sell only 50, some others were given to friends on that evening, the rest of the copies were lost in the moving of his apartment.

"For Israeli poetry this book is as important as the first book of T.S. Eliot, or Ezra Pound .....

"Iona is an imaginary city (in Hebrew it came from Nothing, Naught and even in Hebrew it is a very rare name). The name of Iona sounds like a Greek name and the names of the characters are pseudo-Greek as well. The fragments of life images created from his reminiscences of Archeological sites he used to visit as a child. Nevertheless, no doubt some of his significant experiences behind this 'long' poem came from his first encounter with Jerusalem (coming from Tel Aviv) in the 60's. The divided city, as he would have seen it: a city of stones sinking under the burden of the past and the future is quite nebulous. But Wieseltier emphasized in the epilogue of the book: Iona is not Jerusalem!

"It is a quite important book as this rare first poem was not included in the books published after"
$480