Daniel Mellis ~Illinois

Blackstone's Dictum
By Daniel Mellis
Chicago, Illinois: Daniel Mellis, 2009. Open edition.

2.5 x 3.5"; 6 pages (unpaginated). Handset Monotype Perpetua printed on Mohawk Superfine with Bugra covers. Trifold with a sewn paper cover.

Daniel Mellis: "Blackstone's Dictum performs the Latin text - Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos - written by William
Blackstone, the influential 18th century English jurist. Originally contained within his treatise Commentaries on the Laws of England, it
eloquently expresses the right of a landowner to control the earth below his/her property and the air above it.

"The text of Blackstone's Dictum leaves out 'et' - Latin for 'and' - because the conjunction is created by the structure of the trifold."
$6

Columns of Chicago
a photographic survey
By Daniel Mellis
Chicago, Illinois: Daniel Mellis, 2009. Edition of 200.

3.25 x 4"; 14 leaves (unpaginated). Offset printed tritones with letterpress printing on the cover. Spiral bound.

Daniel Mellis: "Columns of Chicago documents an architectural phenomenon in Chicago: the isolated column. The function of the columns ranges from memorial to commemorative to artistic. Narrow pages [six 1 x 4" pages separating the tritones] provide historical information above each of the pictured columns. The cover column was never built; it was Aldolf Loos's entry to the Tribune Tower design competition of 1922.

"Columns was printed in black, gray and brown inks. The brown printing plate was created, not to tone the image as in standard tritone, but to pick out brown and orange elements in the original scene."
$15

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If the register marks are in register
By Daniel Mellis
Chicago, Illinois: Daniel Mellis, 2009. Edition of 100.

3.75 x 5.5"; 6 leaves. Letterpress printed using photopolymer plates. Handsewn pamphlet binding.

Daniel Mellis: "If the register marks are in register was inspired by an expression by the great offset printer Richard Benson. This expression - If the register marks are in register that only means that the register marks are in register - is meant as a reminder to the printer.

"Because register marks are the small lines or figures on a printing plate that aid the printer in correctly aligning multiple colors on the same sheet, if the printer focuses on them he/she will neglect what is important: the image being printed."
$10