Jim Machacek ~ California

About Education
By Anonymous
San Diego, California: Bay Park Press, 2007. Edition of 10.

15 x 10.25"; 8 pages. The poem is set in 24 point Bernhard Modern and printed on Fabriano Rosapina. Housed in a closed lightweight fold with elastic closure. Designed and printed by Jim Machacek.

Colophon: "This poem was handed in to a high school teacher in Regina, Saskatchewan, by a senior year student. A few weeks later he committed suicide. The poem originally appeared in Generation Magazine in Canada and [was] reprinted in Nola Express. It was given to the artist many years ago and has haunted him ever since. As a long time art teacher, it has cemented his conviction that we need to let creativity bloom and nurture it."
$1,200

The Moonlight Sonata
Number 2 from the Music Box Series
By Jim Machacek
San Diego: Bay Park Press, 2007. One-of-a-Kind.

4 x 4" hinged wooden box containing two items: 3" square 6-page accordion pamphlet; 3.5" square 70 page accordion fold book. Letterpress printed. Hand-painted pages.

Jim Machacek: “I have always wondered what it would be like to actually SEE music floating in the air.”

Bay Park Press: "And so began Jim Machacek’s music box series of artist books where he selects favorite musical works and makes them visual. Pages are hand-painted in hues of blue, silver, and hints of violet, and hinged with silvery paper moons into an accordion structure.

"The color and pattern of pages change as you progress through the three sonata movements. Each page is letterpress printed on the verso with Beethoven’s score. The pages rise up out of wooden box stained cobalt blue and can be floated 10 ft in the air by attached sterling silver rings. In the bottom of the box you find the polymer plate used to print the score, painted silver.

"Also included is a small accordion structure letterpress printed with images and facts about Beethoven and the sonata."
$900

The Tokugawa Code
Number 10 from the Code Book Series
By Jim Machacek
San Diego: Bay Park Press, 2005. One-of-a-Kind.

9.5 x 3 x 1.5"; extends to 90". 30 pages. Vertical accordion structure with machine stitching binding the pages. Letterpress, relief, and transfer printing on Velata paper. Hand painting and collage intaglio. Housed in a 10.25 x 4.1 x 2.25" stained and lidded wooden box.

Jim Machacek: "I like mystery, secret codes, and the color red."

Bay Park Press: "You will find these elements and more in Machacek's Code Book Series, begun in 1993 and so far numbering seventeen. This book was inspired by the No drama masks collected and preserved in Japan by the ruling Tokugawa family from 1607 to 1871. Pages are relief printed front and back with special 'code' plates and hinged into an accordion structure with machine stitching. Pages are coded with intaglio collage, transfer printing, and hand-painted Japanese characters. Title and colophon pages are letterpress printed. The book is housed in a wooden box stained black on the outside and deep red on the inside. It can unfold on a table surface but was intended to rise 90" vertically out of box and hang from attached brass rings."
$1,100