Mixlexic Press ~ California
(Mark Head)

Korlo In Blues
By Mark Head
San Mateo, California: Mixlexic Press, 2009. Edition of 300.

6.75 x 6 x 1.25'; 158 printed pages. Letterpress printed with handset type. 165 linocuts, woodcuts, and altered historic cuts. Each page water colored/gouached by artist. Paper: Arches text. Handbound coptic binding in blue linen and covered in periwinkle and burgundy bookcloth with title stamped on spine and paper decorative element on front board.

Mark Head: "A labyrinthine journey through the 12 Links of Interdependent Origination, 6 realms and as 3 poisons as [sic] viewed progressively through the paradigmatrix of the Four Noble Truths. To see the blues, know well its origins, sing it through towards harmony, and settle in nirvanically. Mantra, as Blues standard of Old Tibet, for as Cornell West says, Blues is how we deal with catastrophe."

Mark Head (from the closing section of text): "According to Chokyi Nyima Kinpoche studying the twelve links of interdependent origination is an antidote to ignorance. My own density required the assistance of a comic to clarify & reflect upon. Traditionally, in Tibet, the Buddha's speech is represented by a leafy pecho. However, Korlo in Blues, only pantomimes such sublime speech like one of those trick leashes used to walk an invisible dog. My thought-bubbles commingle with mazes but emerge through paradigmatrix, illustrations are stillness, text a movement, while our awareness balances."
$50 (Last Copy)

Nautical Unravelings
By Mark Head
San Mateo, California: Mixlexic Press, 2009. Edition of 125.

7 x 7.75"; 86 unnumbered pages. Illustrations from handcarved Ti-Pi blocks, lino, wood, and endgrain cherry. Collaged historic cuts. Handset type, handcolored in Luminescent colors. Printed on Zerkal and Langdell. Bound in yellow linen thread. Boards covered in Genji and Chromo book cloth.

Colophon: "The nauseated compositer vomited a case of Caslon Bold Condensed with Flashback strewnery. All typo's were corrected in 0 point Lazy, an execrable type choice. Headly States, the 'poet,' walked the plank and even the dolphin looked askance. He never did come up for air again. The graph-ic desg-ner got cabin fever, and tried etching his teeth into an illustrated smile. While burning his wood cuts on deck he ruined the Niddegan and Langdell paper sails. After the artist went AWOL from the good ship Mixlexia, we discovered a box of 1940's tire hard Ti-Pi blocks that he carved with a razor edge. These rugged images appear in Rubine red through out this wee booky. Such is our miserable lot: the printer near capsized the proof press rocking out an edition of 125 copies. The mermaid used Luminescent watercolors, while McWhiskers tangled the binding, carefully shredding the silk Genji and acrylic Chromo bookcloths. As stated in Nagarjuna's Staff of Wisdom, 'Anyone who strives to do their best, whether that work is great, or small is considered to be doing the work of a lion.' Such as been the wee yarnfurling of thisy cat's cradle."

Mark Head: "A rhyming fairy tale about a genie-bug that is released from a geode to serve Captain Eyser Cutt-Knot on the high seas. The telepathic termite had worked tirelessly carving the captain's wooden legs by transcribing his dreams into enlightening glyphs. The Captain had over the years catalogued all his logs into a reference library to assist his crew of sailors. Havoc breaks out when the termite escapes in the night and starts carving into the ship."

With a bobbled compass,
map, and a lion's roar,
at dusk, he tucks in the tide charts
and turns in for a snore. ...

$45

Mixlexic Press Out of Print Title:
• 108 Mazes as One Labyrinth