never mind the press ~ California
(Alisa Golden)

One-of-a-kind bookworks
Miniature Books by never mind the press

Flashing Lights
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2010. Edition of 36.

7.75 x 7.75"; cross flexagon book in a folded red paper sleeve. Letterpress printed from handset Univers type and photopolymer plates onto Lenox 100 paper. Paper sleeve has window cut-out, Mylar "windshield" sandwiched between the layers, printed white rule on the front, and a letterpress print from Cianna's drawing of a limousine on the back.

Alisa Golden: "A surreal and rhythmic view of getting pulled over. Pull at the four rotating faces to tell the story: stay on course to get back to the beginning.

"How to read this flexagon: Notice that there is always a cut in the center, either vertical or horizontal. Pull open from the center to the outside for the book to flex along the score lines. If you are holding the book in your hand, pull up with your thumbs and push back with your fingers. Flatten. Read. Repeat. Repeat forever. It's a circle. Like life. After you have finished, slide flexagon into its red sleeve and take a nap."

"Pull over when the lights flash in your mirror. Don't pull a fast one. Don't pull a U-turn. Don't hold my hand."
$85

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Spotted One Day
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2009. Edition of 30.

5.25 x 5.125"; 18 pages. Letterpress printed from a linoleum block of carved leaves, wood type, handset metal Caslon Oldstyle type, and one photopolymer plate. Printed on Somerset 100% cotton paper. Coptic sewn with a curved needle using waxed red linen thread. Bound in printed bookcloth over Davey board.

Alisa Golden: "The pages have flaps that fold up or down, with holes punched in them as well. The wood type words change as you interact with the flaps such that GROW becomes OW, for example. ...

"A look at ladybugs and children. How do you get them to stay? Two women have different approaches."
$225

Crows at Home
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2008. Edition of 22.

2.75 x 5.75"; 10 panels. Checkbook structure designed by Alisa Golden. Created from paper painted with layers of acrylic ink and black gesso. Line drawings printed from photopolymer plates. Text is handset Bodoni printed letterpress on collected paper bags. Closed by wire bandoleer with ends wrapped in black linen thread to simulate crow's feet.

Alisa Golden: "A conversation about crows, cards, and shoes occurs while I am walking back from the market."

(As Mallarmé alleged, Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.)
$125

Driftwood & Roots
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2006. Edition of 14.

5.75 x 6.375"; 16 page double-sided accordion with first and last pages glued to boards. Letterpress printed on Somerset paper. Handset Bodoni (bold and italic) with Onyx titles. Bound in brown cloth with painted paper inset and embroidery on front board.

Alisa Golden: "Two impressionistic poems about memory, water, and returning. Printed in a variety of teal and blue inks from handset type. Eight variations on seven linocuts of roots and driftwood printed in browns. Acrylic ink-washes at the foot of each page and on the back. Japanese album accordion bound at the foredge with green-black waxed linen. Inset paper painted to resemble driftwood with embroidered roots on the hard cover."
$650 (Last Copy)

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Start with Pencil
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2005. Edition of 45.

8 x 6"; 8 pages. A slim, softcover, accordion book, letterpress printed from handset type. Linocuts are printed in single colors of blues or a pencil-yellow. With graphite and painted paper covers and painted strips that join the pages. Numbers corresponding to pencil hardness (1B to 8B) stenciled in pencil.

Alisa Golden: "Eight linocuts and eight poems about writing, drawing, teaching, and learning. Images are figurative drawings made from single lines, drawn at the ice skating rink."

I used to hear these lines / now I say them.

$80

Night Monster
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2004. Edition of 37.

2.75 x 3.75"; 4 pages. Letterpress printed from handset type in silver-gray ink. Four original hand-stenciled images with gesso and pearlescent inks, including the image on the cover. Glass bead on waxed linen thread as a toggle closure. Hard covers. T-cut maze structure: printed from one sheet of Stonehenge black paper.

Alisa Golden: "Four pages of short text: a brief moment of understanding in the relationship of two people.

She knew she had been trying to shout.

$90

chalk voices
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2003. Edition of 30.

4 x 6.25"; 8 pages. One pop-up page with a multi-colored reduction print. Interior contains a miniature booklet (2"; 8 pages) Typo Roman type printed in blue with rule printed in sun yellow. Three-section hardcover closed with a small brass hook.

Alisa Golden: "One short poem and another very short poem set by hand from metal type and printed via letterpress. The poems are a symphony of sounds on a neighborhood street."

Text: "I know my neighbor's cough, laugh, and vacuum."
$80

CHART: these bright lights
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California:never mind the press, 1997. Edition of 32.

5.5 x 5"; 16 pages. Circular, linen-taped accordion with painted pages. Letterpress printed Caslon 471 Shining on Lenox. Layered with acrylic inks and white colored pencil.

Alisa Golden: "A quiet walk through a Japanese tea garden. Clearing leaves and cleaning out closets. Staring alone at a night sky that others have seen in other times. Each of these activities is a point in its own circle. I have named them: ‘Walking on the Sentence Stones;’ and ‘On My Street: Fall;’ and ‘Chart: These Bright Lights.’ Together these books make up the Circle Series: accordion-folded paper with acrylic inks in colors reflecting the mood of each poem. I cut the papers into strips. Then I letterpress printed handset, metal type on top of the ink-washed pages and folded and joined the paper.

"I always imagined I would have to choose between writing and art. Since 1983, making books has been a way for me to connect the two things I have to do, the things I thought were very separate. Making multiple copies allows me to let go of the work over and over and still keep it. My intention with the Circle Series was to create rhythm and mood, cohesive places in which to walk with my mind and with my hands. Places to be calm."
$40 (Two copies available)

Fair Entry
also known as: the cow book
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California:never mind the press, 1990. Edition of 75.

4.75 x 8.5"; 14 pages. Letterpress printed on Rives heavyweight paper. With rubber stamping and collage.

Colophon (cow-o-phon): "never mind that she isn't really collecting cow things but only recently noticed she does have a cow potholder, fingerpuppet, mask, wallhanging, and of course cowpunch and cow stamps for no waking reason. never mind that the word cattle is not as nice as cows, never mind the handset caslon type stampeding via letterpress on Rives heavyweight buff or the covers handmade from Maine paper cows by Beth Herrick and Heather MacDuffie of Port and Starboard Press, never mind that she doesn't eat cow anymore. cow's favorite music? mood music."
$60

Hat. Hat. Hat.
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 1989. Edition of 42.

10 x 7"; 20 pages. Letterpress printed on Rives bfk. Cover of ogura grey. Illustrated using handcarved rubber stamps.

“When I got to Moscow….I was the only one who didn’t have a hat.” From this begins one of those small but epic sagas that color our lives.
$40

See Through
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2010. One-of-a-Kind.

5 x 5 x 2.5"; 16 pages. Acrylic, inks, gesso, and gouache covering Lenox paper. Alstromeria petal pressed between two glass slides. Cutouts and pop-ups. Housed in shaped cloth covered slipcase.

Alisa Golden: "What has our culture done to us to cultivate this shared embarrassment, this guilt? Maybe guilt pops up when circumstances come too close to an acknowledgement of sexuality, particularly across child/adult lines."

As a child I mistakenly saw a female relation who was not my mother or my sister naked. I was sure that everyone in the world had seen me see her, although when I looked around, no one was looking at me at all. ...

$950

I Want It
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2007. One-of-a-Kind.

2 x 2"; 50 pages. Miniature book with tied binding and beads. Painted and paste papers. Spine bound with bead and thread tassels. Housed in 5 x 4 x 1.5" clamshell box covered in black velvet.

Alisa Golden: "With its variety of painted and paste papers, this little book with the tied binding and beads will make you want it. Contained in a clamshell box, covered in black velvet, I Want it is a little gem waiting to make you laugh."
$950

Those Who Wait Can Walk Through Walls
By Alisa Golden
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2008. Edition of 15.

3 x 4.75"; 8 pages. Letterpress printed from handset Univers and Jefferson Gothic type on 100% cotton Velin Arches paper that has been painted with acrylic ink. Bound with waxed linen and colored eyelets and housed in paper slipcase.

Alisa Golden: "Four black swallowtail caterpillars lived on my parsley plants in June 2008. Two matured. I saw only one emerge, but evidence of the other. The chrysalis is the case where the change takes place. Slide the folded book out of the case to hold the paper butterfly in your hand. Pull open one page of this one-sheet book to read an interpretation of waiting, changing, and growing."
(SOLD))