Notta Pixie Press ~ Washington
(Jenny Craig)

Omie 1
By Jenny Craig
Seattle, Washington: Notta Pixie Press, n.d. Edition of 30.

17.75 x 25", single sheet folded, variation on a maze book. Printed on a Vandercook proofing press using wood and lead type, wood- and linoleum cuts. Printed on Canson Mi-Tientes paper. Laid in cloth bound letter-fold cover with a tooth blind embossed on the front.

Jenny Craig: "Omie 1 is my grandmother’s story as I imagine it. Neither my mother nor I know very much about her, but one of the stories that came down is that she had all her teeth pulled when she was young and always wore false teeth. I recently found out that this happened about the same time she met my grandfather. Apparently this is what people did before the advances of modern dentistry, but it still strikes me as an act of self-violence, requiring great force of will."
$150

Tail
By Jenny Craig
Seattle, Washington: Notta Pixie Press, 2007. Edition of 51.

1.9 x 5.2"; 22 pages. Housed in 2.25 x 5.25 x .5" lightweight matchbox-style slider box. Letterpress double accordion book. One of the artist's hairs sewn along the length of the book. Printed on Chandler & Price press using 10 point Packard type and Arches paper.

Jenny Craig: "Tail was originally conceived for a show called "Sense and Sensuality." The idea is to articulate some of the things I am thinking when people walk up and take liberties with my hair. It's incredibly satisfying to put it in print, but don't take it too seriously, because I don't."
$75

An Incidental Relation
By Jenny Craig
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 2005. Edition of 65.

4.25 x 5.5”; 36 pages. Screen printed, illustrated and printed by Jenny Craig at UARTS in Philadelphia.

Produced on Sterling Ultra Matte paper. Features an original binding structure created specifically for it.

Jenny Craig: "This is a tale, á la Edward Gorey, of a mysterious object and its impact on my life and the lives of my friends. It is a true story related in an oblique narrative with extremely minimal illustrations. I think perhaps nothing is as amusing as real life."
$15

Offerings
By Jenny Craig
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Notta Pixie Press, 2005. Edition of 5.

16.25 x 10.25" Two variable editions (an Alpha edition and an Omega edition, see below for difference in the editions) of five similar books each. Because the paper is hand-made and individually tea-dyed, each book is slightly different and therefore unique. Produced at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Letterpress printed on hand-dyed handmade paper. First and final leaf composed of Unbleached Abaca and Cotton fibers. Middle two sheets composed of Abaca and Cotton Fibers. All papers handmade and tea-dyed by the artist. Bound in a historical tacket style inspired by works in the American Philosophical Society collection. Intended to be displayed standing, with the four poetic leaves open. Handmade paper wrapper of Hemp fiber with an Unbleached Abaca and Cotton interior.

Jenny Craig: "This piece was developed both as part of my Master's Thesis show, and in hopes of entering it in the Hunterdon Museum of Art's show "Elements: Creative Fire." I intended this piece as a meditation on the four elements, the seasons, superstitious beliefs and the changing landscapes that I have left behind me as I've moved across the country.

"It is an Offering in that each set of poems offers the reader one of my most vivid memories of time spent with people dear to me; and, each set links a physical offering with the element it is meant to represent. The entire book is dyed with tea, and only tea. To create the first page (Earth, Spring) I allowed a vat full of tea to boil dry with part of the paper exposed, thus creating a sediment that bonded to the surface. The second (Water, Summer) was created by cold dyeing the base sheet and then applying a rapidly cooling tea after the first dried. The third (Air, Autumn) effect was created by folding the paper and submerging it for a short time in cold tea. The final sheet (Fire, Winter) is the product of accident. I used a hotplate and an aluminum paint roller tray, which after a certain time under unknown conditions will sometimes oxidize onto the paper while it is submerged. My continued experiments were unable to determine a consistent technique; fortunately I managed to get ten good ones out it before it stopped working. I made the mottling on the Hemp cover by pouring raw tea onto the wet paper while it went into the drying box.

"As you will probably imagine, there is significant variation in the sheets book to book, which I embrace. I enjoy making edition work, but it pleases me to offer each person who owns this book a unique artwork as well. The difference between the two editions of five is that the second edition, (the omega edition) is occasionally reversed in dye and therefore poem placement, and the air poem has a final line which was omitted from the alpha edition."
$250

West/East
By Jenny Craig
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 2004. Edition of 5.

15.75 x 12.5". Letterpress printed at UARTS in Philadelphia. String Collographs and Pochoir. Illustrated and printed on Thai Mulberry paper. The cover is fashioned of handmade Unbleached Abaca and Cotton Fibers. Printed pieces imbedded during the drying process and waxed to preserve the transparency.

Jenny Craig: "This book features a quote from the poem Unwelcome by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907). The book is an experiment in transparency and intended to be displayed standing open.

"This book was my first piece to incorporate another person's writing. I chose this excerpt both because it spoke to me as a transplanted student missing Seattle, and as a Coleridge (Samuel Taylor) scholar from a future life. I was also deeply involved in papermaking when I began developing this piece and extremely interested in both the transparency of drying paper and the tactility of organic materials."
$225 (Last two copies)

Gluckhaus
By Jenny Craig
Seattle, Washington: Notta Pixie Press, 2007. Second Edition.

23 x 12" single sheet of cloth. Originally printed by Jenny Craig over the course of 2002-2003. This is the second edition, an unnumbered edition, printed in blue and red during 2007. Handcarved linoleum blocks printed on muslin using a Vandercook press. Includes a letterpress instruction card.

Jenny Craig: "Gluckhaus is a Landsknecht [mercenary German pikemen] dicing game from the 16th century. The name means 'House of Fortune'; it is played with two dice and is designed to pass the time. The board has numbered squares. After rolling a pair of dice, consult the square. If it is empty, deposit a penny on it. If it has a penny on it, collect the penny. Special features: roll a 4 and skip a turn, a roll of 7 is an invitation to a wedding, and since everyone brings a gift to a wedding, you always leave a penny on this square. The lucky pig rolls a 2, and collects everything on the board except the wedding gifts, and a roll of 12 crowns you king, so you get every square in taxes. Play continues indefinitely.

"I am intrigued by games and cards, as they present an opportunity for lavish illustration and the use of symbols. To me the representations within a game are a different kind of language, and I enjoy playing in that realm, where both visual and verbal are important to create understanding. This board was heavily influenced by images from early woodcuts (primarily 14th and 15th century), and by allegorical and iconic figures. Here you will find reflected the medieval concept of the estates of man: Nobility, Merchants, Peasants and Clergy, and also the traditional rites of passage that define life: birth, marriage and death."
$25

Craig attended University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Several of her bookworks are based on her adventures in that city.

Sewers
By Jenny Craig
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 2003. Edition of 17.

9 x 8"; 16 pages. Letterpress printed at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Illustrated and printed on Stonehenge paper. Accordion style structure. Case bound with a false spine that allows the text block to be pulled out and displayed in full.

Jenny Craig: "This book represents my answer to a class exercise at UARTS. The members of the class were challenged to each bring in two small snippets of writing (not our own) and two images (also not our own). We placed all of these into a hat, and each person drew two images and two random writing samples. We were then asked to produce a book in response to these four elements, utilizing the original object as much as possible. This unique set of circumstances led to my first foray into modern myth-making. In it, I relate the origin of round manhole covers, and call attention to the fascinating variety of imagery beneath our feet. I was walking around Philadelphia a lot that semester.

"I used both images that I drew: the small giraffe on the cover and the portrait of Fannie Mae Farmbrook. The writing snippets were more difficult to incorporate. I remember that one was about Mom making the basement a place of her own - that she stayed in the basement with the cats. In my mind (and probably no one else's) this translates to the moon underground. Excerpts from the second sample, about tides, are reproduced on the manhole covers within the book."
$150 (Five copies remaining)

Deck of Cards
By Jenny Craig
Seattle, Washington: Notta Pixie Press, 2003. Edition of 50.

2.75 x 4"; 52 cards. Featuring 36 pt De Roos Semibold, 12 pt Humanistic, Printer's Flowers and original linoleum cuts on Mohawk paper. Printed at Day Moon Press in Seattle. A paper band wraparound closure.

Jenny Craig: "I created this hand-set of cards during my early attempts to learn relief printing on a Chandler & Price Platen press. It is a standard deck in content; but, the suits each feature their own color. The numbered cards are represented with printers' flowers and the face cards with hand-cut linoleum images. The images reference the medieval conceit of the estates of man: Nobility, Merchants, Peasants, and Clergy. The deck of cards also reflects elemental change in the suits: Earth (flowers), Air (feathers), Fire (flame), and Water (fish). The aces vary with the deck, but each embodies the theme of the suit. Each card also features a four color back design and each deck comes with a card that describes the work."
(SOLD)