Pyracantha Press, Arizona State University

Pyracantha Press ~ Arizona

Eco Songs A song cycle composed by Dimitrije Buzarovski using texts by Chief Dan George, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Stevie Smith, Alfonsina Storni, Li Po, and the Book of Job. Aware of Buzarovski's cycle Songs of Peace and War (1994), mezzo-soprano Nan Hughes came across a poetry anthology on man's relationship to the environment. At her urging, Eco Songs became the Macedonian composer's next project. Six selected texts soon became a sequence which suggested sounds and music. The book contains three sections, the main comprised of the accordion-fold display of lyrics represented in visual typography. The foremost section is a codex of the poems as originally written sewn into the first fold. A concluding codex sewn into the last fold includes information about the poets, composer and singer, plus a colophon about the making of the book. Letterpress printed from handset Palatino and Neuland types with digital Bernhard Gothic and scanned plant forms from polymer plates. A CD of the song cycle is included. The Deluxe Edition was printed on five papers handmade at the Press from over forty fibers sent by papermakers from around the world. It is housed in a hand-constructed paper slipcase. The Standard Edition is printed on recycled French Speckletone and has a slip sleeve. Editions of 90 and 115 respectively are signed by the composer. (5.5 x 7 opens to 7 x 42 inches.) Deluxe: $250 Standard $125 Venus and Adonis By William Shakespeare, newly edited with an introduction by John Doebler. With two lithographs by Leonard Lehrer. Printed Monotype Bembo on HMP handmade paper. Half-bound in black leather and maroon linen. 8.25" x 11" with 70 pages. Edition 120. $250 Puella By James Dickey. Nineteen poems handset in Palatino on Arches Text Laid paper with three line engravings. Quarter-bound in black leather and natural cloth. 32 pages. 7.5 x 13.5". Edition 150. $150 The Last Baron of Arizona By Joanna H. Kraus. A play about an incident from Arizona's 19th Century history - the largest land fraud in U.S. history. Handset in Baskerville and other types on Rives lightweight buff paper with line engravings of the period and fold-out map. Quarter-bound in tan leather with marbled endpapers. 45 pages. 9.25 x 12.25" Edition 120. $150

Page update 3.24.04