Springtide Press ~ Washington
(Jessica Spring)

Parts Unknown
By Jessica Spring
Tacoma, Washington: Springtide Press, 2008. Edition of 24.

Forty images inkjet printed on translucent handmade abaca, varnished and bound in panels of Rising museum board. The text is handset in Packard, Dorchester, and Copperplate, and letterpress printed.

Springtide Press: "A collaboration between Jessica Spring and photographers who lived in her home over a century ago, Parts Unknown explores the mystery of a box of glass negatives discovered in the artist's attic. These photographs document a new leisure class in a city moving beyond its frontier origins.

"Housed in a clamshell box made by Trisha Hammer, the book unfolds into four accordion chapters that converge at both a literal and historical crossroads. Text at the center reveals critical dates and events in the Pacific Northwest before the turn of the century, giving the reader a context to appreciate early examples of photographic snapshots."

Text: "I am here, in this region mapmakers call Parts Unknown. It is a gentle place in many ways, beautiful to look at and easy to laugh with, unlike the slicker city to the north. And not like the broad-shouldered city I left, where living is so much harder. We are surrounded by water, shadowed by our mountain.

"I am here, amazed at the open heart of this place. The ghosts in my house have revealed themselves here, now, despite more than 100 years of chances before. Did they know I am a bookmaker obsessed with photographs of strangers? My studio is filled with machinery from their time, letters and ornaments as embellished as their clothing. I cannot credit this story to coincidence, happenstance...

"You are here, in Parts Unknown. You are at a crossroads, looking at the past. Now this is our present. Whose ghosts will we become?"
$1,200

Lewises & Clarks
By Jessica Spring
2004. Edition of 40.

13.75 x 4.75" gatefold construction with 16 pages each side. The covers are bound in cutch-dyed chamois, and the text is letterpress printed with photopolymer plates on coffee-dyed Fabriano Mediovalis.

Jessica Spring, a new arrival in the Northwest during the bicentennial celebration of Lewis and Clark's exploration, offered this gathering of Lewises & Clarks as a (perhaps) tongue-in-cheek counter-punch to the onslaught of Lewis & Clark material that was appearing.

Spring: "Lewises and Clarks profiles extraordinary pioneers that also deserve recognition in the midst of the anniversary year of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Many of those featured are women and African Americans."
$300

A Proverbial Book
By Jessica Spring
2002. Edition of 40.

The text is letterpress printed with photopolymer plates on Fabriano Mediovalis. Based on a medieval structure, the book is sewn on cords and covered in Brazil wood-dyed chamois. Each cover features a vintage cigarette card from a series of proverbs.

A selection of proverbs are amusingly paired with hand-colored illustrations from a 1930s vocabulary primer.
$150

Click image to enlarge

Collectors' Tales
Curator and Chief Collector - Jessica Spring
Art historian - Annie Morse
Illustrator - Susan Estelle Kwas
2001. Edition of 15.

Cards are handmade, duplexed sheets of cotton and abaca. Printed letterpress on a Vandercook #4, using photopolymer plates and the photographs printed as duotones. Includes an essay written by Annie Morse on the nature of collecting. Illustrations by Susan Estelle Kwas.

"Collectors' Tales" examines the obsession to collect, identify, and display objects of desire. Each box of the edition is handmade and features a deck of cards profiling the collectors. The box contains an object provided by one of the fifteen collectors. Each box thus becomes unique since each one focuses on a different collector and collection.
•Elvis Collector Tale available. $500