Stephen Sidelinger


Stephen Sidelinger ~ Florida

Sidelinger: "My illuminated manuscripts explore the contemporary interpretations of the book as an art object. I employ a wide range of forms to create bindings that range from historical to modern and from cloth to leather. The results are elaborately bound as one-of-a-kind objects though sometime as small editions. These books are created in every format, delve into aspects of the human condition, and in the process, encourage us to reevaluate our experience of the book as a commonplace medium."

Scroll books by Sidelinger

Woulda coulda shoulda By Stephen Sidelinger Venice, California / Venice, Florida: Stephen Sidelinger, 2000 - 2010. One-of-a-Kind. 11.5 x 15.5 x 2.25"; 27 bifolios of Krome Kote to form 108 pages. Original drawing of gouache, ink, colored pencil/pen, graphite. Laid in wood boards with title penned by the artist. Housed in white clamshell box with title label tipped on. Stephen Sidelinger, Colophon: "This book was created over the last ten years, 2000-2010, the first decade of the century. The books was started in Venice, California, and completed when the artist moved to Venice, Florida. "In typical Sidelinger fashion the images were made first and the text came from interpretations of the drawing. Following the illumined book tradition that began my manuscript work, both the image and the text are given equal attention. The subject of the book evolved into things that were or were not done woulda. Things that can be done, coulda, and things that need to be done, shoulda." $5,000	Click image for more


Make a Face By Stephen Sidelinger Venice, Florida: Stephen Sidelinger, n.d. One-of-a-Kind. 5.75 x 9 x .75"; 15 leaves. Handwritten title page. 15 pen and ink color illustrations on Krome Kote paper. Each page cut in quarters. Bound in uncovered binder board with edges accented in color pen. Housed in lidded box made of binder board. Picture consequences, a variant of the Exquisite Corpse game. Sidelinger drew 14 males faces, one per page. Each page is then cut in quarters so there are individual images of shoulders, chins, eyes-nose, and forehead-pate. The reader can then mix and match to – as the title says – Make a Face. $175	Click image for more


Pussy Pirates By Stephen Sidelinger Venice, Florida: Stephen Sidelinger, [n.d.]. One-of-a-Kind. 11.5 x 15 x 2"; 19 bifolios 78 pages. 1 x 7" print block. Gouache, mixed media, and pen drawings. Bound in green silk boards with PP embossed on front board. Housed in a wood grained paper clamshell box with faux metal strapping. Interior of box lined with green silk matching book covers. Sidelinger's personal encyclopedia of pirate lore. Each fact, myth, and story, whether mundane, witty, or outrageous, is accompanied by his interpretive drawing. As usual with Sidelinger, the Images were created first and provide fertile material to be cobbled into surreal narrative: "Since piracy is counter to the teachings of Zen Buddhism, there are historically few pirates from Japan. To steal or own the possessions of another can deplete a believer's Narm quicker than any other act of deprivation. There was, however, one Grand Shogun buccaneer, the Haja of Catoro-Cato…." $5,000	Click image for more


Selected Twentieth Century French Poetry By Stephen Sidelinger Los Angeles: Stephen Sidelinger, 2006. One-of-a-Kind. 11 x 9"; 106 pages. Ink on paper. Varying styles of calligraphy and illustration. Bound in black velvet with paper onlay. Housed in 11.25 x 9.25" box covered in gray moiré with paper onlay. Thirty poems from selected 20th-century French poets, presented here in English. Drawn from The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry (1982) edited by Paul Auster and with translations by British and American poets. Each poem in a distinctive calligraphic style and matched with Sidelinger's idiosyncratic art. $1,500	Click image for more


Baudelaire By Stephen Sidelinger Los Angeles: Stephen Sidelinger, 1995. One-of-a-Kind. 12 x 16"; 12 plates. Gouache on Arches paper with graphite. Folio bound in distressed moiré portfolios with linen quarter bindings. Digital text. Housed in distressed kraft paper book box. Sidelinger's art accompanies selected Baudelaire prose poems. $5,000	Click image for more


The Book of the Human Condition I: The Plays of Tennessee Williams By Stephen Sidelinger Los Angeles: Stephen Sidelinger, 1982. One-of-a-kind. 14 x 6 x 2" Embroidered velvet boards with gold thread. Uses gouache. Stephen Sidelinger: "The Book Of The Human Condition 1 - The Plays Of Tennessee Williams was painted in 1982 while in Venice, CA on sabbatical leave from The Kansas City Art Institute. Tennessee's insight into the human psyche seemed so deep that I wanted to investigate it like an analyst. I would reread the play during the day taking notes like a psychologist, and I would translate these themes that evening like an artist. 16 plays in 16 days. The book was bound later in red velvet, what lies under the human skin and gold couched embroidered with a cross on a grid, symbolizing the reoccurring theme of sacrifice to an external structure. The black silk box has a hidden compartment that houses all the working notes, both verbal and visual. These notes serve as an index for the plates. I consider this book to be an apex of my life both artistically and mentally." $8,000	Click image to enlarge


Tantric By Stephen Sidelinger Los Angeles: Stephen Sidelinger, [n.d.]. One-of-a-Kind. 11.5 x 14.25"; 8 portfolios. Krome Kote paper. Laid in painted book boards with handwritten title label. Housed in distressed kraft paper book box. Eight images, each presented in a Krome Kote paper portfolio. Each image overlaid with frosted paper on which a design border frame has been painted. Stephen Sidelinger: "Tantric is of course basic on the Indian art form of the same name. I was attracted to the vivid, primary colors and the simple geometric, chart like diagrams mixed with odd abstract imagery. The pages were originally drawn in ink on an airplane ride from LA to NYC. The colors were added at a much later date and with direct reference to actual tantric pieces. The binding in folio form with overlapping stamped velum refers to Indian manuscript illuminations which were done in a similar way, lose in storage boxes. In all, the book is to have a modern western take on a beautiful, spiritual Eastern Art form." $500	Click image for more


Sidelinger creates books in every format, delves into aspects of the human condition, and in the process, encourage us to reevaluate our experience of the book as an commonplace medium. The books in this section were created using a scroll structure; that is, a roll of paper which been written, drawn or painted upon.

A Crown for the Red Man By Stephen Sidelinger Venice, Florida: Stephen Sidelinger, [2011]. One-of-a-Kind. 11.125 x 3.5 x 3.5" closed, 9.75 x 75.5" extended; scroll. Original art (paint, pens, and gouache of all sorts) and text on brown craft paper. Laid in painted lidded wooden box. Text in Spanish (across the bottom of the scroll) and English (on the scroll's inner roller). Sidelinger's works always have a distinctive visual language, and this is certainly no different. A Crown for the Red Man has the color and exuberance of Latin America – Mexico? We suspect the visual scroll came first, and the text, while it does make a certain sense by trying to parse the sprawling events of the scroll as a narrative translate the pieces as scenes, is a record of chaos that makes little rational sense. There is no sense of the cause and effect relationship we expect in plot. But the scroll has an artistic integrity, certainly a unity. It's as if we're seeing an Exquisite Corpse game with Sidelinger playing by himself. It's evocative and provocative – and fun – in the way that surrealism and dream are. Enjoy the artists' vision; it smacks of magical realism – without the Garcia Marquez's gloss of seamless story. $600	Click image for more
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Stephen Sidelinger Out of Print Title:

Cavafy By Stephen Sidelinger Los Angeles: Stephen Sidelinger, 2006. Edition of 2. 10.25 x 10"; 84 pages. Ink on paper, heightened with white collage. Spread page binding. Bound in papyrus with tipped on paper title label. Title is handwritten by the artist. Pastedowns of orange silk matching the box cloth. Housed in 12.75 x 10.75" clamshell box covered in orange silk with image of Cavafy tipped on lid. Selected poems by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy (1863 - 1933) handwritten in English by Sidelinger and accompanied by his art. The poems are introduced by a five-page introduction written by Sidelinger. (SOLD)	Click image for more

The Cell By Stephen Sidelinger Sarasota, Florida: Stephen Sidelinger, 2008. One-of-a-Kind. 8 x 9"; 234 pages. Sumi ink, raw umber acrylic. Stab binding with painted boards. Housed in painted distressed chipboard box with slip in flap closure. Hand-written as a Kafkaesque prisoner's journal, The Cell is entirely Sidelinger's work – text, calligraphy, and drawings. Excerpts: "He had been traveling in a foreign country when he was arrested for no reason he was given or could understand; and just thrown into this cell. No lawyer, no judges, no trial. ... "His life had not been going well for quite a long time; and now this ... "As he paced back and forth he realized his cell was large. Eight paces from one side to the other. ... "He sat on the bed bewildered, for a long time. What time was it? What day was it? Where was he? And again why was he here? ..." (SOLD)	Click image for more

Prostate Pre-Op/Post-Op By Stephen Sidelinger Sarasota, Florida: Stephen Sidelinger, 2010. One-of-a-Kind. Volume I: 5.75 x 8.75", 162 pages. Volume II: 5.75 x 8.75", 232 pages. Both volumes bound in cloth made from the pajamas the artist wore during recovery. Handwritten text and drawings by the artist. Housed in clamshell box. Stephen Sidelinger: "Here is my Prostate Cancers journals made after the whole ordeal was over. Many of my female friends kept journals of the trials with breast cancer. Though men don't talk about their ills, I thought it was time we spoke up. "Volume I is pre-op with the prostate on the cover. Volume 2 is post-op with no more prostate. It was made for other men to know what to expect. Some friends who have had the same disease found it informative in its reverent manner. I hope other men facing this problem would be able to see it." Something you'll never see in your doctor's office, but you should. (SOLD)	Click image for more
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Page last update: 11.03.11