Summer Garden Editions ~ New York

The Happy Prince
Oscar Wilde. Illustrated, printed, and bound by Mikhail Magaril. Preface by Morris Jacobs. This touching fairy tale, filled with kind irony, is a story of friendship and compassion. The Happy Prince himself is a golden and bejeweled statue. Well-to-do townspeople glance up to where he gleams in the sun and feel satisfied with themselves. But his jeweled eyes see the less fortunate, and he weeps at night. The Prince befriends Swallow who is passing through town en route to the amazing sights of Egypt. Swallow puts off his own journey to help the Prince by delivering his few jewels and then pieces, one-by-one, of the gold leaf that covers him to those in need. Stripped of his shining beauty, the great citizens no longer value him, but a truer treasure lives in what they can not see. A masterwork that bears rereading to glean new layers of wisdom and meaning.

The illustrations, a combination of prints and hand drawn color, have been rendered in a liquid and free manner. Magaril's background as a graphic artist in the former Soviet Union, where children's books were often used by fine artists as a disregarded and, thus, hidden avenue for the expression of ideas, fuels the fluid vibrancy of his drawings and his page design. He has chosen an unusual page size and a special layout and binding to create a seamless visual and textual reading experience. The spreads are single, folded sheets, fastened recto to verso in a drop-spine casing for a full, flat opening. Thus, uninterrupted by the constrictions of binding, text and image form a unified whole. Set in Garamond 3 and printed on Fabriano Rosapina paper by offset lithography. Handbound in Chinese natural golden silk over boards with monoprint cover. Housed in a clamshell box. Five copies include an original dry point, printed and watercolored by the artist. Signed edition of 50. Runner-up for the annual Carl Hertzog Award sponsored by the Friends of the University Library of the University of Texas at El Paso. An exceptional book. Magaril's work is unusual and of the highest quality.
$600
With Dry Point $750

Hindrance
By Daniel Kharms. Translated by Julie Magaril. Illustrated by Mikhail Magaril. The artist's range is apparent when comparing his bold rendering of this raw and unadorned text to the refined skill he demonstrates in the above edition. The author, Daniel Kharms, lived in St. Petersburg in the 1930s and 40s. Hindrance is brief, written almost entirely in dialogue. It echoes the everyday experiences of the time in Soviet Russia when one's intimate life was intersected by the absurdity of the system. The story begins in a sensual encounter and ends with a brutal trespass by the authorities. The writer reflects the personality of a St. Petersburg intellectual—skeptical, sensitive to the imperfections, faults, and official insanity of the life around him at the onset of the Communist Era. The unseen, but suggested, destiny of the protagonist at the whim of the regime is reflected by the fate of the writer who disappeared one day and was later confirmed to have been arrested and killed by the KGB.

The boldface printing of the names of the two main characters throughout the story suggests the world of the play, dramatization, the theater of the absurd. A page that opens out in two directions at the turning point of the story is a small but effective design detail that physically suggests the invasion of privacy and adds to the theatricality. Letterpress from Jonathan Hoefler's Champion types, an appropriately chosen, blockish sans serif. Printed from original wood blocks on Somerset Antique paper with collage elements added. Bound between carved wooden boards, individually cut for each copy. Exposed spine sewing. Slipcase covered in red cloth with black printing symbolizing the Soviet Union's official colors. Signed edition of 20. (10 x 12 inches.)
$750