Peter and Donna Thomas ~ California
(Formerly Good Book Press)

By Peter and Donna Thomas
2003. Edition of 15.

22 pages. Accordion with pop-out. Printed by color xerox. A reproduction of an original, watercolor, ukulele-shaped book Donna Thomas made in 1997. The text was originally made for a miniature book in 1999. It has been enlarged and reprinted for this edition, with a new title page and colophon, printed on Peter's handmade paper, sewn to the text. Handwritten by Donna Thomas, the text is accompanied by eighteen watercolor and ink illustrations of ukuleles. Housing made by sawing a ukulele in half, then re-connecting the two halves with hinges and a lock. Both halves of the ukulele have chambers constructed in them to accommodate the accordion text.

A quirky and colorful book which tells the history of the ukulele from 1879 to 1985.
$650

The Train Comes to Wichita
By Peter Thomas
2004. Edition of 20

7 x 3 x 2.75" Three two sided 15 inch scrolling pages.

This book was designed and produced for an exhibit at the Wichita Art Museum. The train is a model of the typical western steam locomotive used during the period of westward expansion. The engineer's compartment has been hollowed out, a hole drilled parallel through it, and a brass crank placed through that hole. The text, on five scrolls, stacked on top of each other and rolled onto the same crank shaft tell the story of the arrival of the train in Wichita. The text, written by Peter after immersing himself in train lore and Wichita's early history juxtaposes fact with folk song: two of the scrolls are the lyrics to songs (The Old Chisholm Trail and The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe). Each scroll is decorated with water color illustrations painted by Donna, and has been color photocopied onto Peter's handmade paper. This book is the first time that multiple scrolls have been used as "pages" in an artist book.
$245

Meditations at the Edge:
Paper and Spirit
By Dorothy Field
Edition of 100.

4.5 x 11”; 30 pages. Long, narrow format. In the edition of 100, there are 86 copies sewn into red linen over boards. Written and illustrated by Dorothy Field. Thirty pages of research and ruminations printed on handmade hemp paper by Peter Thomas. Kozo paper for illustrations was made by Field.

Over several years, Field traveled in Asia visiting papermakers, tracing the history of paper, and collecting information on how paper is made, while reflecting on its place in various cultures. She found that in parts of Asia the uses of paper went beyond the mundane into the area of spirit. She points out that in Japanese, although the characters are different and linguistically unrelated, the spoken word kami means both gods and paper. There seems a kinship. Before the invention of paper, both raw mulberry and hemp fibers were used as offerings to the gods. Reconnecting to paper's roots in the earth, good paper, she says, is a sensory experience—fingertips, eyes, ears, and nose are all engaged. Of a shop selling fine papers she writes, "A faint smell of harvest hangs in the air."
$350

The Tarantella Rose
By William Everson
1995. Edition of 75

10.63 x 7.63" 38 pages. 7 linocut illustrations by Donna. Letterpress printed with Weiss type on Peter's handmade paper. Modified limp vellum binding using Peter's handmade paper.

Previously unpublished poems by William Everson.
$395

No Other Light
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
2005. One-of-a-Kind.

4.5 x 6.25" 6 pages. Brown & yellow & gray marbled paper covered boards with leather spine. Created like a picture album with text and watercolors mounted at the corners. Three pages of watercolors by Donna Thomas. Hand-sewn binding.

Mt. Goethe, California, Sierra Nevada Mountain Range is 13,264 feet above sea level. First ascent was made by Norman Clyde, 1926. It was named by Theo Solomons in 1895. Peter and Donna Thomas climbed Mt. Goethe in 2004 which resulted in this book in 2005.
$350

             Someday perhaps the inner
                      light will shine forth
             from us,
                      & then we shall need
             no other light.

The History of Papermaking in the Philippines
By Peter and Donna Thomas
2005. Edition of 75.

10.75 x 13.624" with 50 pages. Illustrated by Donna Thomas with 15 linoleum cuts. Handbound by Peter and Donna Thomas. Letterpress printed on a text paper handmade by Peter Thomas. The text paper is from cotton rag, pigmented with umber and flecked with Timkin (a Philippine fiber). Includes eleven paper samples handmade by Filipinos from Philippine plants. Quarter bound with a red Moroccan leather spine (blind stamped with the title). Boards are covered with T’nalak (a Philippine ikat dyed fabric, made with twisted abaca fiber, woven on a backstrap loom). The binding structure was developed by Peter and Donna to accommodate the special requirements of this book: the short and long pages create space for the paper samples and the samples are sewn in place so that they can move with changes in humidity. The edition has seventy regular copies, in slipcases and five special copies.

Peter and Donna Thomas on the making of this book: "The History of Papermaking in the Philippines is the culmination of almost twenty years of work. Making this book could be likened to walking in the footsteps of Dard Hunter; or, in a less romantic but perhaps more accurate way to completing a doctoral dissertation. The book had its genesis in 1986 when Nida Dumsang, visiting from the Philippines, taught a one day papermaking workshop in Santa Cruz. Peter took the class, learning how to make paper from plants, a thing he had not done before. We bought samples of Dumsang’s paper with the thought of making a book to feature the papers that would be accompanied by a short text describing her processes and also a brief history of papermaking in the Philippines."

"This was easier said than done, for we couldn’t find any references to Philippine papermaking in any local libraries, the Dard Hunter Paper Museum or the Library of Congress. When we asked Dumsang for information on the subject, she wrote back: "The Philippines had no tradition of written history before the arrival of the white man...historians have found it difficult to piece together facts because there are only the scantiest written records from that era.""

Peter was astonished that there was not a history of papermaking in the Philippines; with such variety and abundance of fibrous plants, suitable for papermaking, it seemed likely that Filipinos would have used those plants to make paper. The idea of writing the first history of Filipino papermaking called him, and Peter entered into the project with the zeal of a second Dard Hunter. But it soon became clear he could not do justice to the subject without visiting the country and in February of 1990 he went to the Philippines. Later that year we made a book, Bayad - The story of a trip to the Philippines to discover why there is no history of papermaking in that country, which chronicles the trip. But the research had just started. It took years, following up the leads he found on that trip, to get all the information needed to complete the text.

This present book presents the information that was gathered over the following ten years (with the help and encouragement of numerous scholars and colleagues). The text includes discussions of the pre-historic precursors to paper, including Philippine bark cloth. It contains a survey of the first printed books made in the Philippines and the paper they were printed on. (The first book printed in the Philippines was made before a book was printed in the New England colonies.) It documents our research to discover when the first sheet of paper was made in the Philippines. When describing abaca fiber the text describes how it made Manila hemp rope, and how that was used to make Manila paper. The book ends with a chronological history of both commercial and hand paper making in the Philippines up to 2000.
$950 (Regular Edition)

Papermaking in Seventeenth Century England
By John Evelyn and Celia Fiennes
1990. Edition of 200

6.75 x 5". 42 pages.

The diary entries written by John Evelyn and Celia Fiennes, recording their visits of paper mills during the late 1600’s, are preceded by short biographies and accompanied by commentary on the author’s observations.
$250

Paper from Plants
By Peter and Donna Thomas
1999.Edition of 150.

8.75 x 11.6”; 100 pages. Quarterbound using green Moroccan leather with blind-stamped spine title. The book boards of the main edition are covered with handpainted, decorative papers. The front cover title is printed on pampas grass paper set into a simple, raised geometric design. Stiff paper wrapper slipcase. Letterpress printed in black ink from Centaur and Neuland types with illustrations from photo engravings in green.

A fabulous survey of America's hand papermakers with thirty, full-page sample sheets of papers made from local plants. The variety of plants and resultant papers offered some interesting occupational hazards in the making, and sometimes even in the transporting (as the DEA confiscated a shipment of Spanish Moss). Sample sheets are displayed alongside text sheets written by each papermaker that describes his or her choice of fiber and tells something of the plant and/or the process of making that particular paper. The colors and textures are rich, varied, and even surprising, some delightfully so. Illustrations of the plants by Donna Thomas adorn each text page. The 8.5 x 11 inch paper samples have been stab sewn through an accordion folded gutter, uniquely developed for this book, that allows samples to expand and contract with changes in humidity without damaging neighboring sheets. This book is beautifully conceived and executed from beginning to end.
$830

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