C o l l a b o r a t i o n:
1 + 1 = 3!
1 + 1 = 3!
It is an act of courage, an act of love on his part - to do it for no other reason that it delights him. And it delights him to such extent that he wants to do it as beautifully as possible, which is why it
is done as beautifully as possible. I can’t believe he has any other motive beyond that.
David Mamet
is done as beautifully as possible. I can’t believe he has any other motive beyond that.
David Mamet
It’s an art form. And the importance of anything that you call an art form is that it is something for a wonderful, satisfactory and fulfilling experience. But also, it is a document in history. And I think illustrated books provide that because they provide something about the artist, which you cannot get on a canvas or in an installation, which is reaction to something else that is right in front of you so that you can have your own reaction to the literature and then you can look at the artist’s reaction and then you can see through the artist’s eye. And I think that is the joy of illustrated books.
Riva Castleman
Riva Castleman
Because of the way Vincent puts his heart into these books, he gets everyone else involved - all the subsidiary experts - to come with him and feel they are being drawn on a huge current that creates these extraordinary things. They are meaningful, because they are objects of love. They are created by someone’s passion to communicate something through art and that is the way an artist communicates.
Michael Feingold
For the past 30 years I’ve had the privilege of knowing Vincent FitzGerald, Zahra Partovi, Susan Weil, and any number of Vincent’s other collaborators in the productions of Vincent FitzGerald & Company. I was introduced to the books published by Vincent by a customer in 1984 and have been selling all the publications as they became available. At a book fair back in 1995 or so, I offered the books published to that date to a knowledgeable, discerning customer who, after 30 minutes or so of looking, offered the opinion that “the books of Vincent FitzGerald & Company are really the gold standard of contemporary book arts.” And, just a few days ago, another customer described spending some time with the Rumi DIVAN E SHAMS (which he has had for some years), how he became quite absorbed with it, and found it had lost none of its punch. For my part, I recently had the occasion to re-examine THE COTE D’AZUR TRIANGLE (1985). I certainly remember when I first saw this splendid book. I thought it was a true successor to the “livre de peintre” publications of Vollard, Kahnweiler, Teriade et al. However, I don’t think I truly understood how evocative it was of the excesses of the 1970’s and 1980’s. It hit me on viewing it a few months ago; the book is a timeless work of art, emblematic of the time in which it was produced.
In thinking about the vast range of titles published, reflecting on the variety of authors, artists, formats, it becomes clear that there is always an attention to detail, a meticulous craftsmanship that itself is art, as well as the art itself. One has only to consider the Rumi series to understand the full range of achievement of Vincent FitzGerald & Company. The books, translated from 13th century Persian into poetic, meaningful English by Zahra Partovi, are bi-lingual editions. Ms. Partovi’s elegant Persian calligraphy appears with the English text, but in each title in a different way. The series redefines what a book can be – taking ancient forms of the book – using them in new materials making the ancient totally contemporary. Etched glass tablets, Chinese slat book in acrylics, a desk calendar in stainless steel are just some of the unusual formats. The reader / viewer, however, is never in doubt that the object is a book – with words that matter and are relevant today. One has only to revisit the Susan Weil / James Joyce titles to understand what a livre de peintre can be. Words and images combine to elucidate and illuminate - as always with the books of Vincent FitzGerald & Company.
Priscilla Juvelis
In thinking about the vast range of titles published, reflecting on the variety of authors, artists, formats, it becomes clear that there is always an attention to detail, a meticulous craftsmanship that itself is art, as well as the art itself. One has only to consider the Rumi series to understand the full range of achievement of Vincent FitzGerald & Company. The books, translated from 13th century Persian into poetic, meaningful English by Zahra Partovi, are bi-lingual editions. Ms. Partovi’s elegant Persian calligraphy appears with the English text, but in each title in a different way. The series redefines what a book can be – taking ancient forms of the book – using them in new materials making the ancient totally contemporary. Etched glass tablets, Chinese slat book in acrylics, a desk calendar in stainless steel are just some of the unusual formats. The reader / viewer, however, is never in doubt that the object is a book – with words that matter and are relevant today. One has only to revisit the Susan Weil / James Joyce titles to understand what a livre de peintre can be. Words and images combine to elucidate and illuminate - as always with the books of Vincent FitzGerald & Company.
Priscilla Juvelis
Vincent, Michael and I worked together with much mutual respect and sympathy, and in 1993 Vincent suggested we collaborate on a second publication. He wanted to make a book in celebration of the coming millennium. Michael volunteered to write an original text in response to a series of my photographs of New York City cast-iron columns. These columns were selected for their aesthetic qualities, solid structural design, and melancholy deterioration to stand as symbols for the twentieth century. Vincent designed the pages of the book as accordion folds which can be read page by page as a traditional book, or opened up, spread out and viewed on both sides. We made a model of the accordion with pictures in place ad left blank pages for text. Michael, who was inspired by the photos, wrote an evocative and magical long poem, which he titled After. I showed Vincent a group of photos I had taken of the Parthenon pediments’ sculptures, which are housed in the British Museum in London. He admired them and wanted to publish a portfolio of prints using the statues as subject matter. It was our intention to create a frieze-like work of my fragments of the incomplete remains of the sculptures that has astonished me by their beauty and refinement. I selected twenty-four images and laid them out horizontally on five rectangular pieces of paper. We chose photoetching as our printing process, a less complicated technique than photogravure. It produces a charcoal-like drawing effect that helped conceal the deterioration of the sculptures that were made in the fifth-century B.C.E. We printed the etchings using black ink and, in a process called chine collé, we added color by adhering thin sheets of colored tissue paper onto the heavier, larger sheets of paper. Vincent designed a unique portfolio for the prints and commissioned a distinguished calligraphic title page. Producing the portfolio was a more straightforward endeavor than creating a book. The result, however, was no less lovely and satisfying.
Judith Turner
Speaking of the publication After
Photogravure is the most beautiful and luxurious means of printing the photographic image in ink.
The photogravure is an intaglio print, much like an etching, engraving, aquatint or mezzotint. This means that the varying tonal densities of the original negative, from the clear base of the darkest shadows to the dense highlights of snow, have been rendered into etched cells of varying depths in the plate. Dense ink applied to the plate fills the cells. The ink is then wiped from the surface and the plate is placed on the bed of an etching press. Dampened paper is laid on the plate, covered with printing felts, and passed between the rollers of the press under heavy pressure. The felts are then removed and the paper is lifted from the plate. The image in ink has been transferred from the plate to the paper. Photogravure is a true continuous-tone ink printing technique. The image is made of a layer of ink whose thickness varies continuously according to the depth of tone of the image. When viewed under magnification, a photogravure print is seen to be in three-dimensional relief, with a thicker layer of ink in the shadows and dark tones and thinner layers in the light tones and highlights.
Jon Goodman
The photogravure is an intaglio print, much like an etching, engraving, aquatint or mezzotint. This means that the varying tonal densities of the original negative, from the clear base of the darkest shadows to the dense highlights of snow, have been rendered into etched cells of varying depths in the plate. Dense ink applied to the plate fills the cells. The ink is then wiped from the surface and the plate is placed on the bed of an etching press. Dampened paper is laid on the plate, covered with printing felts, and passed between the rollers of the press under heavy pressure. The felts are then removed and the paper is lifted from the plate. The image in ink has been transferred from the plate to the paper. Photogravure is a true continuous-tone ink printing technique. The image is made of a layer of ink whose thickness varies continuously according to the depth of tone of the image. When viewed under magnification, a photogravure print is seen to be in three-dimensional relief, with a thicker layer of ink in the shadows and dark tones and thinner layers in the light tones and highlights.
Jon Goodman
Book arts intersects many disciplines and draws strength from cross fertilizations. Over the years, Vincent FitzGerald has employed the same collaborators and craftsmen, allowing his artists to continue their dialogue as they move from project to project. His loyalty and talent for drawing the best out of collaborators has formed a repertory company of artists, writers, translators and technicians with similar qualitative standards.
The book is among the best ways to tell stories because the form contains both words and images and it is possible to control the readers’ point of view page by page from start to finish. FitzGerald has always encouraged experimentation. His editions emanate from two sources: The livre d’ artiste and the artist’s book, an art form that began to proliferate in the 1960s and early seventies against a backdrop of social and political activism.
Unlike traditional illustrated books which harmoniously combine text and pictorial elements of relatively equal importance, a number of publications from Vincent FitzGerald and Company are made without words. Thus, they are created for their own sake, not for the information they might contain. Nevertheless, FitzGerald’s editions maintain intellectual integrity and sequential presentation, which are intrinsic characteristic of any book.
With each of these projects FitzGerald continues to redefine what can be accomplished with little money. Small and labor-intensive editions, where the artist is willing to do a lot of the handwork, present two solutions to this problem. Recycling remnants from other editions, such as paper and aquatint plates, is another way. FitzGerald’s goal is to keep the artists challenged and stimulated. Through his engagement with artists and multidimensional publications, Vincent FitzGerald reaffirms the human need for tradition and passion, essential qualities in today’s technological world.
Donna Stein
Excerpts from essay for “Themes & Variations” Columbia University exhibition catalogue 2000
The book is among the best ways to tell stories because the form contains both words and images and it is possible to control the readers’ point of view page by page from start to finish. FitzGerald has always encouraged experimentation. His editions emanate from two sources: The livre d’ artiste and the artist’s book, an art form that began to proliferate in the 1960s and early seventies against a backdrop of social and political activism.
Unlike traditional illustrated books which harmoniously combine text and pictorial elements of relatively equal importance, a number of publications from Vincent FitzGerald and Company are made without words. Thus, they are created for their own sake, not for the information they might contain. Nevertheless, FitzGerald’s editions maintain intellectual integrity and sequential presentation, which are intrinsic characteristic of any book.
With each of these projects FitzGerald continues to redefine what can be accomplished with little money. Small and labor-intensive editions, where the artist is willing to do a lot of the handwork, present two solutions to this problem. Recycling remnants from other editions, such as paper and aquatint plates, is another way. FitzGerald’s goal is to keep the artists challenged and stimulated. Through his engagement with artists and multidimensional publications, Vincent FitzGerald reaffirms the human need for tradition and passion, essential qualities in today’s technological world.
Donna Stein
Excerpts from essay for “Themes & Variations” Columbia University exhibition catalogue 2000
Red is always life, bright yellow presence. Blue is water: oceans, sky and air. Silver illuminates; brown
fashions matter, and greens pass beyond spring. Greys give us balance; the darks are mysteries, the tones variables; intensities reveal breath.
Grids are symbols of structure; geometry bridges space. Lines show distances; diagonals move the plane. Dots are places. Parallels form equations. Transparencies indicate time past. Swirls are forces big and small but textures enrich awareness.
Ted Kurahara
fashions matter, and greens pass beyond spring. Greys give us balance; the darks are mysteries, the tones variables; intensities reveal breath.
Grids are symbols of structure; geometry bridges space. Lines show distances; diagonals move the plane. Dots are places. Parallels form equations. Transparencies indicate time past. Swirls are forces big and small but textures enrich awareness.
Ted Kurahara
Fire was slow to start. My earlier ideas and sketches fizzled out. Vincent was very patient and only occasionally reminded me that I was one of the few artists who had not completed my print for the Rumi book, Divan-E-Shams. After searching for fire images, I decided to make my own. At the time, Malibu Canyon was experiencing ‘fire storms’, so one afternoon I carefully made a fire in my hibachi and photographed the flames. I sent several slides to Vincent who selected a few and had enlarged negatives made. On my next trip to New York, I went to Solo Impression Studios and began the print. Working with Judith and Vincent was a pleasure. Most of my artwork is
sculptural and there are times when the print became flat and boring to me, but Vincent was always encouraging. I feel my print expresses in its own way something of Rumi’s poem, ‘Fire’, and I am pleased to be part of this beautiful book.
Betye Saar
Speaking of her image in DIVAN-E-SHAMS
sculptural and there are times when the print became flat and boring to me, but Vincent was always encouraging. I feel my print expresses in its own way something of Rumi’s poem, ‘Fire’, and I am pleased to be part of this beautiful book.
Betye Saar
Speaking of her image in DIVAN-E-SHAMS
Rumi’s words have a universality that is relevant today. I use computers in my work and using a computer to illustrate these words seemed to me an interesting pairing. Randomness is a very universal concept and has been one of my interests. I developed a computer program to generate a series of random geometric shapes that used Rumi’s birth date and his death date as random seeds. The result depended on Rumi.
Bernard Kirschenbaum
Speaking of his image in DIVAN-E-SHAMS
Bernard Kirschenbaum
Speaking of his image in DIVAN-E-SHAMS
Founded in April of 1989, the Lyrik-Kabinett was thought to be a place where interested people could find a rich variety of fine and rare books.
From the beginning the Lyrik-Kabinett was proud to represent to the German public the works of Vincent FitzGerald & Company. In September 1989 - only five months after the formal opening - we were fortunate to present an exhibition concentrating on James Joyce and Jalaluddin Rumi. The artists involved - Susan Weil, Mark Beard and others - were to some degree known in general, but their original and fascinating contribution to the once European domain of “livres des artistes” was until that time a quiet tip.
But the whole spectrum of Vincent FitzGerald’s production had a special appeal to the European lovers of fine books: living American authors, yet to be discovered in Europe such as david mamet, Harry Kondoleon and David Rattray arrived in the company of classical European writers like Arthur Rimbaud, Henrik Ibsen, Edith Sitwell and Franz Kafka. Even music entered the scene with Schumann’s “A Woman’s Love & Life” and Virgil Thomson’s “Eighteen Portraits”.
The precise way in which the American artists treated the texts was convincing. Texts were not taken as mere opportunity for art, but interpreted in a fresh and responsible way. In this sense, the Lyrik-Kabinett is very happy to welcome the first comprehensive catalogue of all the books produced to date by Vincent FitzGerald and Company.
Ursula Haeusgen
Preface to the exhibition catalogue by Franklin Furnace of Vincent FitzGerald & Company's first 26 publications
From the beginning the Lyrik-Kabinett was proud to represent to the German public the works of Vincent FitzGerald & Company. In September 1989 - only five months after the formal opening - we were fortunate to present an exhibition concentrating on James Joyce and Jalaluddin Rumi. The artists involved - Susan Weil, Mark Beard and others - were to some degree known in general, but their original and fascinating contribution to the once European domain of “livres des artistes” was until that time a quiet tip.
But the whole spectrum of Vincent FitzGerald’s production had a special appeal to the European lovers of fine books: living American authors, yet to be discovered in Europe such as david mamet, Harry Kondoleon and David Rattray arrived in the company of classical European writers like Arthur Rimbaud, Henrik Ibsen, Edith Sitwell and Franz Kafka. Even music entered the scene with Schumann’s “A Woman’s Love & Life” and Virgil Thomson’s “Eighteen Portraits”.
The precise way in which the American artists treated the texts was convincing. Texts were not taken as mere opportunity for art, but interpreted in a fresh and responsible way. In this sense, the Lyrik-Kabinett is very happy to welcome the first comprehensive catalogue of all the books produced to date by Vincent FitzGerald and Company.
Ursula Haeusgen
Preface to the exhibition catalogue by Franklin Furnace of Vincent FitzGerald & Company's first 26 publications
Vincent denies all rules to make something happen. And that is exciting for me because I hate seeing something that is just a repeat of what you did before. Because that’s not art or craft. That’s just being redundant.
Robert Blackburn
Robert Blackburn
"FitzGerald's works are acts of courage as well as creation."
Gerrit Henry
It is too easy to attribute the unprecedented popularity of Jalaluddin Mohammad Rumi to the ‘spiritual hunger’ of our time, and even more dangerous to believe that we need imported elements to satisfy such hunger. I trust that Man seeks spirituality at all times and places, and that the poet with or without the cloak of mysticism is a spiritual leader. Rumi’s own poetry speaks of the answers to what we seek, being in our own home. Just as a close look at the art, literature and music of contemporary Western culture reveals an abundance of highly metaphysical work.
Hence, the most remarkable biographical information about Jalaluddin Rumi’s life is not the appearance and disappearance of the mystic Shams, but Rumi’s imperative and conscious decision to make a change in his career from a Sufi teacher to a poet. Here the medium is truly the message: The most successful Sufi teacher of all times with countless devoted followers, chooses to communicate through the path of poetry. This masterful poet combines philosophy, mysticism and psychology in a language so piercing as to enter the realm of music. It is this element more than any other, which has made Rumi’s poetry so irresistible to readers for over seven hundred years even through the filter of translation.
What may distort Rumi’s words therefore, is not the process of translation, but the inability of interpreters to grasp all the requisite ingredients of his thinking. Humans are born translators. Autism notwithstanding, each time we speak, we translate abstract ideas from the brain into coherent, communicable words. Even though we are in the process of translating at all times, most people consider their own language untranslatable. We think of our native tongue as sensitively expressive and highly idiomatic. The delicate act of translation is thus to transport a set of sensitively expressive and highly idiomatic ideas from one language and deliver them safely into another sensitively expressive and highly idiomatic mold.
To translate and still achieve total fidelity to the original text requires not only thorough knowledge of both languages, but the surrender of ego in reverence to the author who needs to be reborn in another language and the reader who invests his sincere trust as he reads a book of poetry in translation.
I have been fortunate to have seen the face and heard the voice of that trust in the works produced by publisher Vincent FitzGerald, many visual artists, and composers who have worked on Rumi’s poetry through my translations.
Working with Rumi’s poetry and the magnitude of his thinking is a humbling experience. A sense of grave responsibility and honor surrounds the act of translating the masterpieces of such a writer. My hopes and aspirations have always been the simplest and the hardest: To arrive as close to the original writing as to make the translator an invisible messenger bringing to the reader a poet’s voice. Whether one delivers a secular or a sacred text, the act of translation remains a sacred act.
Zahra Partovi
Hence, the most remarkable biographical information about Jalaluddin Rumi’s life is not the appearance and disappearance of the mystic Shams, but Rumi’s imperative and conscious decision to make a change in his career from a Sufi teacher to a poet. Here the medium is truly the message: The most successful Sufi teacher of all times with countless devoted followers, chooses to communicate through the path of poetry. This masterful poet combines philosophy, mysticism and psychology in a language so piercing as to enter the realm of music. It is this element more than any other, which has made Rumi’s poetry so irresistible to readers for over seven hundred years even through the filter of translation.
What may distort Rumi’s words therefore, is not the process of translation, but the inability of interpreters to grasp all the requisite ingredients of his thinking. Humans are born translators. Autism notwithstanding, each time we speak, we translate abstract ideas from the brain into coherent, communicable words. Even though we are in the process of translating at all times, most people consider their own language untranslatable. We think of our native tongue as sensitively expressive and highly idiomatic. The delicate act of translation is thus to transport a set of sensitively expressive and highly idiomatic ideas from one language and deliver them safely into another sensitively expressive and highly idiomatic mold.
To translate and still achieve total fidelity to the original text requires not only thorough knowledge of both languages, but the surrender of ego in reverence to the author who needs to be reborn in another language and the reader who invests his sincere trust as he reads a book of poetry in translation.
I have been fortunate to have seen the face and heard the voice of that trust in the works produced by publisher Vincent FitzGerald, many visual artists, and composers who have worked on Rumi’s poetry through my translations.
Working with Rumi’s poetry and the magnitude of his thinking is a humbling experience. A sense of grave responsibility and honor surrounds the act of translating the masterpieces of such a writer. My hopes and aspirations have always been the simplest and the hardest: To arrive as close to the original writing as to make the translator an invisible messenger bringing to the reader a poet’s voice. Whether one delivers a secular or a sacred text, the act of translation remains a sacred act.
Zahra Partovi
The illustrated book, more than any other form of arts, has been altered in surface and substance in recent years. Not only new materials, but view points have transformed it, attracting artists who see their roles quite differently from those of the great modern masters of the livre de peintre.
The relation of those masters to the texts that their work accompanies has often been questioned, and it can vary from a literal or personal interpretation to a decorative overlay. Those artists, whatever their personal approach, were part of the great European tradition of bookmaking, a craft with similar materials and purpose for over five hundred years.
Not so today. Contemporary work of the last two decades had often fractured this tradition, which has been dislocated by new technology and amplified by new approach. No longer is the printed page seen as a limiting factor, but as a flexible surface for experiment and expression. The two-dimensional page may become another surface altogether - folded, torn, molded, punched - and to this page texts relate in unexpected ways, often playful and erratic. Word and image may be in harmony of opposition, and the viewer may be challenged to react, rather than read.
Such freedom can be confusing and sometimes fatal, for the tradition of craft that for centuries shaped the book is no less necessary to contemporary experiment.
Materials may change, but they continue to demand the mastery of the artist-craftsman. Their presence is always a factor in Vincent FitzGerald’s books, which maintains the craftsman’s standards at the same time that they explore new modes of expression.
Eleanor M. Garvey
Introduction to the exhibition Catalogue by Franklin Furnace of Vincent FitzGerald & Company's first 26 publications
The relation of those masters to the texts that their work accompanies has often been questioned, and it can vary from a literal or personal interpretation to a decorative overlay. Those artists, whatever their personal approach, were part of the great European tradition of bookmaking, a craft with similar materials and purpose for over five hundred years.
Not so today. Contemporary work of the last two decades had often fractured this tradition, which has been dislocated by new technology and amplified by new approach. No longer is the printed page seen as a limiting factor, but as a flexible surface for experiment and expression. The two-dimensional page may become another surface altogether - folded, torn, molded, punched - and to this page texts relate in unexpected ways, often playful and erratic. Word and image may be in harmony of opposition, and the viewer may be challenged to react, rather than read.
Such freedom can be confusing and sometimes fatal, for the tradition of craft that for centuries shaped the book is no less necessary to contemporary experiment.
Materials may change, but they continue to demand the mastery of the artist-craftsman. Their presence is always a factor in Vincent FitzGerald’s books, which maintains the craftsman’s standards at the same time that they explore new modes of expression.
Eleanor M. Garvey
Introduction to the exhibition Catalogue by Franklin Furnace of Vincent FitzGerald & Company's first 26 publications
Vincent FitzGerald’s publishing career in New York can only be characterized as a personal devotion to his vision and craft in bringing distinguished and diverse participants to work alongside him in realizing such pristine jewels of literature and art. The relationships made during each book multiply as his “company” of artists and artisans engage in each synergistic project. I have had the pleasure to share in this interaction with his circle of friends in nearly all of his book ventures after Vincent came to Dieu Donné Papermill to work with me to design a wrapper for The Reed in 1989. Since then I have worked with him regularly over the years to experiment, defy tradition, and sharpen my own knowledge and experience to produce paper components for particular books.
My role as papermaker went beyond merely producing generic sheets of handmade paper for text blocks. Like other book publishers, Vincent came to Dieu Donné because he knew he could work with a studio producing unique paper to collaborate with artists to extend their creativity into the paper matrix itself. Vincent’s direction during the paper production phase would often be one of complete trust in my ability to visualize the effect that he wanted for a specifically designed cover or end paper. Our relationship in this work could be considered as challenging as an artist collaboration, and sometimes he would be challenged himself to successfully incorporate the end results of my labors. His suggestive hints for a particular paper would always rely on key words or phrases such as “think of rust and peeling paint” (box liners for After) or “think of wet and rain” (paper edition for The Warrior Ant) to cue me in the right direction. Sometimes I would have to develop new ways to create an effect during the sheet formation, such as pouring colored pulp on mylar and laminating it on previously couched layers, as in the purple cover of Numberless or Elizabeth Harington’s Rumi book cover. Undoubtedly, the most ambitious array of editioned papers I have made for Vincent were for The Warrior Ant project, which playfully gathered a whole array of techniques in papermaking, printing, cutting, and collage with Susan Weil’s magical imagery.
Certainly Vincent FitzGerald has adopted me into his “circle” for my creative talents and Dieu Donné’s serious commitment to artistic innovation in handmade paper.
Paul Wong
Statement in “Themes & Variations” Columbia University exhibition catalogue 2000
My role as papermaker went beyond merely producing generic sheets of handmade paper for text blocks. Like other book publishers, Vincent came to Dieu Donné because he knew he could work with a studio producing unique paper to collaborate with artists to extend their creativity into the paper matrix itself. Vincent’s direction during the paper production phase would often be one of complete trust in my ability to visualize the effect that he wanted for a specifically designed cover or end paper. Our relationship in this work could be considered as challenging as an artist collaboration, and sometimes he would be challenged himself to successfully incorporate the end results of my labors. His suggestive hints for a particular paper would always rely on key words or phrases such as “think of rust and peeling paint” (box liners for After) or “think of wet and rain” (paper edition for The Warrior Ant) to cue me in the right direction. Sometimes I would have to develop new ways to create an effect during the sheet formation, such as pouring colored pulp on mylar and laminating it on previously couched layers, as in the purple cover of Numberless or Elizabeth Harington’s Rumi book cover. Undoubtedly, the most ambitious array of editioned papers I have made for Vincent were for The Warrior Ant project, which playfully gathered a whole array of techniques in papermaking, printing, cutting, and collage with Susan Weil’s magical imagery.
Certainly Vincent FitzGerald has adopted me into his “circle” for my creative talents and Dieu Donné’s serious commitment to artistic innovation in handmade paper.
Paul Wong
Statement in “Themes & Variations” Columbia University exhibition catalogue 2000
The kinsman of the sun is called the threading of the circle. The sun connects these worlds and all things to you, by means of a thread of light.
This mark to be attained lies beyond the sun, moving in the Spirit, making a purely spiritual arrow as rivers reaching the sea. The flight is an emergence from total darkness underground and the chiaroscuro of space under the sun into the realms of spiritual Light where no sun shines, not moon but only the light of the spirit, which is its own illumination.
Elizabeth Harington
Speaking of the publication Deception
This mark to be attained lies beyond the sun, moving in the Spirit, making a purely spiritual arrow as rivers reaching the sea. The flight is an emergence from total darkness underground and the chiaroscuro of space under the sun into the realms of spiritual Light where no sun shines, not moon but only the light of the spirit, which is its own illumination.
Elizabeth Harington
Speaking of the publication Deception
Reading this particular piece of Rumi’s writing, I was reminded of the complexity of the fable-like format. I became interested in composing and rearranging particular organic forms. By reducing the essence of the animals to their extremities, I defined them by their locomotion –dissecting their differences and similarities. Adding and layering my thoughts in a repetition of marks I searched for a just marriage between content and form.
Aleksandar Duravcevic
Speaking of publication Gazelle in the Donkey Stable
Aleksandar Duravcevic
Speaking of publication Gazelle in the Donkey Stable
I have been privileged to collaborate with Vincent FitzGerald & Co. since 1990 when I worked with Craig Jensen at BookLab Inc., an innovative bindery in Austin Texas earning its reputation for producing quality work with a willingness to do the unusual. In 1996 Craig was asked to solve the puzzle of binding the Divan-E-Shams. A great challenge for any binder, the Divan was a complex text block with images by 15 artists incorporating many printing techniques and numerous fold-outs, tip-ins and a glass sculpture. What Craig developed as a solution can be called a masterpiece of bookbinding.
When in 1998 Craig closed the doors to his remarkable bindery, Vincent contacted me for edition boxes for Deception and Gazelle in the Donkey Stable, and in 1999 for book and box of Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein.
This project would put the binding collaboration to its ultimate test, as part of it was to be bound in Texas and part in New York. Zahra Partovi was to sew the edition in the Coptic chain-link style in New York, I was to make the cases and boxes in Texas, then arrive in New York to incase the books. A non-printed sewn dummy was sent to me for prototype binding based on the structure developed by Craig while binding the Divan-E-Shams. This structure incorporated an extended hollow attached to the text spine and to the separate spine piece of the cover, allowing the book to open completely flat. Tender Buttons was bound in peach Dieu Donné hand-made paper and boxed in two shades of purple Japanese cloths, creating an electrifying surprise upon opening of the box. The cases, boxes and spine pieces were sent to New York where Zahra and her assistant Kristin Winkler had just finished sewing the text. To our great delight the sewn books, the hollows and the spine pieces fit perfectly. In the next six days the edition of 50 was completed. Vincent described the production of Tender Buttons as the most difficult of all his books to date in every stage. Perhaps so, but this is not evident when viewing or handling the book; just noticing the beauty of successful collaboration, as the book speaks for itself.
Priscilla Spitler of Hands-0n Bookbinding
Speaking of the the publication Tender Buttons
When in 1998 Craig closed the doors to his remarkable bindery, Vincent contacted me for edition boxes for Deception and Gazelle in the Donkey Stable, and in 1999 for book and box of Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein.
This project would put the binding collaboration to its ultimate test, as part of it was to be bound in Texas and part in New York. Zahra Partovi was to sew the edition in the Coptic chain-link style in New York, I was to make the cases and boxes in Texas, then arrive in New York to incase the books. A non-printed sewn dummy was sent to me for prototype binding based on the structure developed by Craig while binding the Divan-E-Shams. This structure incorporated an extended hollow attached to the text spine and to the separate spine piece of the cover, allowing the book to open completely flat. Tender Buttons was bound in peach Dieu Donné hand-made paper and boxed in two shades of purple Japanese cloths, creating an electrifying surprise upon opening of the box. The cases, boxes and spine pieces were sent to New York where Zahra and her assistant Kristin Winkler had just finished sewing the text. To our great delight the sewn books, the hollows and the spine pieces fit perfectly. In the next six days the edition of 50 was completed. Vincent described the production of Tender Buttons as the most difficult of all his books to date in every stage. Perhaps so, but this is not evident when viewing or handling the book; just noticing the beauty of successful collaboration, as the book speaks for itself.
Priscilla Spitler of Hands-0n Bookbinding
Speaking of the the publication Tender Buttons
Immediately after receiving “my” Rumi poem, I found myself overhanging a river for a few days. I spent a lot of this time observing the river, its flow, its reflections inside and out, and all the dramas occurring in, around and passing through it. Rumi’s poem, although about many things, seemed to really be about the river.
My print attempts to talk about this.
Sandy Gellis
Speaking of her image in DIVAN-E-SHAMS
My print attempts to talk about this.
Sandy Gellis
Speaking of her image in DIVAN-E-SHAMS
The Warrior Ant is a social parable, a political parable. The images are absolutely revelatory. She’s caught it! Particularly I was looking at the cigaret hole and stuff. No one could have caught that. The whole thing started when an ant crawled out of a cigaret hole in the paper I was writing on and basically that became that particular poem, So - obviously I am communicating with somebody.
Lee Breuer
Speaking of Warrior Ant
Lee Breuer
Speaking of Warrior Ant
Translation: The simplest act in the world, and the most difficult- making a literary masterpiece in one language readable as a literary masterpiece in another. Translating the exact words is just a beginning. You have to translate the meaning, the sense of the meaning, the structure, the syntax, the rhythm, the sound, the color, the tone the colloquial character, the connotations, the implications, the intellectual framework, the social context, the psychological source of the text.Your ultimate goal is to be left with the exact words again, only in another language.
This is always necessary and never possible. By definition, translation can never catch the whole original. It’s invariably a deceit to the reader and a disappointment to the translator; every European language has a catchphrase to say so: Traduire c’est trahir, traduttore traditore, übersetzen ist zerfetzen &c. In any language, translator= traitor.
May be so. At the same time, translation itself is a necessity. Like a human being, literature cannot live without the Other, and needs this alternative presence in as many and as varied forms as possible. If all nations spoke the same language, and kept in their national hearts the same select list f literary of literary works, it would be as if all the birds in the rainforest had become pigeons.
Fortunately that can’t happen: Wittgenstein proved that no two of us speak the same language anyway. The words I chose to make Rimbaud rhyme,or rebuild Kafka’s sentences on the framework of a different grammar, are not those another translator would have chosen, and the difference is offered to the reader in the belief that it itself is an illumination. Schegel’s German translation of Shakespeare is definitive- so definitive that a thousand translations have sprung up in its shadow.
The phrase “offered to the reader” reminds me of the most important thing about translation: That it is a sacred act, the literary equivalent of the Opening of the Ark, the Elevation of the Host, or some other ritual climax in which dead matter is spiritually made to live again. To readers of language B, the words of language A are a blank wall on the page; the translator opens the magic door in the wall, and invites readers or hearers into the secret garden.
Knowing this makes translation a magnificent task, an honor, lifting it above mere anguish and drudgery. The original authors spirit is there in the room while you work- correcting, complaining, clarifying, and all the while urging you to press on with the task, so he or she can reach out to meet new readers, new soul mates. What a privilege it is to have such a wonderful guest, and know that you are helping them to live again, in a new world.
Michael Feingold
This is always necessary and never possible. By definition, translation can never catch the whole original. It’s invariably a deceit to the reader and a disappointment to the translator; every European language has a catchphrase to say so: Traduire c’est trahir, traduttore traditore, übersetzen ist zerfetzen &c. In any language, translator= traitor.
May be so. At the same time, translation itself is a necessity. Like a human being, literature cannot live without the Other, and needs this alternative presence in as many and as varied forms as possible. If all nations spoke the same language, and kept in their national hearts the same select list f literary of literary works, it would be as if all the birds in the rainforest had become pigeons.
Fortunately that can’t happen: Wittgenstein proved that no two of us speak the same language anyway. The words I chose to make Rimbaud rhyme,or rebuild Kafka’s sentences on the framework of a different grammar, are not those another translator would have chosen, and the difference is offered to the reader in the belief that it itself is an illumination. Schegel’s German translation of Shakespeare is definitive- so definitive that a thousand translations have sprung up in its shadow.
The phrase “offered to the reader” reminds me of the most important thing about translation: That it is a sacred act, the literary equivalent of the Opening of the Ark, the Elevation of the Host, or some other ritual climax in which dead matter is spiritually made to live again. To readers of language B, the words of language A are a blank wall on the page; the translator opens the magic door in the wall, and invites readers or hearers into the secret garden.
Knowing this makes translation a magnificent task, an honor, lifting it above mere anguish and drudgery. The original authors spirit is there in the room while you work- correcting, complaining, clarifying, and all the while urging you to press on with the task, so he or she can reach out to meet new readers, new soul mates. What a privilege it is to have such a wonderful guest, and know that you are helping them to live again, in a new world.
Michael Feingold
Balinese theater is a spiritual theater - they are always calling on God to detain or entertain; or in supplication of God..........“Love “ is shorthand for “God”. The ultimate transcendent state in our society is to be in love. Instead of wishing to turn into monks and nuns, priests or priestesses, people wish to fall in love.
Harry Kondoleon speaking of The Cóte D'Azur Triangle
Harry Kondoleon speaking of The Cóte D'Azur Triangle
When I met Vincent FitzGerald at The Printmaking Workshop where I was a guest artist. He was printing images for a book and I was thrilled with the concept of word and image intimately linked. We talked of working together and when he asked Marjorie Van Dyke, an artist and printmaker and me what words we could think about working with, we both said James Joyce. In order to have the courage to work with Joyce we all felt that the next step was to read and study all the writings of Joyce, keeping notebooks of drawings, collages and watercolors to create visual balances for the words. We also studied possible texts to work with and were delighted to find The Epiphanies, which had not been published formally as a book in itself. The Epiphanies are astonishing fragments of dreams, overheard conversations and particles of experiences. These pieces are placed here and there throughout Joyce’s writing. They are like lodestones, murmurys in all the books.
Susan Weil
Susan Weil
The Latin definition of “collaborate” is to cooperate reasonably – to hand over. While the choice of words does not sit well in their twentieth century usage, it is exactly what is required in an artistic collaboration. It is not about surrendering information, but handing over knowledge and opinion in an open exchange. It requires a combining of expertise which transforms itself into shared experience.
Working with Susan and Vincent on Tender Buttons was a true collaboration. From Susan’s ideas and drawings sprang a multitude of possibilities and plates. Each print required a combination of up to nine plates. The project was about weaving together lines and form, a cubist puzzle – creating images particular in content and form to their placement in the book.
As printers, the technical aspect of image making is reliant on fully understanding the art involved. It requires an open dialogue between artist and printer and a commitment to translating the ideas into images. There is greater complexity when working in a book form. The content and arrangement of the entire piece relies on the balance between the visual and the written. Vincent keeps the project going fluidly from beginning to end. He is the one to envision the initial concept, giving to the artist and printers his inspiration. He is the ultimate collaborator, in that he brings with him and hands over his passion for, and understanding of, the power of words and image.
Kelly Driscoll & Aleksandar Duravcevic
Speaking of the the publication Tender Buttons
Working with Susan and Vincent on Tender Buttons was a true collaboration. From Susan’s ideas and drawings sprang a multitude of possibilities and plates. Each print required a combination of up to nine plates. The project was about weaving together lines and form, a cubist puzzle – creating images particular in content and form to their placement in the book.
As printers, the technical aspect of image making is reliant on fully understanding the art involved. It requires an open dialogue between artist and printer and a commitment to translating the ideas into images. There is greater complexity when working in a book form. The content and arrangement of the entire piece relies on the balance between the visual and the written. Vincent keeps the project going fluidly from beginning to end. He is the one to envision the initial concept, giving to the artist and printers his inspiration. He is the ultimate collaborator, in that he brings with him and hands over his passion for, and understanding of, the power of words and image.
Kelly Driscoll & Aleksandar Duravcevic
Speaking of the the publication Tender Buttons
In considering Rumi’s use of light as a character, I created an aperture where the passage of light shifts slightly as each page opens up or closes down. The architecture of each page contributes to the shape of the dome, which references the historical relationship of physical light as spiritual form. The gentle lithograph gyrating around each cut out circle becomes an aura, and was printed as a ghost image on the alternating Mylar.
I designed the book form as a desk calendar, which refers to the passage of time and sets up a visual comparison of symmetry and balance. Subtractive processes have been key elements in my large drawings and installations. The alternating Persian and English text are also laser cut so that they project onto each other and easily merge. As the reader moves through each line of the poem, which is placed above and below each circle, the successive relationship between solid to void eventually results in just a pinhole and their own mirrored reflection.
Fran Siegel speaking of Fragments of Light 4
I designed the book form as a desk calendar, which refers to the passage of time and sets up a visual comparison of symmetry and balance. Subtractive processes have been key elements in my large drawings and installations. The alternating Persian and English text are also laser cut so that they project onto each other and easily merge. As the reader moves through each line of the poem, which is placed above and below each circle, the successive relationship between solid to void eventually results in just a pinhole and their own mirrored reflection.
Fran Siegel speaking of Fragments of Light 4
Preparing to create Fragments of Light 5, I read the Rumi poem again and again. As I read and reread, the image of a dark lantern, its interior filled with brilliant light began to take shape in my mind. At first I struggled to find a suitable structure for embodying this haunting image, until it occurred to me to begin with the form of an ancient Chinese slat book, whose “pages” were made of bamboo or bark and fastened together with string or rope.
For the cover of my book, I chose a black ultrasuede to suggest the lantern’s exterior. I made the interior pages, including the title and colophon pages, of transparent acrylic slats incised with a laser to create the English and Persian text. Connected by long multi-colored filaments, the slats can be lifted and extended. When the book opens, the glowing color of its central core is revealed. The core, the slats and the reflective mylar liners, like glass, also reflect the viewer’s hands along with the text, heightening self-awareness, binding the reader to the words and evoking a sense of ritual. In choosing materials that reflect and capture light, my aim was simultaneously to honor Rumi’s words and dramatize them.
Linda Schrank speaking of Fragments of Light 5
For the cover of my book, I chose a black ultrasuede to suggest the lantern’s exterior. I made the interior pages, including the title and colophon pages, of transparent acrylic slats incised with a laser to create the English and Persian text. Connected by long multi-colored filaments, the slats can be lifted and extended. When the book opens, the glowing color of its central core is revealed. The core, the slats and the reflective mylar liners, like glass, also reflect the viewer’s hands along with the text, heightening self-awareness, binding the reader to the words and evoking a sense of ritual. In choosing materials that reflect and capture light, my aim was simultaneously to honor Rumi’s words and dramatize them.
Linda Schrank speaking of Fragments of Light 5
Masnavi, translated by Zahra Partovi and published by Vincent FitzGerald & Co. in 1986. Letters is a poem about love. The subject of love, and the relation between human and divine love expressed through the poem resonated deeply when Vincent first presented me with the text. The contrast of the decaying human structures of Slains Castle with the seemingly eternal natural setting of land, sea and sky was striking. Using the studies I had begun in Scotland I drew and hand-printed multi-color lithographs, which form the visual art interpretation of the poem. The association of a specific place and the images that eventually came together to form the artist's book Letters happened through the creative collaboration of artist, translator, Zahra Partovi, calligrapher, Jerry Kelly, and the publisher, Vincent FitzGerald, resulting in a limited edition artist's book that is included in numerous major collections.
Agnes Murray speaking of Letters
Agnes Murray speaking of Letters