books published |
ODDBALLS
Wood engravings by Jim Westergard of (in)famous people
With an introduction by Barry Moser
"The very darkness in the heart of the [wood engraving] medium seems to spawn darkness in the images it yields. One thinks of the engravings of Blake and Baskin. My own work too, seems informed, whether I wish it or not, by the medium's brooding darkness. "I don't know how Westergard does it, but he has an uncanny ability to pull humor out of that dastardly valley of shadows. Despite the dark odds against him, he manages, again and again, to wrangle some of the funniest wood engravings I have ever seen."From Barry Moser's introduction to Oddballs Between 2005 and 2009, Jim Westergard created a series of 40 wood engravings of curious and infamous historical personages, all with his characteristic combination of technical mastery and mischief. Lawn-chair pilot Larry Walters, Pope Joan, Aussie outlaw Ned Kelly, Gunnlaug Wormtongue, George Adamski (kindly appearing opposite) and cannon-fodder Hunter S. Thompson are just a few of Jim's subjects, each portrait accompanied by a brief biographical text written with the same wry sense of humor that informs his engravings. The 41 wood engravings (40 oddballs plus a frontis) were printed by Jim on Zerkall paper, and then tipped on to recto pages in the book, with the biographical sketches on the facing versos. All text was printed (damp) on vintage Guarro laid paper at Heavenly Monkey. (The book's afterword explains why the only solution for combining our individual preferences for paper and printing techniques was to do our bits separately, and then marry the text sheets and engravings up later.) The book's frontis is a new self-portrait engraving by Jim. Oddballs is quarto in size (8 x 12.5 inches), 98 pages. The edition is 30 copies, uniformly bound by Claudia Cohen in Japanese cloth. [Our initial plan for the binding was to once again work with Natasha Herman and her Redbone Bindery. Sadly, our own prevarications in actually getting the printing done kept pushing the schedule back, to a point where we had to reluctantly admit that we didn't know when Natasha would see the sheets. We did, however, benefit greatly from her expertise and advice during the planning of the book - it's a big book, and all the tipped-in prints require considerable accommodating in the spine structure. Luckily for us, HM's delay coincided with Claudia Cohen having a break between projects, and she kindly agreed to save our bacon. A series of progress updates posted over the past year - including our triumphant pull of the last sheet, displayed opposite - can be seen on the HM blog.] Oddballs was published in the fall of 2011. A PDF copy of the prospectus (just 27 of which were issued, sewn into a printed wrap) can be seen here. The issue price was $1,800. There were a few unclaimed copies on the day of issue (Saturday 8 October, at the Seattle Book Fair), but these were snapped up before the end of the following week. Thus, Oddballs is OP. Copies may, however, be available from our regular booksllers (see Friends). Oddballs is just the second book published to feature Jim's actual wood engravings (the first being his self-published Mother Goose Eggs, 2001; his engravings have also been reproduced in a number of trade books). More of Jim's work can be seen at his own site, here. HEAVENLY MONKEY |
  
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