books published |
THE TEMPERAMENTAL ROSE
By Barbara Hodgson & Claudia Cohen
| A collaboration between author and book designer Barbara Hodgson, and bookbinder Claudia Cohen. The The Temperamental Rose & Other Ways of Seeing Colour was borne during the collaborators' first meeting, in the summer of 2006, when they discovered mutual passions for color wheels and other systems for charting and codifying colors.
Inspired by centuries of color studies, including those of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and M.-E. Chevreul, the authors reproduce existing color wheels as well as create new and fanciful ways of seeing color. An introductory essay discusses the history of color, and each of the charts is accompanied by explanatory text. There is also a bibliography and colophon.
Designed by Barbara, all of the text and the outlines of the color charts are printed letterpress from polymer plates by David Clifford of Black Stone Press. She then spent six weeks doing the extensive handwork required to complete each copy. The book is bound by Claudia in a three-piece case, with leather spine and fore edges. The boards are covered in an early 20th century European embossed paper, over which a number of different circular leather overlays are placed. The book (7 x 9 inches, 40 pp) is issued in a clamshell box, along with a set of six dry artist's pigments in wax-sealed glass vials. Due to the amount of handwork involved with each copy, the edition was just 30 numbered and five AP copies. (Available by advance order to subscribers only, copies 1-8 included an original hand-colored wheel considered for, but ultimately not used in the book.)
Just to drive collectors and catalogers mad, Barbara also created three hors commerce digitally-printed miniature versions of The Temperamental Rose, complete with all the coloring, embroidery and pop-up Purgatory in the original. Each miniature was issued in a decorated paper box, with a miniature magnifying glass to aid reading.
The Temperamental Rose was fully subscribed prior to publication. See the list of booksellers who carry Heavenly Monkey books at the Friends page if you are interested in purchasing this book.
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