Featuring over 1,500 engravings that originally graced the pages of Webster's dictionaries in the 19th century, this chunky volume is an irresistible treasure trove for art lovers, designers, and anyone with an interest in visual history. Meticulously cleaned and restored by fine-press bookmaker Johnny Carrera, the engravings in Pictorial Webster's have been compiled into an alluring and unusual visual reference guide for the modern day. Images range from the entirely mysterious to the classically iconic. From Acorns to Zebras, Bell Jars to Velocipedes, these alphabetically arranged archetypes and curiosities create enigmatic juxtapositions and illustrate the items deemed important to the Victorian mind. Sure to inspire and delight, Pictorial Webster's is at once a fascinatinghistorical record and a stunning jewel of a book.
My career as a book artist began with my student job as a custodian at Oberlin College. My freshman year I awoke at 5am every Saturday and Sundays to clean Mudd Library. (This was back in the days when they still had smoking lounges in the library.) Because a woman in cataloging noticed what a diligent worker I was, I was given a promotion to the book repair department. I loved my new job and soon discovered I knew how to make my own books.
My first artist's book was a watercolor book of trees literally sewn with dental floss onto an old set of shoelaces. I took a printmaking class taught by Sam Walker with whom I would later team up to make Putrefatti (which now resides in the Smithsonian Library). One of my classmates, Anna Hepler, printed a book as part of our class and I helped her to bind it. A fire started burning in me to print my own books. I had always planned to be a writer and to make artwork and becoming a book artist was a natural progression. After my graduation I co-taught the first Book Arts class at Oberlin with Sam Walker and Anna Hepler. I then did an internship at the Silver Buckle Press at the University of Wisconsin where I was able to letterpress print my first artist book under the press name "Quercus Press."
My first book on Amazon is Pictorial Webster's. It is a trade edition of a hand printed book printed from the original printing blocks used to make Merriam-Webster's Dictionaries of the 19th century. I spent three years in the basement of the Sterling Library at Yale University (just down the hall from the custodian break-room)organizing and staging the engravings for printing. On my quercuspress website I give a thorough history of the project and an 8 minute video of the making of the book.
I hope that Amazon readers will read the endmatter of the book that I title the "Pancreas." There is much discussion of the history of dictionary illustration, and an exploration of the source for creativity in our minds and how this book might be used to enhance one's creativity. There is also a glossary of terms pertaining to a yet-to-be-completed novel based upon the adventures of the little army man, Adam, who appears throughout Pictorial Webster's.
