Words of Fire by Neil Gaiman, our next release will be a slim book of poetry selected by Neil of some of his poems which are personal and, mainly, unpublished in a book. Rich Tong is working on finishing the dummies and Phil Abel has already hot metal letterpress printed the books and the handmade sheets that will make up an extraordinary portfolio of individual poems as either broadside prints or folded jewels. The very limited-edition silkscreen print, (edition of 40) signed and numbered by maestro Bill Sienkiewicz printed in five colours by Jealous Studios is a killer kiss to the portfolio! Look out for more pics of what the different editions of the book will look like in the coming week. We are so pleased with the intimate quality of the project.

WORDS…

Repost from a happy customer Instagram: @max.bogholm “The Case of Death and Honey” (2011) by Neil Gaiman.
“The Adventure of the Creeping Man” (1923) by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Illustrations by Gary Gianni.
Published by Arete Editions.
Printed at Hand and Eye.

Keep them coming! What a superior production, prolific with illustrations, so many details. The story is living on the pages of the book. Very playful at the same time, it was such a pleasure to read. Apparently, one never grows tired of Sherlock Holmes! And isn’t finding a cure to death the most appropriate mystery for the most acclaimed detective in our history to solve?🕵️‍♂️

Latest from Rich about some Arete and Lyra projects!

Rich Tong is finding that his and Gary Gianni’s designs are proving to be one of the most complex, complicated and time-consuming designs he has ever done for a book! The solander box, with its bradel bound covers, the multi levels of each of the components is proving to test every step he makes. He just needs to piece them all together! The box itself has about 30 (I’ll find out exactly how many tomorrow) foil block layers, let alone the complexity of the book which has had Rich saying that just binding the original artwork into the covers was some of the most hair-raising elements he has ever done. All combine to make a spectacular unique object.

Here you can see Rich’s layouts and plans and the progression of blocking that he needs to do, and you can see the wells, ready to be combined within the books casing.

Hopefully you will understand why this is all taking longer than anticipated!

Some pics of Rich’s work in progress on the Artist’s edition of ‘The Case of Death and Honey’. Each book is made with hand-made deckle-edged paper specially commissioned from Gangolf Ulbricht, printed in black (twice) and red, and the paper has our Arete watermark! As each sheet of paper is unique, some are larger than others, as you can see from Rich’s photos. You can also see clearly the size difference of the design between this and the numbered/Fine editions, I am so pleased with the airy elegance that the 50% larger book allows for the metal type, and master printing, and the art prints to really be shown off. Some things are only doable when each book is unique!

We at Arete love Phil’s metal type, master printer at work!

Just going to leave this here. Thanks Neil!

It’s coming! Rich sent us some photos of the work he’s been doing the last few days on the Artist/Lettered edition of Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Case of Death and Honey’, you can see one, nearly finished, book with the original art inlaid into the Bradel bound cover. Rich said it was one of the most hair-raising jobs he has ever done! The art needs to be put in place first time, there is no going back! There are a pile of covers, in the process of being worked. You can also see the foil blocked leather for the base of the small tray of the solander box, stacks of collated prints for the portfolios and a pile of boards glued and under a massive weight for the wells of the solander boxes. Because of the UK’s bank holiday next week, Ludlow’s will be sending these out after the break.