We’ll be announcing prices and details and showing photos of Rich Tong’s beautiful bindings tomorrow Monday 30th.

We will be opening the store on Saturday 4th November at 5pm GMT

We are proud to tell you about our new book, a true Fine Press, elegant edition, of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic satirical fantasy short story.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The classic story by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a wonderful tale of magic realism by an American literary giant that tells the fable of a man who is born an old, aged man and regresses to a baby, born on the eve of the American civil war, its subtle satire covers the changes of society in a world in transformation.

This book is lavishly illustrated by the extraordinary Dave McKean. Dave has produced seventeen letterpress relief prints in three colours. These are printed and bound in to a seventy-two-page book. It is a true artist’s vision.

All letterpress printed by Phil Abel at Hand & Eye.

All books signed by Dave McKean.

All books handmade by Richard Tong and Sam Cartwright at Ludlow Bookbinders.

Each of the lettered edition will be remarqued with an original Dave McKean illustration.

Got a package from Rich which had this slipcase, made by Rich with design ideas by Dave McKean! I really love the way Dave has used the title and the concept of the timer going backwards. Should get photos by Monday and details will be going out for a sale on the following Saturday (I hope!). Here is a quick photo of the cloth bound suede lined slipcase and Dave’s first concept idea for the design.

Ohh, Rich Tong sent me a couple of photos of the prototype for the leather edition of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, wow, it is going to be so elegant! Perfect! And each book will have an original drawing by Dave McKean inside… I love Dave’s design for the cover! Coming very soon! https://www.arete-editions.com/

A complete set of page proofs for Frozen Hell, an essential reference. The book’s on the press and is available for pre-order at www.arete-editions.com

We are proud to tell you about our forthcoming book, F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic satirical fantasy short story.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

It will be available for pre-sale in a couple of weeks and we’ll be sending an update to this newsletter in the next few days when we’ve been able to set a date.

The book is a wonderful tale of magic realism by an American literary giant. It is the story of a man born on the eve of the American Civil War as an old man who gets younger as his life progresses. It subtly satirises the changes in society in a world in transformation.

This book has been lavishly illustrated by the extraordinary Dave McKean, who has produced seventeen letterpress relief prints in three colours. They will be printed and bound into a seventy-two-page book to create a true artist’s vision. Text and image will all be letterpress printed by Phil Abel at Hand & Eye Editions and the entire edition will be hand-bound by Richard Tong at Ludlow Bookbinders.

It will be available in two versions, the Lettered and Numbered Editions. Each copy of the Lettered Edition will be remarqued with an original drawing by Dave McKean.

Dave McKean’s visualisation of the classic short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. A wonderful story of magic realism by an American literary giant tells the tale of a man who is born an old man and regresses to a baby, born on the eve of the American civil war, it subtly satire that covers the changes of society in a world in transformation. This book is rich with Dave’s letterpress relief prints! An art book with tactile three colour letterpress prints. As Rich Tong develops the bindings, here are some more of Dave’s terrific interpretations of Benjamin Button.

Coming very soon!

Testing colour combinations for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button from the designs by artist Dave McKean. I thought you’d like to see a few of the many, many, colour tests that Rich Tong does to see how they look. The book’s interior is rich with three colour relief letterpress prints by Dave. We’ll be announcing the book very soon!

With Arete we really wanted to give the best contemporary artists the opportunity to use very old print techniques, along with working with the most famous Fine Artists a chance to use very modern digital productions. The result has delighted us! As the log jam of the last year starts to dissipate, we are about to finalise a new book that we have been proofing for months; Dave McKean’s visualisation of a classic short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. This book is rich with Dave’s letterpress relief prints! An art book with tactile three colour letterpress prints. As Rich Tong develops the bindings, I thought I’d start to show some of Dave’s terrific interpretations of Benjamin Button.

On the press: Frozen Hell by John W Campbell Jnr with paintings and drawings by Gregory Manchess. Now available for pre-order at www.arete-editions.com

Each of these galleys holds six made-up pages of Frozen Hell, now on the press and available for pre-sale at www.arete-editions.com