Amichai Windows
“. . . a towering achievement in American arts and letters . . .” Aharon Yermiyahu Taub in his American Jewish Libraries News Review.
“Stunning — we are delighted to add it to our Yale Library collection.” Nanette Stahl, Joseph and Ceil Mazer Librarian for Judaic Studies, Yale University
“What a stunning book! The Amichai Windows is marked by so much love, care and brilliance in the spirit of the old school makers of illuminated books. Black is a spiritual artisan and visionary.” Kwame Dawes, Emmy and award-winning poet, essayist and editor-in-chief of Prairie Schooner
“Not many artist books have the depth of visual and cultural literacy as The Amichai Windows. It bears the journeys of the poet and the bookmaker who both walked meditative steps in Jerusalem, and mutually came upon their own certain truths written in words that bear witness.” Helen Frederick, American artist, curator and George Mason Professor Emeritus
The Amichai Windows in Major Collections:
Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, CT
U.S. Library of Congress, Rare Books and Special Collections, Washington, D.C.
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Library, Special Collections, Washington, D.C.
University of California at Berkeley, Bancroft Library Judaica Collection, Berkeley, CA
University of Michigan, Special Collections, Ann Arbor, MI
Exhibitions and Public Programs:
A Light by the Window, solo show, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, 2018
A Celebration of The Amichai Windows, Tmol Shilshom Literary Café, Jerusalem, Israel, 2018
Windows in the Poetry of Yehuda Amichai, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, 2018
The Amichai Windows: A Morning of Poetry and Art, Highland Park Conservative Temple in Highland Park, NJ, 2019
A virtual webinar through the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Rutgers University, 2021
Price:
$9,500 for private collectors; $7,500 for institutions.
Please contact us for purchase orders, shipping info, etc.
Or, if you prefer, you can purchase a copy through our agent, The Kelmscott Bookshop.
Details:
To peruse a slide show of many individual triptychs and details, please see our individual letterpress page.
Colophon Information:
Over the course of ten years, Rick Black conceived, translated, designed, letterpressed and assembled The Amichai Windows. The poems were letterpressed on a Vandercook Universal I at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. The typeface of the Hebrew poems is SBL Hebrew; the English translations are set in Pelican. The catalogue is in Goudy Old Style. Digital prints were made on an Epson Stylus Photo R2400 archival printer.
The handmade paper to support the poems was made by Twinrocker Handmade Paper in Brookston, Indiana, and hand deckled by Travis Becker. It is a blend of abaca and cotton. The poems were printed on Aya White 125 g/m², a specialty fine art paper for digital printing made by the Awagami factory in Tokushima, Japan. Additional handmade papers come from Germany, India, Japan, Nepal and the United States.
Rick Black also designed the double drop-down boxes. They were handcrafted by Mirtha Antelo of Distinctive Bookbinding in Rockville, Maryland. The cover of the boxes is handmade abaca and cotton paper that has been rough dried—again, produced by Twinrocker Handmade Paper. The interior is lined with Asahi Japanese bookcloth in olive green.
The Amichai Windows is a compilation of 18 unbound triptychs inside a double drop-down enclosure. The edition size is 18.
Each letterpressed poem is wrapped and folded in an individual, handmade paper triptych that is 13” x 21” fully open. Multi-layered collages of digitally printed images and additional folio elements include blind embossments, botanical inclusions, gold leaf and papercuts made by Debra Band.
A 28-page guide with an introduction by scholar and literary translator Robert Alter accompanies the edition.
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