Horror Vascuui
Alastair Johnston
Jungle Garden Press
Fairfax, CA
(1986)
There just isn't anything like getting a surprise item in the mail from the author themselves, which is how I got to hold, admit, and now write (perhaps intelligently) about this specimen of letterpress excellence.
Jungle Garden Press was started by Marie C. Dern in Berkeley, CA during 1974. Berkeley, like Iowa City, and other college towns of note, became a hub of creative expression and liberation. All the books published during its run (1974-2006) were letterpressed and hand stitched. When asked about her process and intentions, Marie C. Dern with Jungle Garden Press in San Francisco said: “My intention in printing and bookmaking is to elucidate a text by the shape, binding, design, typography, and drawings of books, to make the experience of reading beautiful to the touch and the eyes as well as the mind, and to make the text understandable to the reader in the way I interpret it.” Jungle Garden Press was well known in the Graphic Arts community and their archives are stored at the University of Utah special collections space in Salt Lake City.
According to Mr. Johnston, he was asked to provide a mss. for publication and whipped this together in short order. Some of the poems seem almost LANGUAGE poetry-esque although I am not certain Mr. Johnston would agree.
There are some well known names attached to this project. Walter Hamady (founder of Perishable Press Limited) suggested the title. The book was designed and printed by Marie (Christensen) Dern. It was bound by Shelley Hoyt. The cover paper was painted by Victoria Weiss-Bohlman. The color drawing which appears on the page facing the title page was done by Carl Dern.
Outside of something created by Perishable Press Limited, I can not imagine a more lovely and well conceived book than this one. It's astounding and I graceful to have it in my collection.
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