Research Catalog

The island of Rota

Title: The island of Rota / text, Oliver Sacks ; cliché-verres, Abelardo Morell ; design, Ted Muehling.
Author: Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015.
Publication: New York : Library Council of the Museum of Modern Art, 2010.
Supplementary Content: Publisher's description

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	By appointment only	Spencer Coll. Amer. 2010 11-129	Schwarzman Building - Print Collection Room 308

Details

Additional Authors

Description

[56] p. : ill., maps; 35 cm. +

Series Statement

Contemporary editions

Uniform Title

Contemporary editions (Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). Library Council)

Alternative Title

Rota

Subjects

Genre/Form

Artists' books – United States – 21st century.
Clichés-verre – United States – 21st century.
Plant prints.
Bookbinding (Binding) – Wooden cases.
Typefaces (Type evidence) – Walbaum.

Note

"Each copy of the edition of one hundred and thirty-five is signed and numbered, including seventy-five copies reserved for the members of the Library Council and thirty for the artists and the collaborators. Each of a deluxe edition of twenty-five copies, including copies for the Museum and the collaborators, are signed and lettered. The deluxe edition comprises the book and a unique box and book cover designed by Ted Muehling"--Colophon.
"Oliver Sacks's 'The Island of Rota' was originally published as a chapter in his book, The island of the colorblind and Cycad Island (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1997)"--Colophon.
"Abelardo Morell's thirteen works are cliché-verres, photographic prints from images he made by hand in ink and plant matter on glass"--Colophon. Contains 12 b&w and sepia cliché-verre images printed on 6 double leaves and bound in the volume, and an accompanying loose print enclosed in a dark rose paper portfolio; latter is signed in pencil, numbered and dated 2010 on verso. Botanical specimens were supplied by the New York Botanical Garden.
"Ted Muehling's work encompasses most aspects of the book, including the typography and the layered structure. He designed the cycad-leaf and sea-fan castings, the laser-cut image in two leaves of paper, the altered historical maps, and the cover and box"--Colophon.
"Muehling designed the covers of the book, the box, and castings of cycads and sea fans in handmade paper for the interior. He also designed a pattern of small apertures for two leaves of the book, to be seen at different angles as the pages are turned. The play of light and dark in and around these cutouts (burned through the paper by laser) may suggest the night sky, coral sands, dust, or an archipelago of islands"--Description on publisher's Web site, retrieved July 27, 2011.
"Leslie Miller and Brad Ewing printed the text and the Vandermaelen map by letterpress at the Grenfell Press, New York. The graphic design is by Leslie Miller, with Ted Muehling. The text was printed in Walbaum type on Magnani paper. Jonathan Singer scanned the cliché-verre originals and printed the photographs digitally at Singer Editions, Boston. Mark Tomlinson bound the edition in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Paul Wong, artistic director of Dieu Donné (Papermill), New York, made the papers and castings by hand in abaca, cotton, and linen, especially for this edition"--Colophon.
"The maps were reproduced from M.F. Maury's Chart (1848; Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division) and Philippe Vandermaelen's Atlas universel (Brussels, 1827; New York Public Library Map Division). The Maury map was lithographically printed by Deborah Chaney, New York"--Colophon.
Illustrations also include a casting from a cycad leaf, on folded sheet of gray handmade abaca paper at center of volume.
Three bookmarks of laser-cut brass in leaf or other organic forms laid in, in folded paper enclosures.

Binding (note)

Deluxe copies: Publisher's black handmade paper boards; in black handmade paper-covered drop-spine case, wrapped in suedecloth and laid in a wooden box (38 x 32 x 6 cm.). Paper is decorated with sea fan castings; box is decorated with a pattern of small holes, some of which contain pearls and similar small objects. "For the deluxe edition of the book ... Muehling designed a box, made by the furniture designer Chris Lehrecke, of wood that is drilled with tiny holes--echoing the driftwood imagery of the laser-cut pages--and embedded with even tinier shells, pearls and stones"--Blog entry by Pilar Viladas, New York Times, Oct. 19, 2010.

Call Number

Spencer Coll. Amer. 2010 11-129

OCLC

714621374

Author

Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015.

Title

The island of Rota / text, Oliver Sacks ; cliché-verres, Abelardo Morell ; design, Ted Muehling.

Imprint

New York : Library Council of the Museum of Modern Art, 2010.

Series

Contemporary editions

Contemporary editions (Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). Library Council)

Local Note

Spencer Coll. copy is lettered L; signed in pencil by Morell, Sacks and Muehling. Spencer Coll. copy of the loose print is numbered "L/25" on verso.

Binding

Deluxe copies: Publisher's black handmade paper boards; in black handmade paper-covered drop-spine case, wrapped in suedecloth and laid in a wooden box (38 x 32 x 6 cm.). Paper is decorated with sea fan castings; box is decorated with a pattern of small holes, some of which contain pearls and similar small objects. "For the deluxe edition of the book ... Muehling designed a box, made by the furniture designer Chris Lehrecke, of wood that is drilled with tiny holes--echoing the driftwood imagery of the laser-cut pages--and embedded with even tinier shells, pearls and stones"--Blog entry by Pilar Viladas, New York Times, Oct. 19, 2010.

Connect to:

Publisher's description

Place of Publication

United States New York New York.

Added Author

Morell, Abelardo. Illustrator

Muehling, Ted. Book designer

Miller, Leslie, 1957- Printer

Ewing, Brad. Printer

Singer, Jonathan, 1969- Printer of plates

Tomlinson, Mark. Binder

Wong, Paul, 1951- Papermaker

Lehrecke, Chris, 1958-

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). Library Council. Publisher

Grenfell Press. Printer

Dieu Donné Papermill. Papermaker

Spine Title

Rota

Research Call Number

Spencer Coll. Amer. 2010 11-129

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