Research Catalog

Title

Tom Tit Tot / Susan Howe ; with prints by R.H. Quaytman.

Author

Howe, Susan, 1937-

Publication

New York : Library Council of the Museum of Modern Art, 2014.

Supplementary Content

Publisher's description

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Quaytman, R. H. (Rebecca H.)
• Ewing, Brad
• Miller, Leslie, 1957-
• Groves, Brett, 1982-
• Tomlinson, Mark, 1955-
• Cohen, Claudia, 1953-
• Castleberry, May
• Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). Library Council, publisher.
• Grenfell Press, printer.
• Axelle Editions, printer of plates.
• Lower East Side Printshop, Inc., printer of plates.

Description

82 unnumbered pages : 4 illustrations (1 color); 33 cm

Summary

• "The most recent in a series of artist's books issued by the Library Council, Tom Tit Tot brings together sixty-seven poems by Susan Howe with design and artwork by R.H. Quaytman, the poet's daughter. The text is hand-printed at the Grenfell Press in New York by Brad Ewing and Leslie Miller, who designed the volume with the poet and the artist. Brett Groves, Quaytman's longtime printmaker and collaborator, worked closely with the artist to produce all of the images ... May Castleberry ... produced the book for the Museum of Modern Art"--Colophon.
• "Howe created the poems for Tom Tit Tot with slivers of typeset text extracted from her readings in American, British, and Irish folklore, poetry, philosophy, art criticism, and history. Beginning with copies of the source material, and including excerpts from the texts themselves and from surrounding footnotes, tables of contents, and marginalia, Howe cut out words and sentence fragments, then spliced and taped them together while retaining their typefaces, spacing, and rhythms. These re-collected images, formed into arrangements shaped both by control and by chance, were then transferred into letterpress prints ... The poems ... are part of an in-progress trilogy dedicated to the artist Paul Thek (1933-1988) and the collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924)"--Colophon.
• "Quaytman's design for the book is inspired partly by the geographical atlases and histories of Emma Hart Willard (1787-1870), an American author, educator, and civil- and women's-rights activist. For the frontispiece Quaytman created an artwork based on two of Willard's visualizations of geography and history, Picture of nations and Temple of time. Quaytman's frontispiece ... was printed as a six-color silkscreen at Axelle Editions, Brooklyn; digitally at the Lower East Side Printshop, New York; and by letterpress at the Grenfell Press. Three more of Quaytman's images, printed by letterpress at the Grenfell Press, are bound into the volume. One shows an unraveled knitted baby's sock, and derives from a photoengraving in Thérèse de Dillmont's Encyclopedia of needlework, first published in 1886; the second shows a thumbprint on black paper; and the third is an abstract image taken from the artist's frontispiece"--Colophon.

Uniform Title

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

Subject

• Willard, Emma, 1787-1870
• Dillmont, Thérèse de, 1846-1890
• Quaytman, R. H
• Concrete poetry, American
• Found poetry, American
• Concrete poetry

Genre/Form

• Artists' books – United States – 21st century.
• Found poetry.
• Concrete poetry.

Note

• "Printed in an edition of ninety-five copies, plus twenty artist's copies. Each copy is signed and numbered. Eighty copies of the edition are reserved for members of the Library Council. A deluxe edition of twenty-six copies, plus four artist's copies, features Quaytman's print Temple of time. Each copy of the deluxe edition, along with the accompanying print, is signed and lettered a through z; the artist's copies are signed and lettered aa through dd"--Colophon.

Binding (note)

• "The book ... is hand-bound in green Japanese buckram by Mark Tomlinson in East Hampton, Massachusetts. The deluxe edition is hand-bound in black leather by Claudia Cohen in Seattle. ... Stamped in gold on the spine ... is a Quaytman design presenting an abstract pattern. Generated from a woodblock handmade by James Cooper, the pattern refers to the edges of the plywood panels used for the artist's silkscreened and painted works"--Colophon.
• Publisher's dark green cloth; gilt lettering, gilt design on spine. Issued in taupe cloth-covered slipcase.

Call Number

Spencer Coll. Amer. 2014 16-7

OCLC

898214662

Author

Howe, Susan, 1937- author.

Title

Tom Tit Tot / Susan Howe ; with prints by R.H. Quaytman.

Publisher

New York : Library Council of the Museum of Modern Art, 2014.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

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

Local Note

Spencer Coll. copy is no. 75/115; signed in pencil by Susan Howe and R.H. Quaytman.

Binding

"The book ... is hand-bound in green Japanese buckram by Mark Tomlinson in East Hampton, Massachusetts. The deluxe edition is hand-bound in black leather by Claudia Cohen in Seattle. ... Stamped in gold on the spine ... is a Quaytman design presenting an abstract pattern. Generated from a woodblock handmade by James Cooper, the pattern refers to the edges of the plywood panels used for the artist's silkscreened and painted works"--Colophon.

Ordinary edition: Publisher's dark green cloth; gilt lettering, gilt design on spine. Issued in taupe cloth-covered slipcase.

Connect to:

Publisher's description

Place of Publication

United States New York New York.

Added Author

Quaytman, R. H. (Rebecca H.), illustrator, book designer.

Ewing, Brad, book designer, printer.

Miller, Leslie, 1957- book designer, printer.

Groves, Brett, 1982- printmaker.

Tomlinson, Mark, 1955- binder.

Cohen, Claudia, 1953- binder.

Castleberry, May, book producer.

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

Grenfell Press, printer.

Axelle Editions, printer of plates.

Lower East Side Printshop, Inc., printer of plates.

Research Call Number

Spencer Coll. Amer. 2014 16-7