Dos-a-dos book with two different titles: "Fortune's Daughter: An Allegory of Prosperity" and "Fortune's Daughter: An Allegory of Greed"

24p. Hybrid sewn and concertina binding (opens to 43 inches with accordion fully extended). Text pages letterpress printed from lead type, rule, and etched magnesium plates on Zerkal book paper. Color lithography printed on Novalith dull text with a satin aqueous coating. Collage from actual US one dollar bills. Production assistance by Laumont Studios, Cosmos Communications, Dylan Graham, Amy Mees, Caitlin MacRae, Cat Glennon, Bryan Ready, and David Wagner. The edition of 90 is comprised of 60 simple, 30 deluxe, and 2 display copies. All copies are signed and numbered by the artist/author.

Simple copies are bound in letterpress printed cream-color Perma Dur covers with brass eyelets.

Deluxe copies are hardbound in black Iris book cloth with inset title cards and printed internal spine, and housed in cherry wood slipcases. An entire US dollar bill is collaged throughout each copy.

This book was 10 years in the making, and contains 284 lines of rhyming narrative poetry, and took 47 letterpress runs.

"Its dos-a-dos structure has two front covers. The first, Fortune's Daughter: An Allegory of Prosperity, leads to an accordion-folded reproduction of the large-scale Fortune's Daughter collage. The second, Fortune's Daughter: An Allegory of Greed, leads to a mini-epic narrative poem retelling the story of Midas." - Wagner.

"The order in which the sides are viewed has a large impact on the way the experience of the reader.

"The first cover, "An Allegory of Prosperity," leads to an accordion-folded reproduction of the large-scale "Fortune's Daughter" collage, a female figure meticulously rendered from deconstructed US one dollar bills. The figure steps from a swirling landscape of flowers through an arched structure toward the viewer.

"The second cover, An Allegory of Greed, leads to a mini-epic narrative poem retelling the story of King Midas, who asked for and received the gift of the golden touch. The poem tracks Midas' psychology as he adjusts to this new power, a transition from simple wonder to uncontrollable desire to panic and despair. The golden touch is his undoing, culminating in the death of his daughter - unwittingly turned to gold in the final act.

Without the poem's context, Fortune's Daughter: An Allegory of Prosperity seems largely positive, transforming the ubiquitous bill into something personal and treasured through the careful application of craft. Viewed after reading the poem, however, the collage becomes horrific, a contemporary interpretation of a classic fable: a person made grotesque by the specter of wealth.

"The poem's 284 lines of verse were written specifically as an accompaniment to the collage. The rhyme and meter suggest a fatalism inherent to Midas' story. The careful crafting and double entendre of the language mimics visual devices at work in the collage.

"The larger allegories of the collage and the poem contain multiple visual and verbal layers of reference and metaphor. Allusions to illuminated manuscripts, sacred texts, American history, and commerce - among other concerns - result in a parable without a definitive end, a perpetual reflection on value, craft, greed and transformation." - Wagner.

With "Fortune's Daughter," Wagner brings together his creative identities as bookmaker and currency collage artist for the first time. This beautiful limited edition Artist’s Book uses currency collage to interpret the story of King Midas, the king who asks for and receives the gift of the golden touch. It is a complex work of visual art, literature, printing, and bookbinding, meticulously crafted with original collage work in each copy.

Wagner's one-of-a-kind and limited edition books are interdisciplinary hybrids of art and literature, structure and design, printing and hand work. His Artists’ Books are collected by many institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian Institution, and The Getty Center for the History of Art and Humanities, as well as international collections.