Search: International Artists Books


Introduction |  Basic |  Guided |  Advanced |  Tips


    Full Details


Martyr, Mercury and Rooster

Item date(s): 2005

Jeffrey Morin  - (printed by)
Caren Heft  - (printed by)


Pages: unpaged
Size: 297mm
Edition: #1/50

Sub-type: Private press

Place publication: Stevens Point, WI
Publisher: Arcadian Press & sailorBOYpress
Cat. 094 - C8-8
Exhibition 2017

Additional notes:
The three volumes housed in a clam-shell box (325mm)

1. Female Shahida Martyr. Arcadian Press. Carin Heft.. 2004. The story of the first Palestinian female suicide bomber.

2. The Dancing Cats of Mercury. Collaboration between Carin Heft and Jeffrey Morin. 2005. Mercury and its destructive effect on the lives of men.

3. Sibongile and the Murderous Rooster. Jeffrey Morin. sailorBOYpress. 2004. Tells of the spreading of HIV in Southern Africa through the telling of a fable.

Colophon: The papers used in the three volumes are Root River Mill cotton, Larroque and Hahnemuhle. The Hahnemuhle was gelatin sized (with pigment added-in). The collaboration between two printers, perhaps a dubious undertaking, came out of Walter Hamady's 1983 letterpress class. Thank you, Walter. Caren Heft, Arcadian Press, 2004.

[A series of three books on the subject of 'ars moriendi'.] With onlays of metal, string, tape, plastic, pins, mica, beads and paper. Illustrations and decorations in various colors, type used as part of the design. All books printed in 14 pt Cochin Light. They are bound with open sewn spine and five cream banks across the spine which end inside the front cover; the middle band is larger than the two on either side of it. Pale blue/green textured cloth dropback box with small mica square inlaid on the front.

Featured in Celebrating our Twentieth Anniversary - Joshua Heller Rare Books, Spring/Summer, 2005.

"The way the project worked, we decided on scale, paper, and page count first. We spent last summer hand-sizing many papers with gelatin and pigment, and then moved on to text. The first and last books are our own individual attempts at sticking to the format while the middle book is a project that went back and forth between the two of us until it was completed." - Letter from Jeff Morin.

This series of books dealing on contemporary ways in which people 'prepare' to meet death in various forms in different societies is a moving treatise, without sentimentality. It is thought-provoking and important as a document on the state of man and our civilization to-day. We believe it should be read and shown to as wide an audience as possible.

Illustrated on p4 of "Beyond Words, Artists' Books" by Ruth R. Rogers, 2006.

Illustrated on p37 of "Book as Witness,The Artist's Response", by Maria G. Pisano. 2012.

Illustrated on p57 of Fine & Dirty: Contemporary Letterpress Art by Betty Bright, 2012.

Exhibition notes:
Item 094 - C8-8 on Booknesses: Artists' books from the Jack Ginsberg Collection.

UJ Art Gallery, University of Johannesburg

25 March to 5 May 2017



Ref: GB/9976











© Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts (JGCBA). All rights reserved.