The articles in this issue have been catalogued here.

Reference note:
Translation of p35:

Nesos is probably the most beautiful of Walter Battiss' collections of what we can call his personal statements about life. In the introduction to the book, Battiss says (I translate):

Nesos is the Greek word for "island". The contents of this book are images from sixteen Greek islands that I know. All the serigraphs have been made by me and no printer has touched the pages. There are [a few separate proofs and only] 25 numbered copies.

[I have used Battiss’s wording from Nesos instead of a translation of a translation!]

Firstly, the book is a spontaneous outpouring of the artist's mental images and feelings accumulated during his visit to the Greek islands in 1968. The images must have arisen in his spirit at the sight of so much natural life, so much joy of life - a rush of sensual pleasure at the sight of young bodies playing in a sun-drenched landscape. It must also have evoked images of the glorious past of Greece when the young men participated in all kinds of sports and reveled in the joy and strength of their strong bodies. We then see again and again in the volume how the sportsmen of today are portrayed, counterparts of the heroes of ancient Greece. But the joy of the body is also sung in other ways in this book.

Among other things, we find here the glorification of the beauty of poetry and of the written word. In this, Battiss enters a new area, the amalgamation of beautiful calligraphy and poetic images; and through this he touches the core of the beauty of all books. Some of the sections also reach heights of poetic imagery, and the book as a whole can be considered an ode to beauty.

Battiss emphasises in his introduction the fact that this book was produced entirely by his own hands. In this we see his love for, and longing to return to the more natural state of life, his disapproval of the machines which also play a growing role in art today.

In Nesos, Battiss once again sings of the joy of unfettered, natural life; of game; of the natural man who enjoys his healthy body and wants to share it with others in love; of a nature that cherishes its children. He does this in simple, almost childlike shapes and images, with bright, primary colors. He does this with poetic signification and graceful writing through which the poem is embodied. Above all, he does this with an overwhelming sense of the power and beauty of life.

The University of South Africa owns No. 2/25.

Ref: GB/30627