Jack Ginsberg Centre for the Book Arts

Search: International Artists Books

Introduction | Basic | Guided | Advanced | Tips

Full Details

Birds of Manhattan

Item date(s): 1998

John Ross - (prints by)
Lloyd Jonnes - (text by)

Pages: unpaged
Size: 355mm
Inscription: Signed by the artist.
Edition: #30/40

Place publication: New York
Publisher: High Tide Press

Additional notes:
Design, letterpress printing and color collographs by John Ross. 14 birds on double spreads, each 13.75" x 13.75". Text set in Palatino with headlines from wood type in the High Tide Collection. Printing done on a Vandercook proofing press. Papers used include Arches cover cream and black, Rives BFK cream and gray, Lenox 100 white, Stonehenge white, Lana cover, Coventry and Speckleton tan and mustard. Gray slubbed silk binding with resin casting of red bird in deep black cloth recess on front cover. Matching gray silk slipcase with recessed black title label.

Selected as one of the "Fifty Books/Fifty Covers of 1998" by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. All the birds are illustrated against various skylines and facets of New York. Not only are the birds named and their habits and backgrounds intelligently described, but the buildings, where possible, and their designers, are named; the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe’s Island is also not forgotten!

Ross comments: "I join my passion for architecture with the joy of looking at birds, in a city setting that seems incongruous as a home to wild life. I studied printmaking with Antonio Frasconi and own a copy of Birds of my Homeland by Antonio. This undoubtedly influenced my choice of subject matter. I checked with the Audubon Society in New York for the most common species of birds found here and chose 14 of the 40 that they suggested. The author, Lloyd Jonnes, a dedicated bird watcher, classicist, linguist and economist, has written two of my High Tide Press books [and] is also a member of my family (my son’s father-in-law)."

Ref: GB/10917