On the fourth floor of the Marriott Library, the U book arts program is presenting Lasting Impressions: 25 years of Pyracantha Press, an exhibition running through April 24.
The exhibition includes the first book Pyracantha Press8212;which has been handmaking books at Arizona State University for the past 25 years8212;ever made, a hand-printed edition of Shakespeare’s epyllion, “Venus and Adonis.” The press was forced to sell its first bookbinding contract to an unknown quantity, and the resulting faulty binding doesn’t allow the book to lie flat on a table. The eco-conscious “Spirit Land,” a 1996 collaborative project between John Risseeuw and Oregon artist Margaret Prentice featuring poems written by Arizona writer Gary Paul Nabhan and Oregon Writer Kim Stafford, features paper made from Arizona and Oregon plant fibers, and when it lies flat on a table, an Oregon and an Arizona landscape are shown side by side. The identical pages of Buzz Spector’s “Time Square,” a book in which terms containing the word “time” were selected, googled, sequenced in an order of descending citations, and then arranged in a square. The pages were then systematically torn to create a layered effect.
Risseeuw is the director of both Pyracantha Press and Cabbagehead Press and works from both are included in the exhibition. Sometimes people come to him with ideas for the press, but he isn’t listening. Once, someone suggested that Pyracantha could make bookmarks. An exasperated Risseeuw wanted to know if the man would ever ask a research scientist to make silly putty. The analogy works because Risseeuw has designated the press as the production and research imprint of ASU’s School of Art’s book arts program, which is part of the reason why Pyracantha has so much freedom to pursue “significant collaboration between writers and artists” and “book art projects which have particular merit in literary content.”
Risseeuw’s work is sometimes politically volatile. His 2002 accordion book “Total F****** Idiots” features the vandalized portraits of many prominent members of former president George W. Bush’s administration.
His series of Landmine prints are printed on paper made from the clothing of land mine victims (representative clothing, not clothing worn at the time of the accident), plants from mine locations and the paper currency of nations whose mines are found in the area in question.
One print, “For Lim,” tells the story of Lim Sokheng, a Cambodian mine victim whom Risseeuw met at the Kien Khleang Rehabilitation Center. The print features an image of Lim, whose arms were amputated after the accident.
Another print, inspired by a Nicaraguan land mine accident, printed on paper made from the clothing of land mine victim Augustín Matey Ramos, burlap coffee sacks from Nicaragua, and currency of nations who had mines in Nicaragua, is called “La Explosión.” Ramos was forced into a minefield by his employer at the coffee plantation.
One of the prints notes that in Angola, children represent 49 percent of land mine casualties.
Proceeds from the sale of the Landmine prints, which all sell for $500, are donated to the Landmine Survivors Network, Cambodian Handicraft Association for Landmine and Polio Disabled, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Mines Advisory Group Adopt-A-Minefield, Handicap International and other relevant agencies.
“The twin purposes of this project have been public education to the problems of land mines and fundraising for the organizations that assist the victims,” said Risseeuw.
Marnie Powers-Torrey is the head of the U book arts program. In conjunction with the exhibition, the book arts program brought Risseeuw out to give a lecture on Pyracantha Press and to lead the workshop “Acrobatics on the Vandercook Cylinder Press.” The book arts program offers full-semester classes on bookbinding, letterpress printing and artists’ books, and short workshops with specialized instruction, as in the case of Risseeuw’s “Acrobatics.” Powers-Torrey described the land mine prints as an “incredible accomplishment,” and was impressed by how deftly Risseeuw was able to make “something fruitful from decay.”
“Making one’s own paper sufficient to print on, and at that, print incredibly well on, is no easy task,” said Powers-Torrey. “Paper is designed specifically for each project8212;the whole in mind from the get-go.”
Powers-Torrey is also the head of Red Butte Press, where U students and faculty craft handmade books in a similar manner to Arizona State’s Pyracantha. Red Butte recently released a limited, hand-bound, hand-printed edition of Wallace Stegner’s essay, “To A Young Writer,” containing a dedication by Wendell Berry, an introduction by Lynn Stegner, and engravings by Barry Moser. The book was made in commemoration of the centennial of Stegner’s birth.
