Happy Abstract

Bound by Gavin Dovey

Happy Abstract by William Blake
New York, NY: Russell Maret, 2018
22.7 x 17.5 x 1.8 cm

Open:Set competition entrant and exhibitor.

Full leather binding with laced-on boards, sewn on meeting guards. Bound in Hewit's white calf, with monoprints and inlays of iridescent mother-of-pearl. Edge-to-edge doublures and flyleaves in paper, printed with details of a Blake etching from copperplate, monoprints of white ink, airbrushed dyes, gold and silver surface gilding, and inlays of purple paper. Natural edges. Hand sewn silk endbands. Untitled. Bound in 2019.

The restrained "happy abstract" of the exterior conceals a contrasting explosive interior that attempts to reflect Blake's own "damned soul", distracted and given over to hallucinations, conversations with angels, and visions of "albion".

Gavin Dovey and the Paper Dragon Books web site can be found at www.paperdragonbooks.com/home.html