Angelique and the Pearl Necklace

Vashon, WA: Foolsgold Studio, 2007. One of 60 copies, 50 of which are for sale, all signed and numbered by the artist / author, Donald Glaister, each book on pages of painted stiffened fabric on which dimensional constructions are mounted, text printed on Zerkall Frankfurt paper. Page size: 15-1/4 x 9-1/4 inches; 40pp. Bound by Donald Glaister: quarter leather made of Nigerian goatskin with wood veneers and cloth over boards, housed in drop spine box made at Book Lab II. The artist tells us that this new book is inspired by hand-made wooden sailboats, citing their custom craftsmanship, exotic materials and a balance of wild adventure and the need to survive it all. The result, he adds, is a happy combination of these elements resulting in a beautiful contradiction: a craft that is serenely graceful yet brutally sound. His book is an homage to the material and spiritual grace of these boats and to sailing.
The text is a two-part poem with studies of the materials used to make sail boats, the spirit of sailing, and the rhythm of the sea. Most of the book's painted, stiffened fabric pages have original collages of painted cloth, wood veneer, brass, cork, linen thread and acrylic paint - all materials used in boat building. The poem is printed letterpress by Jessica Spring at Springtide Press in Scala Sans typeface. The result is an intriguingly beautiful book with images at once reminiscent of ancient Greek or Roman triremes or Viking Drakkar (Dragon) war ships, but at the same time completely contemporary or rather anticipating future designs. The perfections of Mr. Glaister's book construction, not to mention the overwhelming beauty of each page on which a variety of materials are organized and manipulated to make an astonishingly original work of art, directly correspond to the beauty and exacting skill necessary to build a wood sail boat. By deconstructing the idea a "boat" - as well as the very notion of navigating on water - Mr. Glaister has constructed a perfect book.