Botanikos (including IT IS TIME!)

Stanmore, New South Wales, Australia: Ant Press, 2007. Artist's Book, one of 13 copies, 10 of which for sale, all on Magnani Velata Avorio paper, each signed and numbered by the artist, Monica Oppen. Page size: 12-5/8 x 9 inches; 40pp. Bound by the artist: sewn on vellum tapes and laced into Blackwood 3-ply boards, endpapers in box are part of larger botanical image that was enlarged and reversed into negative and printed in black on grey paper, housed in custom-made black cloth clamshell box with title printed in white on grey with terracotta cloth edges on box. The book contains 10 black and white photographs printed as duotones, seven of which are by Monica Oppen. The text is taken from BOTANY FOR GARDNERS, CHILDREN OF THE UNIVERSE, the Bible, and the definition of the word ecosystem from the Macquarie Dictionary. Laid into the book on a page with a specially constructed envelope is a small book, IT IS TIME, bound in red wrappers, hand sewn, 5-3/4 x 4 inches, screen printed in Times Roman. The pre-press work was completed by Rod Davies at Splitting Image and Bernie Rackham at Redwood Prints printed the duotone images and text on a flatbed litho press. The boards for the binding were made and finished at Original Finish by Kevin Gleeson. The book was designed by Monica Oppen with the assistance of Peter Lyssiotis. The artist statement declares, "This work is a celebration of the importance of plants to life on Earth." The images are beautiful and the text meaningful and the binding is very elegant indeed and in complete harmony with the text and images. ." The images are beautiful and the text meaningful. The binding is very elegant indeed and in complete harmony with the text and images. The whole is a delightful paean to the earth and its bounty.