Brooklyn Bridge: A Love Song

Cleveland, OH: Foolsgold Studio, 2002. One of 60 copies, each signed and numbered by the artist / author, Donald Glaister; 10 of which HC, all on 10 mil aluminum. Page size: 14 x 12"; 28pp. Bound: quarter leather grey Nigerian goatskin with aluminum onlays on front and back. The aluminum pages are set on paper hinges for ease of opening. Endpapers of coarse black textured paper. The book is housed in a felt-lined aluminum box. There are portraits of the Brooklyn Bridge which are painted with acrylics on sanded aluminum as well as collages suggesting the construction of the bridge which are also on sanded aluminum and painted, with wire aluminum tape, laminated polyester film and sand all attached to the pages. The type is Avant Garde and is silkscreen printed. Selected for inclusion in Wellesley College exhibition and catalogue RESONANCE AND RESPONSE (2005).

The Brooklyn Bridge has, since its opening in 1883, inspired many writers and artists: Hart Crane and Walker Evans perhaps the most famous of these. The bridge was, on completion, the first Steel Cable Suspension Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world, and the first major bridge to use multiple pneumatic caissons. Designed by John Roebling and completed by his son, Washington Roebling, the bridge still inspires, perhaps more so as the country's vision of one of their national monuments changed on September 11, 2001. Donald Glaister, one of the world's pre-eminent designer bookbinders has, for the first time, created an edition book and it is a beauty. In materials that are not what one would expect for a book - but completely in keeping with the subject of the book - it is contemporary book art of the very highest quality.

Long out of print, it has not been offered for sale in a number of years.

Donald Glaister's poem reads:

The Bridge spans.
Brooklyn to Manhattan. Ancient to modern.
Heavy mass to lacy space.
Stone to steel.

The Bridge moves.
Vertical to horizontal to diagonal,
joined in a dizzying dance by sweeping lines
inspired by natural grace.

The Bridge defines.
Bold and practical. A vital invention.
An icon for the nation, built by dreamers.

The Bridge endures.
She has seen it all. Peace and war,
plenty and need, vice and honor,
the sublime and the horrific.
She stands watch and does not yield.
The gracious lady stands in the river
and does not yield.