1992. 42 X 33cm
Edition of 12 of which only two copies in colour,
similar but not identical. The
rest of the edition comprises the 38 plates and facing
text printed in black on double sheets of white Rives,
held in a solander box with an etching printed in copper
metallic ink on the lid.
For the colour versions, I painted the Velin d'Arches paper before over-printing the etchings in black. The text is printed from zinc relief plates which deeply emboss the paper. I inked the text plates intaglio with a thin layer of lighter ink rolled on the surface, making the words appear to float above the surface.
One of the colour copies was bound Coptic style in mahogany wooden covers which I carved and painted.
COLOUR COPIES IN THE FOLLOWING PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany.
Rijksmuseum Meermanno-Westreenianum (Museum
of the Book), The Hague, Netherlands.
In 1989 I discovered
in a secondhand bookshop, in a volume titled The Lost
Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden (Alpha
House 1926), the little-known apocryphal Book of The Secrets of
Enoch.
I was bowled over by this alternative and, to me, more eloquent
version of Genesis and decided to illustrate eighteen extracts
to produce a livre d'artiste.
In powerful and poetic language the Creator, speaking in
the first person, gives his scribe, Enoch, an account of
the first eight days of creation. Sample quote:
“For before all
things were visible, I alone used to go about
in the invisible things, like the sun from
east to west, and from west to east. But
even the sun has peace in itself, while I
found no peace, because I was creating all
things, and I conceived the thought of placing
foundations, and of creating visible creation.”
LARGER IMAGE FROM THE COLOUR VERSION
SOME IMAGES FROM BLACK & WHITE VERSION
BLACK VERSION IN
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Kohler
Library, Wisconsin.
Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs.
Nielsen Library, Smith College, Massachusetts.