Anne WaldmanDavid Sellers

Extinction Aria: Its Exegesis, the Realms, How Ink is Blood

Anne Waldman, David Sellers

Extinction Aria: Its Exegesis, the Realms, How Ink is Blood

Date

2017

Edition Size

40

Media

Letterpress, Wood block

Binding

Loose pages

Dimensions

24.75 × 11 × 1.5 in

Enclosure

Clamshell box

$ 3,500.00

Unavailable


View Collectors

State University of New York (SUNY), University at Buffalo

University of California, Berkeley (UCB), The Bancroft Library

University of Delaware Library

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Special Collections

Yale University, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library

The text seemed to emanate from a vibrating larynx and dance in the air…The image and insistent repetition of “ink”…came from a dream that inflected the power of ink as a kind of lifeblood for poetry.
— Anne Waldman

Extinction Aria was specially written for this first edition. The artwork was initially hand-proofed from 50 Tibetan Buddhist woodblock images carved in the 18th-early 20th centuries and letterpress-printed from type-high magnesium photoengravings made to the exact specifications of the originals. The type for the 501 lines of verse is 18 point Monotype Garamont 248, designed by Frederick Goudy, and for the title page and colophon, American Type Founders’ Garamond 459 & 460, designed by Morris Benton. The paper is 100% cotton fiber Stonehenge. The pages for all copies are wrapped in Indian homespun and handloom wild Mulberry or Bhagalpur silk fabric,** tied by a single strand of Nepalese silk yarn, in the manner of a Tibetan sutra. All copies are housed in a cotton buckram book cloth-covered clamshell-style box. Design, hand-setting of types, letterpress printing on a Vandercook Universal I press, covers, including casting and patination, and box-making are by David Sellers. The edition comprises sixty copies numbered 1-60, each signed by the poet and printer. Copies numbered 21-60 are covered in artist’s Belgian linen over Baltic birch plywood with a recessed letterpress-printed cover label. **Wild Mulberry and Bhagalpur silk are often referred to as ‘non-violent silk’ or ‘Ahimsa silk’ since they are only harvested after the moths have left the cocoons and none have been killed in the process. Due to its non-violent origins, this ‘fabric of peace’ is favored by Buddhist monks around the world.

Recorded performance: Each copy includes a download card for an extraordinary performance of “Extinction Aria” by Anne Waldman & Chilean poet, artist, and filmmaker Cecilia Vicuña, together with musician & composer Ambrose Bye.