Tom tit tot
Contributors: Quaytman, R. H. (Rebecca H.).; Castleberry, May, editor
Series: Contemporary editions (Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). Library Council)
Publisher: Library Council of the Museum of Modern Art
Published: 2014
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Susan Howe ; with prints by R.H. Quaytman ; [produced by May Castleberry].
Subjects: Concrete poetry
Work titles: Works
Description: "Howe created the poems for Tom Tit Tot with slivers of typeset text extracted from her readings in American, British, and Irish folklore, poetry, philosophy, art criticism, and history. Beginning with copies of the source material, and including excerpts from the texts themselves and from surrounding footnotes, tables of contents, and marginalia, Howe cut out words and sentence fragments, then spliced and taped them together while retaining their typefaces, spacing, and rhythms. These re-collected images, formed into arrangements shaped both by control and by chance, were then transferred into letterpress prints."--Colophon.

"Quaytman's design for the book is inspired partly by the geographical atlases and histories of Emma Hart Willard (1787--1870), an American author, educator, and civil and women's rights activist. For the frontispiece Quaytman created an artwork based on two of Willard's visualizations of geography and history, Picture of Nations and Temple of Time. Quaytman's frontispiece, also titled Temple of Time, was printed as a six-color silkscreen at Axelle Editions, Brooklyn; digitally at the Lower East Side Printshop, New York; and by letterpress at The Grenfell Press. Three more of Quaytman's images, printed by letterpress at The Grenfell Press, are bound into the volume. One shows an unraveled knitted baby's sock, and derives from a photoengraving in Thérèse de Dillmont's Encyclopedia of Needlework, first published in 1886; the second shows a thumbprint on black paper; and the third is an abstract image taken from the artist's frontispiece."--Colophon.
Notes: "The most recent in a series of artist's books issued by the Library Council, 'Tom Tit Tot' brings together sixty-seven poems by Susan Howe with design and artwork by R.H. Quaytman, the poet's daughter.--Colophon.

"... edition of ninety-five copies, plus twenty artist's copies. Each copy is signed and numbered. Eighty copies of the edition are reserved for members of the Library Council. A deluxe edition of twenty-six copies, plus four artist's copies, features an unbound version of Quaytman's print Temple of Time. Each copy of the deluxe edition, along with the accompanying print, is signed and lettered a through z; the artist's copies are signed and lettered aa through dd."--Colophon.

Rare Book copy: No. 47; signed by the poet and the artist.