Title: Loom
Description: Looms provide the blank canvases for weaving stories, a basic structure of utility and grace that connects the threads of our inner world with those of the natural world in countless and ever enduring forms. This project began when the California printmaker and book artist Richard Wagener asked simple question - how many threads does it take to make a weaving? From this journey (undertaken over several months on the surface of endgrain wood blocks, with a wood engraver's burin as walking stick) have come sixteen extraordinary engravings, artwork which evokes the mystery and beauty of connection and disconnection, while honoring the elegant simplicity and frailty of the loom and all it represents. New Zealand-born, Australian-resident poet Alan Loney, long-time weaver of words, was asked to respond to this series of engravings, and produced a poem, asking deep questions of connection and exploring "the thread of life itself."--Adapted from the prospectus.

The bindings and enclosures are by Craig Jensen at BookLab II in San Marcos, Texas. The binding of both the deluxe and slipcased versions is hand sewn on linen tapes and laced into a limp paper case made of Handmade PC4 Blue from Timothy Barrett at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. The endpapers are handmade by La Papeterie Saint-Armand in Montreal.
Subjects: Artists' books, Specimens, Wood-engraving, American, Weaving, Poetry, Australian poetry
Places: California, Santa Rosa
Time periods: 21st century