Ed Marquand
Few art forms are as universally popular as Japanese samurai armor. Graphic, bold, refined, and theatrical, this exquisitely crafted material has inspired designers and artists for centuries. From Yoshitoshi, the father of modern Japanese manga style, to George Lucas’s iconic Star Wars costuming, its influence is thoroughly integrated into our cultural aesthetic.
Marquand Books produced English and French editions of Art of Armor: Samurai Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection. Published in association with Yale University Press, this 320-page book showcases more than 300 images. These illustrations allow readers to see the intricacies of samurai armor, and captions include the weight and measurements for each piece. Jeff Wincapaw of Marquand Books designed the book, and Brad Flowers photographed the work. Essays were written by John Anderson, Ian Bottomley, Sachiko Hori, Gregory Irvine, Eric Meulien, Morihiro Ogawa, John Stevenson, and Stephen Turnbull; Bernard Fournier-Bourdier authored the catalogue entries.
The Barbier-Mueller collection is currently on display at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris until the end of this month. The show then opens in April at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Quebec and will be on view until January 2013. In Dallas, the Barbier-Muellers renovated a former Catholic school into a handsome museum, where the collection will be permanently housed.
Continue reading: “Project Highlights: Samurai Armor”
The New York Times named our book Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana, Volume II a recommended art gift book this year. The hearty and handsome collection is a great gift idea for folk art fans and history buffs. Both volumes I and II are available on the Yale University Press website.
(Brew Books)
The particular pleasure of holding a bound book is a timeless gift. And choosing to buy titles for the holidays from local booksellers tangibly strengthens communities, creating more local jobs and re-investing taxes in the community. According to Indiebound, $68 of each $100 spent at a local level stays in your city. To contrast, only $43 spent at national chains and big box stores remains in your area. Buying from local and independent stores promotes diverse shopping and robust commerce, and can even help reduce carbon footprint by decreasing the need for packaging and shipping.
In Seattle, shop for a wide range of titles at Elliott Bay Books in Capitol Hill. To discover rare and hard-to-find books, visit Pioneer Square’s Wessel and Lieberman. Peter Miller Books, near Pike Place Market, offers a well-curated selection of architecture and design books that are smartly displayed. And Book Larder, a new culinary-themed shop in Fremont, houses hand-picked cookbooks as well as readings, tastings, and cooking demonstrations.
If you choose to buy books online this holiday season, consider one of the hundreds of niche online booksellers. The New York Public Library recommends:
Continue reading: “Reading Season”
Two important Claude-Joseph Vernet works are on view at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) now through December 11. The French painter’s work, A Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm, and its complimentary landscape, A Grand View of the Seashore, are on display on the second floor of the museum’s European galleries.
Both paintings were commissioned by well-known English collector Lord Lansdowne and were hung side-by-side at Lansdowne House in London until the owner’s death. The paintings were sold at auction in 1806 to different private collectors and are being reunited at the DMA for the first time in more than 200 years. One of the large-scale works portrays a peaceful seaport at sunset, the other a wild, rocky landscape with villagers fleeing from an imminent storm.
Continue reading: “Stormy Skies, Calm Waters”
About nine months ago, Paper Hammer opened on the corner of Second and Union in downtown Seattle. Since its inception, the little shop connected to the Marquand Books Studio and design office has generated a lot of buzz, including profiles in local publications like Seattle Metropolitan, Seattle Magazine, and City Arts. This month, our simple wood type doorknob hangers are spotlighted in Seattle Magazine’s “Best Local Fashion Finds” issue.
Many products for sale at Paper Hammer are Tieton-made: designed, then produced by hand at Mighty Tieton in Central Washington. Each item’s concept, from the simplest to most ambitious, bring together well-considered design, creative uses of technology, and a hearty nod to printing traditions.
In addition to curated gifts from boutique producers Ladies & Gentlemen, Field Notes, Pigeon Toe Ceramics, and Dorothy Cheng Jewelry, Paper Hammer offers hand-picked salvaged and vintage curiosities.
A few months back, the Paper Hammer team launched an online Web store to compliment our brick-and-mortar locations in Seattle and Tieton. The sale of each Tieton-made product benefits the economy of the small orchard town-turned-arts-incubator. In addition to handmade letterpress coasters, paper goods, and ephemera featured on the Paper Hammer Web site, a new line of products is currently being produced for autumn and will be launched in the coming weeks.
A few favorite picks, available at paper-hammer.com:
Continue reading: “Tieton-Made”
Photo courtesy of LACMA
Continuing to build a spirit of collaboration between creative disciplines, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) recently hosted the acclaimed Jamal Dance Art Theatre in an original performance called “Mourners Are Dancing Too.” Choreography for the dance was inspired by the traveling exhibition, The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy, closing at LACMA this weekend.
Marquand Books produced the 128-page catalogue for the French Regional American Museum Exchange (FRAME). Consisting of multiple views of the mourner statuettes set against simple, stark backgrounds, the book was designed by Zach Hooker and is distributed by Yale University Press.
Continue reading: “The Mourners Are Dancing”
Long days and clear nights have finally rolled into the Pacific Northwest—perfect summer reading weather. Our staff of voracious readers has compiled a list of suggestions fitting for the season. Here’s a sampling.
FICTION
That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx (Jeff)
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (Jeff)
The Wild Things by Dave Eggers (Ryan)
A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin (Dorothy)
The Choiring of Trees by Donald Herrington (Sylvia)
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (Sylvia)
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño (Donna)
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Heather)
The 13 Clocks by James Thurber (Heather)
A Death in the Family by James Agee (Adrian)
NON-FICTION
The Elements of Typographic Style by David Bringhurst (Ryan)
In the Company of Crows and Ravens by John M. Marzluff and Tony Angell (Ryan)
All About Love: New Visions by Bell Hooks (Sylvia)
Becoming a Man by Paul Monett (Evan)
Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us by Ralph Nader (Evan)
Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach (Donna)
Lincoln at Gettysberg by Garry Wills (Heather)
COOKBOOKS
Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (Evan)
Kansha: Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions by Elizabeth Andoh (Donna)
ART
Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton (Ed)
Blinky Palermo Retrospective 1964-1977 by DIA Foundation (Donna)
Picasso & Lump: A Dachshund’s Odyssey by David Douglas Duncan (Heather)
Spiral Jetta: A Road Trip through the Land Art of the American West by Erin Hogan (Adrian)
The Lives of the Artists by Calvin Tomkins (Adrian)
The highly anticipated exhibition Pissarro’s People opened last Sunday at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.
Marquand Books produced the exhibition catalogue, designed by Jeff Wincapaw and distributed by Prestel Publishing. Curated by scholar Richard Brettell, Pissarro’s People includes about 50 works on paper and 40 oil paintings by the impressionist master.
Runs through Oct. 2. Special lectures and programs are scheduled throughout the summer and fall. For more info click here.
In a move that must have cleaned out every Value Village book bin in New York City, Tokyo-based design firm Super Potato bundled and stacked more than 20,000 salvaged paperbacks, turned them page end out, and formed a grid that hugs the bar and lounge of Brushstroke. Gothamist photographer Katie Sokoler documented the scene at the new Japanese restaurant in Tribeca, with more photos on view here.
The Marquand Books title Max Gordon: Architect for Art is now available through DAP. Gordon, who died in 1990 at age 59, designed numerous ambitious projects including New Scotland Yard in London:
Whether creating enormous exhibition spaces or designing living quarters for collectors and homes and studio facilities for artists, the acclaimed architect Max Gordon shaped the physical settings of art in the world’s major metropolises during his influential career. This first monograph offers a detailed overview of Gordon’s projects for the art world, from the 100,000-square-foot exhibition space he designed for the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid to the SoHo home he remodeled for Richard Serra, demonstrating throughout his elegant use of light, space and minimal decoration, and displaying his gift for always highlighting the art.
The publication has generated buzz, including posts on the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog and Judith H. Dobrzynski’s Real Clear Arts blog.
Congrats to former Marquand Editions | Tieton studio manager Amy Rabas. She’s the April featured artist on the excellent Chicago Publishes blog. Amy moved to the Windy City in 2009 and is working on her MFA in Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College in Chicago. Read the conversation, touching on everything from binding techniques to vintage animal fur, here.
Congratulations to our partners at iocolor. They handled the pre-press, engineering, and production for this astonishing and important book. The six-volume encyclopedia on the art and science of modern cooking is the subject of a spirited review in the New York Times:
In the end, I can only smile, shake my head and bow to him and his crew for their work of unprecedented scope and ambition.
A good overview of the project and interview with co-author Nathan Myhrvold was featured on Weekend Edition last Saturday.
The color and resolution standards involved in printing the book are discussed here.
I started Marquand Books in Seattle over thirty years ago, originally as a graphic design and photography firm specializing in work for artists and art galleries. By the mid-1980s, we had become a small art book publisher. Today, we produce collection books, monographs, and exhibition catalogues for museums throughout the United States and abroad. We have a great staff and clientele.
In 2005, a small group of friends, artists, architects, designers, and I started buying several unused buildings in Tieton, a small orchard town in central Washington. This group became Mighty Tieton. We have created an incubator for artisan businesses in order to provide entrepreneurial opportunities for creative professionals and to improve the economy of this appealing, but struggling, town.
My artisan business there is Marquand Editions | Tieton (ME|T). Our studio, letterpress shop, and bindery creates handmade, limited-edition books for individuals, artists, galleries, collectors, and museums. Our clients are looking for books that are tactile, personal, memorable; they want books that are objects. Some clients visit our studio to help design the books we create for them.
ME|T also produces a line of stationery and gifts that are sold in museums and in our online shop. This past fall, we opened our downtown Seattle shop, Paper Hammer, in our new design office next to the Seattle Art Museum.
The studio creates promotional items for Marquand Books as well. Several times a year we produce amusing design pieces for actual and prospective clients. The Decider is a spin game to help you make quick decisions about vexing quandaries. The Speeder-Upper is a hotel desk bell (made out of paper, of course) that you ring during meetings to encourage long-winded colleagues to get to the point.
Continue reading: “Outliving Obsolescence”
Marquand Books recently produced Birthe Piontek: The Idea of North for Portland, OR-based arts non-profit Photolucia. The German photographer’s powerful series of portraits explore life above 60th parallel.
Pointek discusses the series in this interview with Urbansand.
Seattle Times arts writer Michael Upchurch recently picked the Marquand-produced Salvador Dalí: The Late Work as a book worth gifting this holiday season. Designed by Jeff Wincapaw, the exhibition catalog accompanies the lauded Dali show at the High Museum in Atlanta, running through January 9. The exhibit and book focus on more than 40 paintings and media produced by Dalí post-1940, including 1957’s Santiago El Grande and 1951’s Christ of Saint John of the Cross.
The book can be purchased directly from the Yale University Press page here.
We’ve been charmed by Portland, Oregon’s Monograph Bookwerks, a shining example of how an independent bookstore can thrive in the age of the digital reader, especially when its concept fills a niche.
Opened in May 2010 in the Alberta Arts district, the shop sells new and used art books and objects carefully curated by owners John Brodie and Blair Saxon-Hill. Even better, you can browse new arrivals on the shop’s Web site and Facebook page before visiting. Are you a fan?
Ed Marquand has logged some long, inspiring hours in the book arts studio in Tieton this month. Along with our printing and binding crew, he has been designing and refining the merchandise that we will feature in our new downtown Seattle store, Paper Hammer, located in front of the Marquand Books design studio. The shop opens December 2.
The shop and studios are at the corner of Second and Union, across the street from Benaroya Hall and kitty corner to the Seattle Art Museum. Paper Hammer will sell the chap books, notebooks, novelties, coasters, posters, cards, photo albums, limited edition books, and gift items that we produce in Tieton. The store will also carry a selection of books that we make for museums, collectors, and artists across the country. Carefully selected vintage and contemporary goods will round out our products.
Our new space also includes a small gallery, which will allow us to mount modest exhibitions and demonstrations about the work we do in Seattle and Tieton. Look for more to come about events and shows in the gallery space.
Paper Hammer will host an opening party December 2 during First Thursday. Save the date!
The Marquand Books-produced Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man by Martin Clayton and Ron Philo just won a British Book Design and Production Award for best exhibition catalogue. Many congratulations to designer John Hubbard and the Royal Collection Publications team!
For a full list of 2010 winners click here.
Don’t miss the 10 x 10 x 10 x Tieton exhibition, open Wednesday through Sunday from noon-3 p.m. until October 10.
The catalogue, featuring juried works from the show, is hot off the press and for sale at our on-line store.
Lucas Deon Spivey selling 10 x 10 x 10 catalogues at the show.
UK-based on-line bookseller The Book Depository is a good resource for finding publications that are either out of print or not widely available in the US.
Check out the “Watch People Shop” feature. Tracing tabs on a world map as they ping-pong between recent sales in real time in entrancing. Someone in California just bought African Animal Stickers. Then someone in South Africa bought The Last Snake Man. Someone in Canada bought The Stars, and someone in Australia bought Bright Star a few minutes later. It’s like six degrees of book separation.
Seattle’s venerable Elliott Bay Book Company officially opened shop in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood Wednesday. The store, which moved from its beloved Pioneer Square location after 37 years due to financial woes, is reinventing itself in one of Seattle’s most vibrant neighborhoods.
Continue reading: “The Next Chapter”
In major cities worldwide during the pre-burst bubble, many independent, street-level retail businesses were priced out of the cool neighborhoods they helped establish. Corporate conglomerates selling luxury goods drove commercial rent into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Many of these shops are simply environmental installations-as-advertising. While Nike, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and others of their ilk still drive many rental markets, it’s shifted a bit here in NYC, where desirable shopping districts such as Soho and Nolita are full of empty storefronts.
Continue reading: “Pop-up Shops Take Manhattan”
The other night, I attended a reception and dinner for an exhibition
of work by an artist who is no longer living. We produced the
accompanying book—a handsome, substantial effort.
The exhibition is impressive. Many museum members and out-of-town
visitors extolled the work, the selection of the paintings, and the
installation. Smiles and congratulations came from all around.
Continue reading: “Intangible Value”
We know not to judge a book by its cover, but even so it’s hard to resist buying every expertly designed publication included in the Book Cover Archive.
Continue reading: “Browse Before you Buy”
Marquand Books’ Seattle office is a stone’s throw from Vancouver, so it’s hard to resist the excitement surrounding the 2010 Winter Olympics, especially since we’ve just finished producing the exhibition catalogue Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man for the Vancouver Art Gallery. The anticipated exhibit, in association with the Royal Collection, features drawings loaned by Queen Elizabeth II for the Winter Games.
Our friends over at Chronicle Books have the perfect reads to help you imagine you’re in the center of Olympics action if, like us, you’re watching from home. Chronicle is offering a trio of Canada-centric titles, including the ever-compelling So you Want to be Canadian and City Walks Vancouver: 50 Adventures on Foot, available here.
We here at Marquand Books like not only to write our own blog; we also enjoy seeing what others are blogging about and have to say.
In the Seattle PI’s Reader Blogs, Jeremy Tolbert keeps us posted on the latest happenings around the city. This month author Katharine Harmon is visiting the Ballard Public Library on January 21st at 6:30pm to talk about her new book, The Map As Art, a gathering of images by artists “whose maps to are used to express their visions.”
On Book Patrol: A Haven for Book Culture, Michael Lieberman speaks to the collector of “the world’s largest private collection of rare books on Haiti,” Robert Corbett.
In case you haven’t heard yet, as of January 11th, the New York Times Books blog, the Book Design Review, will be on indefinite hiatus. You will still be able to follow Joseph Sullivan on Twitter, and he suggests that you follow the Casual Optimist, Faceout Books, and the Book Cover Archive for any book-design-commentary needs he will no longer be filling.
Bookselling has held an uncharacteristically prominent place in Seattle newspapers and Web sites of late. Elliott Bay Book Company, the flagship retailer in the historic Pioneer Square neighborhood, is moving to the Pike and Pine corridor on Capitol Hill. Bailey/Coy Books, the longtime Broadway bookseller, has closed its doors. Everyone agrees that bookselling in Seattle is changing. But there’s plenty of disagreement about what the change means.
Here’s a roundup of relevant stories. This collection represents but a small fraction of the ink spilled and pixels lit about the changes afoot for bookselling in Seattle.
Continue reading: “Seattle Bookselling News Roundup”
It’s been a busy year, but we still managed to squeeze some reading time in, and we are all looking forward to reading a few more in the coming year. Here are a few hand-picked gift recommendations from the Marquand Books and iocolor staff:
Continue reading: “2009 Holiday Gift Book Ideas from Marquand Books & iocolor”
Ed recently transformed a space by the windows inside our Tieton Book Arts studio, home of Marquand Editions, into an arty general store of sorts. Here are a few recent photos from the space, offering Marquand Ephemera, handmade blank books and Spines and Memories chapbooks amongst other keepsakes and curiosities:
If you’re in the area, stop by.
On-line magazine and art network e-flux is opening a reading room in Manhattan’s Lower East Side next week. It will house more than 2,000 art and design publications from around the globe:
The reading room is a rapidly growing collection of several thousand books on contemporary art exhibitions open to the public at 41 Essex Street. The books have been donated by numerous art institutions and individuals from all parts of the world and reflect some of the more interesting developments in art of the past decade.”
Contributors will include the Blanton Museum of Art, PS1, Miami Design District, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and Weatherspoon Art Museum.
The opening party is Friday, August 28th at 6 p.m. 41 Essex Street. Regular hours will be Tuesday through Saturday, 12-6 p.m.
Jamie Camplin, managing director of Thames & Hudson, wrote an opinion piece for the June 2009 Art Newspaper that should be required reading for all art and museum publishers.
It raises the question: if art book publishing is to remain vital, how do we keep producing fresh, thoughtful publications at a reasonable price point? Read the article here.
Now that the weather is finally starting to warm up in Seattle, the staff at Marquand had some fun cherry-picking books fit for long, lazy days of summer reading. Here’s a handful of our favorites:
Continue reading: “Summer Reading Picks from the Marquand Staff”
A well-written commentary in the Wall Street Journal by voracious reader Luc Sante on why reading and owning bound books is, and will remain, a very good thing:
As far as the decline of reading goes, I am nervous, but also believe that matters of taste and inclination do swing around on long orbits. But I would very much miss books as material objects were they to disappear. The tactility of books assists my memory, for one thing. I can’t remember the quote I’m searching for, or maybe even the title of the work that contains it, but I can remember that the book is green, that the margins are unusually wide, and that the quote lies two-thirds of the way down a right-hand page.
Read the full article here.
