ABRA; A Living Text
[Chicago?]: 1913 Press, 2015. First Edition. Hardcover (issued without a dust jacket). Opalescent and gold cloth-covered boards, gold foil title; front endpapers of gold foil, the back hollow to hold an iPad (original model); pages letterpress printed with cutouts, etc. Oblong 4to. 52 pp. Artist's book, one of ten copies, constructed by Amy Rabas at the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago with help from graduate students in Inter-Arts: "A collaboration between two poets, one visual artist, one iOS artist-developer, and a potentially infinite number of readers, the project has two main manifestations: an artist’s book and an interactive iPad app edition. Abra plays with the notion of the “illuminated†manuscript in both its physical form and on the digital screen. In the artist’s book, poems grow and mutate as the reader turns the pages, blurring the boundary between text and illumination, marginalia and body. The poems coalesce and dispersing from one page to the next, “illuminating” one another’s interstices in a flip-book animation that enacts the ecstatic helix of language." [from Borsuk's website]. An artist's book at the intersection of medieval book making and modern technology. A small stain at the top edge, else fine, in the original unprinted mailing box. [The iPad, not supplied is not necessary, but will enhance and expand the experience; the App, for iPad and iPhone only, available for free as a download. Much more about this remarkable book available online via a-b-r-a.com.]. Near fine. Item #16175
ISBN: 0929911512
Price: $350.00