I am a printmaker and book artist and author who is interested in visual narratives. I wrote a book about how to make woodcuts, linocut and engravings titled The Woodcut Artists’ Handbook. My hand-printed limited edition books and art can be found in many collections from the Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), New York City. I am an Associate Professor of book arts and printmaking at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada.
I think Die Idee is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the power of the graphic narrative as an extension of the written word. The painter and graphic artist Frans Masereel was born in the Belgian Blankenberghe in 1889. He studied art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he learned to make wood engravings. His first wordless graphic novel was made in 1918 titled Images de la Passion d’un Homme (The Passion of a Man). The success of this book and those that followed influenced three generations of artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers all over the world.
Text in German. A "book without words" where the illustrations by the author substitute for printed text. Introduction by Hermann Hesse. 83 woodcut illustrations by Masereel. Dust jacket torn at spine and worn at edges. Tanning on boards and endpapers. unpaginated. paper-covered boards, dust jacket. 16mo.
David Beronä was a friend and fellow collector whose interest in this form of graphic storytelling was our shared passion. In his book Beronä examines the history of and art of pioneers of this form of narrative. The works of Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Otto Nückel, William Gropper, Milt Gross, Giacomo Patri Laurence Hyde, and lesser known artists like Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová and István Szegedi Szüts. The woodcut images in these works are powerful and as relevant today as they were when they were first produced.
"Wordless books" were stories from the early part of the twentieth century told in black and white woodcuts, imaginatively authored without any text. Although woodcut novels have their roots spreading back through the history of graphic arts, including block books and playing cards, it was not until the early part of the twentieth century that they were conceived and published. Despite its short-lived popularity, the woodcut novel had an important impact on the development of comic art, particularly contemporary graphic novels with a focus on adult themes.Scholar David A. Berona examines the history of these books and the art and…
I first met Art Spiegelman in a show we were in together at the Morgan Library and Museum in 2014. We became fast friends with our shared love of the work of Ward and Masereel (examples of their work were in the same exhibition) we have since sent each other copies of books we thought the other would enjoy. I recommend Art’s collection of the six wordless novels of Frans Masereel as a great way to get copies of these rare books in a nicely designed box set with an excellent introductory essay by Art titled "Reading Pictures."
From the eve of the Great Depression to the start of World War II, Lynd Ward (1905-1985) observed the troubled American scene through the double lens of a politically committed storyteller and a visionary graphic artist. His medium-the wordless "novel in woodcuts"-was his alone, and he quickly brought it from bold iconographic infancy to subtle and still unrivalled mastery.
Gods' Man (1929), the audaciously ambitious work that made Ward's reputation, is a modern morality play, an allegory of the deadly bargain a striving young artist often makes with life. Madman's Drum (1930), a multigenerational saga worthy of Faulkner, traces the…
This is a new edition of Otto Nückel’s wordless novel that was originally published in 1930 with the title Destinyby Farrar & Rinehart. Although this edition is in French with an introduction by Seth Tobocman and an afterword by yours truly, it is a nicely produced hardcover with new information about the life of this mysterious German artist. I would be happy to provide an English translation of my postface for anyone who wishes to email me a request. The book is very readable and demonstrates Nückel’s unique skill of engraving a very poignant visual narrative (on lead blocks).
Aux côtés de Frans Masereel et Lynd Ward, Otto Nückel compte parmi les auteurs classiques du roman graphique sans paroles, un genre créé dans les années 1930 et qui doit tout autant au cinéma muet qu'à l'expressionisme allemand. Dans Destin, un ouvrage époustouflant de maîtrise graphique et narrative, Otto Nückel signe sans aucun doute son chef-d'oeuvre. En 190 gravures sur plomb, l'artiste donne vie à la destinée tragique d'une femme née dans la misère - et ce à quoi aucune tentative ne parviendra de l'en délivrer.
Graphic Witness features rare wordless novels by five great twentieth-century woodcut artists from Europe and North America. The stories they tell reflect the political and social issues of their times as well as the broader issues that are still relevant today. This newly expanded edition of Graphic Witness, which features an afterword by cartoonist Seth, will appeal to readers interested in social issues, printmaking, art history, and contemporary culture.
I once saw a play at the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Theatre. A play about Sor Juana. It was a good play, but it felt like something was missing like jalapenos left out of enchiladas. The play kept nudging me to look further to find Sor Juana, and so for the next five years, I did so. I read and read more. I listened for her voice, and that is where I heard her life come alive. This isn’t the only possibility for Sor Juana’s life; it is just the one I heard.
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, this brilliant 17th century nun flew through Mexico City on the breeze of poetry and philosophy. She met with princes of the Church, and with the royalty of Spain and Mexico. Then she met a stunning, powerful woman with lavender eyes, la Vicereine Maria Louisa, and her life changed forever. As her fame grew, she dared to challenge the diabolical Archbishop once too often, and he threw her in front of the Inquisition, where she stood, alone.
Sor Juana's work is studied still today, and justifiably so. Scholars study her months on end; mystics…
This astonishingly brilliant 17th century poet and dramatist, this nun, flew through Mexico City on wings of inspiration. Having no dowry, she chose the life of a nun so that she might learn, so that she might write, so that she might meet the most fascinating people of the western world. She accomplished all of that, and more.
One day a woman with violet eyes, eyes the color of passion flowers, entered her life. It was the new Vicereine, Maria Luisa. As the two most powerful women in Mexico City, the bond between them crossed politics and wound them in…
