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California in Relief Prospectus

Richard Wagener created a collection of 30 wood engravings called California in Relief depicting locations throughout California along with short prose descriptions. The prints showcase Wagener's technical skill and provide a personal record of landscapes, architecture, and nature across the state from Los Angeles to the Sierra Nevada mountains. The limited edition book was designed, printed, and produced by renowned letterpress printer Peter Rutledge Koch and each copy is signed by the artist.

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90 views3 pages

California in Relief Prospectus

Richard Wagener created a collection of 30 wood engravings called California in Relief depicting locations throughout California along with short prose descriptions. The prints showcase Wagener's technical skill and provide a personal record of landscapes, architecture, and nature across the state from Los Angeles to the Sierra Nevada mountains. The limited edition book was designed, printed, and produced by renowned letterpress printer Peter Rutledge Koch and each copy is signed by the artist.

Uploaded by

Aman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CALIFORNI A I N RELIEF

t hirt y wood engr av ings by


Richard Wagener

t he book club of ca lifor ni a


sa n f r a ncisco 2009
Working in the demanding medium of wood engraving, artist Richard
Wagener has created a visual itinerary of his wanderings throughout
California in his brilliant new work, California in Relief. Composed
of thirty original prints and Wagener’s short prose pieces describing
them, California in Relief begins and ends in Los Angeles, with stops
in the San Jacinto Mountains, the Antelope Valley, Sonoma County
and the Sierra Nevada. Like John Muir and Gary Snyder, Richard
Wagener is a wanderer, explorer and observer of California, creating
a poetry of place through both words and images, all born of actual
experience.

Not since Paul Landacre mastered the aesthetic and technical


challenges of wood engraving in the early twentieth-century has any
California artist achieved prominence in the medium until Richard
Wagener began to explore it in the 1980s. His previously published
illustrated books have won wide acclaim for their ingenuity and
beauty, and The Book Club of California is pleased to be the publisher
of this magnificent work. Wagener’s images of nature–his stately
Sierra trees, stark peaks and rocky crags–and his urban architectural
monuments–the Pantages Theater and the Griffith Observatory–
combine to make this work a deeply personal record of distinctive
California locations. Wagener’s technical skill is such that the images
shimmer, jewel-like, concise renditions in black and white of sunlight
and shadow, landscape and sky.

Renowned letterpress printer Peter Rutledge Koch designed, and


produced the work, and Richard Wagener has printed the wood
engravings himself. The edition is limited to 300 copies and each
copy is signed and numbered by the artist.
California in Relief was designed and produced in an edition of three
hundred numbered copies by Peter Rutledge Koch with the assis-
tance of Jonathan Gerken and Shanna Mahan for the Book Club of
California. The introduction is by Victoria Dailey. Five artist’s proofs,
designated A/ P and five printer’s proofs designated P/P are reserved.
The wood engravings were printed by Richard Wagener. The type-
face, DTL Elzevir, designed by Gerard Daniëls, is a 20th century
version of a 17th century Dutch design cut by Christoffel van Dijck
(1601-1669). The text is printed letterpress from polymer plates by
Peter Koch on Zerkall Büttenpapier. The binding is by BookLab II
with slipcases provided by Cloverleaf Studio. Each book is numbered
and signed by the artist.

The price is $375 plus applicable California sales tax and shipping
charges. Please fill out the enclosed form to place an order, or you
may call, fax or email the club.

THE BOOK CUB OF CALIFORNIA


312 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA 94108

Telephone: 800 869-7656 or 415 781-7532


Fax: 415 781-7537
Email: [email protected]

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