Corrugations; Some speculations on Australian Tin de Bell, Anne - 2005

Marcham, Oxford: Alembic Press, 2005. Clemson, Katie. Two oblong quarto volumes. (22); (22)pp., accordion-fold. One of thirty-five copies. The two volumes are meant to be opened in tandem: the first volume contains a poem by Anne Bell printed in grey ink, illustrated with color linocuts, including five pop-ups, by the Australian-born painter and printmaker Katie Clemson. Depicted are sheds, silos, water towers, factories, and other buildings made from corrugated iron. Clemson captures the look of buildings in the haze of heat, using pale yellows, blues, and shades of green. The other volume contains a long, continuous linocut depicting graffiti on the side of a corrugated iron fence. A celebration of the cheap, durable, and lightweight building material that has become an iconic part of Australia's architectural landscape. Both volumes are bound in metallic pastepaper and housed together in a red cloth drop-back box, which has a small silver corrugated strip inlaid to the lid. With a color linocut of a corrugated iron shack laid in, captioned "If houses could talk" in pencil and signed and numbered by Clemson. Also laid in is a broadside of the entire poem. Designed, printed, and bound by Claire Bolton. Extremely fine.