FIVE ODES OF ANACREON

[Market Drayton, England]: Tern Press, 1985. No. 9 OF 75 COPIES, signed by the artist. 260 x 270 mm. (10 1/4 x 10 1/2"). [6] leaves.Translated into English by Thomas Moore.
DYNAMIC DARK BROWN CRUSHED MOROCCO BY ALISON MARTIN, five wavy lines of inlaid morocco in yellow, orange, tan, beige, and brown emanating from a section near the mid-fore edge of the front cover and radiating out and around the smooth spine, three of the lines terminating on the fore edge of the rear cover, the other two at the head and tail edges, front cover also with a single straight diagonal line of inlaid black calf running from head edge to foot, slicing through the color waves, paste-paper endleaves made by Martin in an ombré of brown/orange/yellow etched with wavy lines echoing the cover design, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. In a felt-lined black cloth clamshell box, black morocco label on spine. With five etchings by Nicolas Parry printed in black and sanguine. Tern Press Check-List 38. ◆As new.

This appealing fine press edition of an 1800 translation of odes by the sixth century B.C. lyric poet Anacreon comes in a 1995 binding that symbolically embodies the poems and their author. According to Alison Martin's artist's statement, "the design represents the five odes as coloured waves against a dark background. These are the ideas and thoughts behind the formation of the Odes (the Muses perhaps) travelling across the ether destined to come together at an undefined point. . . The poet is represented by the straight black line . . . The man himself has become merely a shadowy figure in the background of his poetic works . . . yet his presence was a vital catalyst to their formation . . . Hence the design is abstract to express things beyond material existence. The colors reflect those used in the paper and printing of the text." Elected a Licentiate of Designer Bookbinders in 1995, Martin earned a degree in English at Leeds University before taking a Diploma in Fine Bookbinding and Conservation at Guildford College. She also worked and trained with renowned binder James Brockman. Tern Press was founded by artist and printer Nicolas Parry and his wife Mary in 1973. In "Matrix 5," Parry said: "Our initial aims were to relate each subject to a relative set of materials, to think of the book as an overall work of art, rather like an opera, with a body (stage - props - paper - binding), intellect (thoughts - words - libretto), and feelings (music - color - prints), to try, as in all art, to produce a form that lives and breathes. Thus our books are not conceived, designed, produced through process, but are perceived, arranged and produced through craft.".