Portrait of Bashô de Bashô - 2008

(Tempe, AZ): Kelly M. Houle, 2008. Houle, Kelly M.. (1)ff., accordion-fold. One of thirty copies, signed by the artist, Kelly M. Houle. The book is comprised of a fold-out illustration of a banana plant, printed in black on yellow parchment-textured paper. Below the illustration is a haiku by the seventeenth-century Japanese poet Matsuo Bashô, who is often regarded as the master of that poetic form. The poem reads: "A banana plant in the autumn gale- / I listen to the dripping of rain / into a basin at night." Inside the book's cover, opposite the illustration, is a mylar mirror. When viewed reflected in the curved mirror, the banana plant's leaves become an anamorphic portrait of the poet Bashô. Bound in gilt-patterned paper-covered boards with a black cloth spine. An attached ribbon wraps around the book, securing it closed. Extremely fine. (1 3/8 by 1; 35x27mm).