If you love the book arts and live anywhere near Portland, Oregon, you must come to the beautiful Collins Gallery in the equally lovely Multnomah County Library and linger over GEMS OF THE PRIVATE PRESS MOVEMENT: Kelmscott, Ashendene, Doves, Golden Cockerel. The exhibition, curated by John Wilson Room librarian Jim Carmin, artfully showcases both holdings from the libray’s rare book collection and loans primarily from the collection of the estimable Jack Walsdorf who also gifted some of the remarkable rarities in this show to the library. Both were present for introductory remarks at this Saturday afternoons packed openning.
What struck me as I sauntered from one exhibition case to the next is that I was suddenly aware of the a powerful confluence of forces that conspired to make such a show possible. Here, in a public library, I was gazing on William Morris’ Kelmscott Chaucer, one of the rare copies in oak boards no less, the only copy in a collection in the Pacific Northwest, the crown jewel of the first wave of the revolution in the book arts that set the stage for all else that follows in design, illustration and, above all, a respect for the quality and standards of the stuff of books: the paper, the ink and, yes, the conditions of the workplace. This marvelous book was donated by the late Helen Thompson, as generous and grand a lady as anyone is likely to have the privledge to encounter. I first saw that book in her home here in Portland and I was struck, as viewed the exhibition, with the power of her gift. Her faith in the public library bears fruit in this show. And I am left with a sense of the intimate connection between things public and things private.
This is a rich show. Seventeen Kelmscott Press books form the core of the exhibition. From these, we witness the spread the William Morris’ influence. The Doves Press edition of Robert Browning’s MEN AND WOMEN, hand flourished by Edward Johnson, “the father of modern calligraphy,” finds its counterpoint in a Morris quotation, calligraphed by Lloyd Reynolds, the dean of Northwest calligraphy, commisioned by Jack Walsdorf. One is left with a powerful sense of living tradition.
The spirit of Morris’ collaboration with Edward Burne-Jones, stylistically idiosyncratic or unlikely as it may seem in the great Kelmscott Chaucer, opens the way to the generation of modern English illustrators who work with the Golden Cockerel Press. Again, the finest examples of this press’ work are on display: Keat’s LAMIA and Other Poems Illustrated by Robert Gibbings (sometimes called the most perfect of all Golden Cockerel books), Milton’s Paradise Lost Illustrated by Mary Groom and the Four Gospels Illustrated by Eric Gill.
This is a great show. There is a wonderful synergy of glorious books, association copies, beautifully bound books and ephemera. None of this is possible without the vision and meticulous attentions of curator Jim Carmin, who has grown this collection and comprehended the importance of these books for our immediate community and that greater public that appreciates the subtler aspects of such a show.
-Charles Seluzicki
The show runs through January 4, 2009