Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971, was progressive, tight to the anti-colonialist history of Chile, an activist, one of Latin America’s most important and influential poets. He died in 1973. He left many works of poetry including a large number of odes.
This 5-color reduction woodcut portrait of Neruda was originally conceived for and is part of my artist book interpretation of his “Ode to Typography”, in which it serves as a gatefold within the entire text in English.
This is a broadside version of that woodcut, which uses the last stanza of the ode in the original Spanish. The text is printed letterpress in a variety of fonts. The print also displays large Bodoni types around the portrait.
The broadside measures 18.5 x 11.75 inches (47 x 30 cm). and was hand-printed in an edition of 10, signed and numbered in Roman numerals.
My artist books, broadsides, and loose-leaf editions are published in very small numbers, as low as five. All are hand-printed and hand-bound (in case of books) by me, all are signed and numbered. While I am trying to be perfect, I am human, not a machine. Some variations in the editioned work are to be expected due to the processes, materials, and the artist’s change of mind. It is exactly what makes the work collectible: each piece is an original work of art. The pieces employ printmaking like original etchings, woodcuts, carborundum, screen prints, monotype, monoprint, and letterpress. Nothing is produced using digital reproduction methods.
$625