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Bridge
Press was founded in 1989 to further the association and integration of
visual image, original text, and book structure. Visual books and etchings
by Brian D. Cohen are held by collections at Harvard University, Mills
College, Dartmouth College, Smith College, Wellesley College, Yale
University, Stanford University, The University of Vermont, The Portland Art
Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Library of Congress, and the United States Ambassador's
residence in Egypt, as well as by private collectors in the United States,
Canada, and Europe. Brian D. Cohen was the winner of first place awards in
national print shows at the San Diego Art Institute in 1993, The
Philadelphia Print Center in 1997, and the Washington Printmakers’ Gallery
in 1998. He recently received an award for the best book in the Pyramid
Atlantic Book Arts Fair. His work has been reviewed and reproduced frequently, most
recently in the Paris Review.
Books and
Folios
The
Fool's Journey, 2007
The
Fool’s
Journey is a book of twenty-three etchings based on the major arcana
of the traditional tarot deck. Loosely
based on Renaissance cosmography, the book is a visual representation of a
philosophical world-view, each card presenting a universal archetype of
human experience and a parallel, symbolic element or quality of the physical
world. The paper is handmade feather deckle paper from Twinrocker in
Indiana
, enclosed in a soft fabric wrapper created by Sarah Creighton in an edition
of twenty. $1800.
Pierrot
Lunaire,
2007
Pierrot Lunaire is a folio of 21 etchings
from the dark, caustic, and poignant 1912 song cycle Pierrot Lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg. The etchings are printed twice on each
page--in intaglio (etched lines print dark) and relief (surface holds ink
and lines are light), a visual analogy to the sudden (and startling)
reversals of emotional tone from tenderness to despair in the music. The poem is printed in its original
French, in the German of Schoenberg’s song cycle, and in English
translation. The folio is housed in
a clamshell box constructed of sheet aluminum, and contains a CD of a July
2003 performance of the piece at the Yellow Barn Music Festival for which
the artist created the images. $2100.
The
Bird Book, 2004
The Bird Book is a children’s alphabet book of twenty-six
hand-colored relief etchings of birds by Brian D. Cohen with rhyming
couplets by Holiday Eames. The book is bound with hand-rubbed bird’s-eye
maple boards by Linda Lembke in an edition of twenty-six (A through Z).
The text is hand-set Golgonooza Letter Foundry in DeVinne wood and
metal type and printed on Somerset Satin. $1500.
Winterreise,
2001
Winterreise is a book of twenty-one etchings of winter scenes
suggested by the song cycle Die Winterreise (The Winter Journey) by
Franz Schubert. Selections from the text of the song, written by Wilhelm
Muller and translated into English by Holiday Eames, precede each image,
printed in Walbaum on translucent paper. The text and prints reveal the
solitude and desolation of a lonely traveler as he leaves all that has been
familiar and dear to him. Included with each book is a CD id the legendary
1963 recording by Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau with pianist Jorge Demus. The
etchings are printed with a silver surface roll on Magnani Pescia and bound
in a codex with clamshell box by Linda Lembke in an edition of fifteen.
$1800.
The
Zeppelin Book, 2000
The Zeppelin Book is a folio of ten etchings of a zeppelin in its
travels around the world and close to home. The etchings are housed in a
silver folio box with a built-in display easel. The title page is printed
in ornamental German wood type from the turn of the (last) century. The
folio is printed on Magnani Pescia in an edition of ten. $3500.
Vedute
Italiane, 1997
Vedute Italiane is a small folio of sixteen etchings by Brian D.
Cohen and a reflective prose piece on the redolent
associations and pleasures of Italy by Sharon Krauss. The book
focuses on an abandoned abbey in Tuscany that becomes the center of the
artist’s and writer’s loving depiction of the
Italian countryside. The type is Centaur, printed on Magnani Pescia and
bound in an intimate enclosure by Linda Lembke in an edition of fifteen. $650.
What
the Animals Teach Us,
1995
What the Animals Teach Us is a book of twenty-six etchings of
animals by Brian D. Cohen with a poem by Chard deNiord. The poem reminds us
of what we know about ourselves from looking at the animal world and the
etching depict the adaptive variety and character of form of animate
creation. The type is hand-set Jansen, and was printed on Frankfurt paper. What the Animals
Teach Us was bound by Linda Lembke in an edition of twenty-five. $800.
Train,
1994
Train is a suite of ten etchings of steam locomotives by Brian D.
Cohen with a poem by Chard deNiord. The etchings and poem evoke the power,
movement, and mass of these machines and their primacy in the American
landscape. Each 18" x 24" image is rich in texture and contrast.
The title page is printed from antique wood type and the poem is hand-set
in Stymie bold and printed on Magnani Pescia. The lid of each box for the
volume holds a canceled plate from the suite. Train is bound in an
edition of ten folios designed by Linda Lembke, each measuring 24" x
30" x 2". $3000
Flower,
1993
Flower is a book of five hand-colored mezzotints of flowering plants
accompanied by the poem The Flower by Chard deNiord. The prints
lyrically reveal the grace of shape, the mystery, and the seductiveness of
flowers. The plates combine the techniques of mezzotint with the pentimento
of photo-engravings of Rembrandt paintings. Each of the seven pages is
placed individually in an exquisite gold silk-covered enclosure by Linda
Lembke. Flower is published in an edition of ten. $750.
Town,
1993
Town is a fold-book of ten hand-colored etchings by Brian D. Cohen
of principal monuments and views which marked life and labor in a
19th-century New England town. The twelve-page text of Town consists of
excerpts from postcard correspondence from the first decade of this
century, and is hand lettered on Lana Gravure by Helen Merena. The volume
is elegantly bound in an edition of twenty by Linda Lembke. $900 (copies
are no longer available for purchase).
Bridge,,
1992
Bridge a suite of fifteen etchings of bridges by Brian D. Cohen. The
etchings depict the relationship of these structures to the land joined and
space traversed by the bridge. The series underscores the architectural
tension of the geometry of the picture plane, of the natural setting and of
the structure of the bridge. The etchings are printed on full sheets of
Magnani Pescia, and the title page was printed letterpress with 19th C.
wood type. Linda Lembke designed and built the folio which measures
22" x 30". Bridge is available in an edition of ten
folios. $3000 (copies are no longer available for purchase).
River,
1991
River, book of ten etchings by Brian D. Cohen and a poem in three
stanzas by Chard deNiord. The images are based on the shifting geometry of
a river and the enfolding landscape. The poem and etchings explore the
reversal and interchange of form and emptiness, light and dark, land and
water. The type was hand set in Romulus and printed letterpress on
Magnani Pescia. River was bound by Linda Lembke in an edition of ten
oriental fold books and ten folios. The book contains seventeen pages and
measures 14" x 17" x 1". The binding is covered in blue
Japanese book cloth embossed with gold titling. $750.
Inferno,
1990
Inferno, folio of thirteen etchings by Brian D. Cohen and thirteen
poems by Chard deNiord based on the Inferno of Dante. The etchings evoke
vivid landscapes, a labyrinth of spaces without time, and the poems reveal
moral and emotional states suggested by the landscape. The densely textured
etchings use a great variety of printing techniques--chine colle, multiple
plates, a la poupee printing, and double printing. The seventeen pages of
text are set in Caslon 514 and are printed offset. The clamshell folio,
which measures 20" x 25" x 3", was bound by Linda Lembke in
black cloth and blind stamped with the title. Inferno was printed in
an edition of ten. $1750.
Broadsides*
(* please contact Brian D. Cohen to view the
"Broadsides" in their original print-format. thank you.)
B
Bridge Press
has published five broadsides for the New England College Master of Fine
Arts in Poetry program.
Each broadside measures 15” x 22.”
The poems were written by faculty members of the program and were
typecast, set, and printed by Dan Carr and Julia Ferrari of Golgonooza
Letter Foundry. Brian
D. Cohen created color etchings for each broadside.
The broadsides are available singly at $200 or in a set of all five
in a stiff paper enclosure for $750.
The
Dogs at Laguna Beach,
poem by Alicia Ostriker.
Waste Not,
poem by Joan Larkin.
Parable, poem by
Anne-Marie Macari.
The Animal Messenger, poem
by Jane Mead.
Two Doves, poems by Gerald
Stern and Li-Young Lee.
Coney Island of the Mind, (Stanza II), 1998
Coney Island of the Mind (Stanza II) is a vertical broadside
featuring an etching of the Steeplechase from Coney Island with an excerpt
from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s masterful epic poem. The poem is set in Futura
and text and etching are printed in graphite ink on a slim sheet of Magnani
Pescia in an edition of twenty-five. $200.
Adam and Eve's Lament, 1996
Adam and Eve's Lament is a broadside of a chine colle etching of a
burning building by Brian D. Cohen with two poems by Chard deNiord. The
imagery of poem and etching recall the sadness and betrayal of the Fall,
and the troubled relationship of the sexes. This broadside is co-published
with Brighton Press of San Diego in an edition of twenty-five. $200.
Tree of Wisdom, 1995
Tree of Wisdom is a broadside combining a poem on the nature of
revelation by Chard deNiord with a multiple plate etching of a flowering
tree by Brian D. Cohen. The text is hand-set Jansen and is printed on
Magnani Pescia in a edition of fifteen. $350
Gulf Memo, 1993
Gulf Memo is a large broadside joining a compelling and questioning
anti-war poem by Stephen Sandy with a densely bitten etching by Brian D.
Cohen. The poem was hand-set in Stymie bold and printed on Magnani Pescia
in an edition of twenty-five. $300.
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