Slightly Foxed: The Well-Made Book Lives On

The headline reads: Outfoxing the digital revolution.

The story in The Telegraph profiles Slightly Foxed, a second-hand bookshop, publisher of a popular beautifully produced reader's quarterly and publishers of Slightly Foxed Editions.

"Slightly Foxed have stepped aside from the ebook stampede to publish beautifully bound hardbacks that recall a bygone age – and sell like hot cakes," and too boot they only publish memoirs that are out of print but not out of copyright, and all include new prefaces that are reproduced in the quarterly magazine.

Each clothbound pocket hardback includes colored endpapers, headband, tailband and a silk ribbon marker. Each is published in a limited, numbered edition of 2,000 copies and retail for about $20.

Slightly Foxed has clearly developed a model worth keeping a close eye on.

Here's a near two minute video showing you their bookmaking process:

A New Home for Nordic Women Writers

Today is International Women’s Day and one way to celebrate is to visit the newly launched website dedicated to Nordic women writers. The site spans 1000 years of literature and features hundreds of articles on 800 writers. "The story begins in Iceland during the transition from oral narrative tradition to the introduction of written culture. And it ends with a chapter on Sami and Greenlandic women’s conquest of written language in our own time."

 Karen Blixen, 1923. Better known in these parts as Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa

Aside from in-depth pieces on particular writers the website also includes material on topics such as psychoanalysis, salons, suicide and why women were trapped between new and old sexual ethics. 

The website is based on Elisabeth Møller Jensen's seminal multi-volume work Nordisk Kvindelitteraturhistorie (The History of Nordic Women’s Literature). 

Ásta Sigurðardóttir

As to why the creation of a new digital platform Jensen says "The history of Nordic literature is full of women writers who wrote for their lives and who fought for public recognition. We hope that the new online platform will be a stepping stone for Nordic women’s writers to reach the position within literary history they are entitled to."

"Pulp Shakespeare"

Ever wonder what Shakespeare might have done with Quentin Tarantino's classic 1994 film Pulp Fiction?

Well wonder no more - The Her Majesty's Secret Players production of "Pulp Shakespeare," continues its extended run at Theatre Asylum in Los Angeles.

The  Elizabethan take on the Tarantino masterpiece derives from Her Majesty's Secret Players commitment to staging modern stories and giving them a "classic twist thus allowing audiences to enjoy Shakespeare on a whole new level."

Here's the trailer:

A Bookshelf Frames the View to the World Outside

 

Designer Fábio Galeazzo has hit a home run with his transformation of an abandoned house in São Paulo, Brazil into a stunning "Urban Cabin."

One of the centerpieces of the design is a circular bookshelf that was built  to enhance the view and "increase communication" between the internal and external spaces.

Wow!

Many more pictures of this amazing project at the Contemporist

David Ishii: 1935 - 2012

A friend, colleague and longtime neighbor (our bookshops were in the same building) died yesterday at 76.

Pioneer Square has never been the same since he closed his shop almost 7 years ago and now that he is gone Seattle has lost one of its treasured souls.

Obit in the Seattle Times, Longtime bookseller David Ishii was quite a story himself

R.I.P.

Some Visual Stimulus Courtesy of Redfoxpress

Located on Achill Island in County Mayo, Ireland Redfoxpress is the brainchild of Francis Van Maele. Van Maele, whose previous publishing house Editions Phi was acquired by the Luxembourger Newspaper "Tagablatt", launched Redfoxpress in 2001 to focus solely on the creation and production of artists books.

One of the highlights of the press is their "C'est mon Dada" series. "A collection of small hand made artists' books dedicated to experimental, concrete and visual poetry, or any work combining text and image in the spirit of dada or fluxus."

West of Dodge by Nico Vassilaki, 2010. USA. Volume 38 in the series.

 The series features poets and artists from around the world.

Description du ciel by Jean Delvaux, 2009. Luxembourg. Volume 34 in the series.

All books in the series are published at the fair price of $20.

interior shot from Babylon Ulysses Berlin by Richard Burkart, 2011. USA. Volume 66 in the series

 Also available are 3 of the first 4 books from Franticham's Impossible Polaroid Madness Series. Franticham is the moniker for books made by Francis Van Maele and  Antic-ham, a Seoul based book artist.  In addition to the New York volume below, there is one on London and one on Me &; My Car: Vintage Polaroids 50's - 80's.

Franticham: New York, 2011. One of 169 numbered copies signed by both authors.

Click here to view the complete list of the books we have available from Redfoxpress

A New Entry in the World's Most Beautiful Libraries Category: Vennesla Library and Cultural Center

Welcome to the newly renovated Vennesla Library and Cultural Center in Vennesla, Norway.

Norwegian architecture firm Helen & Hard have created a remarkable space by combining an existing community house, learning center, and public space. The result is, among other things, a  sanctuary for the printed word. The clean green design and open space are as an inviting a space as a community can hope for.

Nestled within this vast openness are private study spaces at the end of each aisle.

 As libraries continue to operate, here at home and in many places around the world, under extreme financial and political pressure it is refreshing to see that in some places the library is still so highly valued.

Also the branding and use as a cultural center present tremendous opportunities for our libraries as they try an map out the road ahead.

more pics and story at My Modern Met