Rand Huebsch - Artist Books

Biblion

Biblion
Embossment on canson mi-teinte papers
Each page 3”h x 5”w,edition of 75

I find that the accordion book is most effective when displayed standing and extended, like a folding screen, so that the viewer can scan all of the images at once. Therefore, while I usually consider each panel to be a self-contained unit, I also design the book with the entire image sequence in mind. However, in "Biblion," inspired by ancient Mid-Eastern art, there is a continuous narrative flow. For example, a grouping of figures is divided between two adjacent panels, as are a building and an ox. Whereas the title text for most of my embossed books is raised, in "Biblion" it is indented, an allusion to the recessed hieroglyphs in Egyptian stone carvings. The book's earth-colored paper also refers to the region in which the ancient inspiring images were created.

Reptiles

Reptiles
Etchings on Arches paper, with embossed covers (on canson mi-teinte) Each panel 7”h x 9”w, edition of 50

The book was intended to evoke Medieval and Renaissance bestiaries, which have been very influential on my imagery. Although I was using an Expressionist approach to the depictions, the Latin taxonomic names below the images are real ones. The book illustrates basic animal activities and, using a different species for each panel, represents a life cycle; the eggshell shape in the first scene is echoed by the waning moon in the last one. The image on the inside back panel is something of a spoof, as it depicts a colophon obliterated by geckos.

Embossing, an etching variation, was the means of creating the front and back cover images (applied to book board), and is a technique that I use to make the elements in many of my other books. Embossing plates are designed so that, after being left in acid for many more hours than usual, they can be printed uninked, to produce raised images similar to those of bas-relief sculptures. Canson mi-teinte pastel paper is especially suited for this process, as it slightly lightens in those areas of the paper that are the raised designs and it has the look of tooled leather.

Reptiles

Reptiles
etching/embossments on canson mi-teinte paper, hand-colored with Caran d'Ache crayon, each panel 7"h x 9"w, edition of 25

Years after my first version of Reptiles, I returned to that favorite subject matter for another book, also called "Reptiles," and made embossing plates similar in design to the original printing plates. I then hand-colored the prints on the embossed areas, as well as drawing free-hand designs on the borders of each panel.

Aviary

Aviary
Embossment on canson mi-teinte, hand-colored (with water-based Caran d’Ache crayon) on both sides of the book
Each panel 2 1/2”h x 3”w, edition of 75.

Medieval art has been a big influence on my work, and in creating "Aviary" I alluded both to the carved-ivory bas reliefs and to the illuminated manuscripts of that period. Both sides of the book are hand colored with Caran d'Ache water-based crayons.

Muybridge

Muybridge Sequence
Etchings, each panel 4"h x 6" w, edition of 25

"Muybridge Sequence" was inspired by the work of the 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who devised a system for photographing, on glass-plate negatives, the locomotion of humans and many other animals. This was a precursor to motion pictures. For this book, I was exploring the wide range of textures that could be achieved by means of etching, using a variety of acid-resistant materials to make the printing plates. Each letter of the title page is enclosed in a compartment, to echo the sequences in Muybridge's work. Printed on the back cover is text that I wrote as a commentary on the book's moving horse: "...shifting its weight through the succession of shadows and light...in acquiescence to the surrounding wind, to the sound of its body moving through time...marching, on a mere membrane of glass, into uncertainty..."

in a hot dry place

in a hot dry place
each panel 6"h x 5"w, etching on Rives paper; covers are made from uninked embossment on Canson mi-teinte papers, edition of 50.

Recently I have started to experiment with combining text and image, and "in a hot dry place" is one of my first attempts at that. The text came to me when I was half-awake and visualizing the animal imagery, which had already appeared in a prototype. It is a single sentence, distributed among all eight pages: "in a hot dry place/where the wind/only rarely rises/only rarely spirals down/ soundless/against dense earth/the dangers of the day/shimmer in every glance." The book's embossed covers echo some of the interior images, and, as with a number of my accordion books, when the two covers are positioned next to each other, they form a unified scene.

The image-making process is a variation on traditional etching. I created it in 2006 and call it "carbograph." The standard approach to etching is to coat the bare copper plate with liquid "ground," which is an acid-resistant material. Once that has dried, one uses a metal stylus to remove areas of ground, to expose those areas of metal that are to be etched. I varied this process by mixing particles of carborundum grit into the liquid ground before applying it. When it was dried, I used another etching implement, called a scraper, to remove areas of ground. The movement of the scraper removed tiny particles of the carborundum that had been mixed in the ground, and in those minute areas of exposed copper the acid etched. I was thus able to achieve in the final print an effect similar to that of a charcoal drawing.

The Lives of Quadrupeds

The Lives of Quadrupeds
Embossment on canson mi-teinte
Each panel 7” x 8”, edition of 75

The book was in part inspired by the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History in New York City and was printed from uninked embossing plates on Canson Mi-teinte, a paper that comes in many colors and is used primarily for pastels. When I first started making deeply etched embossing plates, I experimented with various printing papers, to see how they would take the uninked emboss, and discovered that Canson slightly lightens in those areas of the paper that were raised in the course of printing. It also looks like leather as a result of the printing. As the book's panels are essentially bas reliefs, they are especially dependent on the light source and alter in appearance when the book is placed upright, like a miniature folding screen, and re-positioned in various ways.

Night Desert

Night Desert
Hand-colored embossments (with Caran d’Ache) on hand-cut black museum board, side strips printed with hand-carved rubberstamps
5”h x 8”w x 9”d, edition of 50

For "Night Desert," I first made a prototype by drawing with colored chalk on black paper and seeing how the panels related to each other. Then I translated that imagery to embossing plates. I used an etching press to emboss on black museum board, cut out non-image areas, and then hand-colored the embossment with Caran d'Ache crayons. On the solid back panel, there is a rabbit in the lower right-hand corner. It is hidden from the predatory owl, as well as from any viewer who does not closely inspect that panel.

Not out of the Woods yet

Not out of the Woods yet
Hand-cut panels, hand-colored line etchings, accordion strips printed with etchings
5”h x 6 1/2”w x 8”d, edition of 50

I started making tunnel books after seeing two examples from the 19th century (when they were called "peepshows," in keeping with their hide-and-seek aspect). One of my first books, "Not out of the Woods yet," has panels of two-ply museum board printed with creature etchings that were then hand-colored with washes of Caran d'Ache crayon. I then cut away the non-image areas with an X-acto knife. The accordion strips that connnect the panels of a tunnel book are ideal surfaces for additional information, and the strips for "Woods" were printed on their exterior sides with etchings of more creatures and with a relief-block parrot on their interior sides.

Circe 2

Circe 2
hand-cut panels,etchings, 5"h x 6"h x 8"d, etchings, accordion strips printed with relief blocks, edition of 25

While the tunnel book usually presents a single scene, its series of parallel panels can also imply the passage of time or a metamorphosis. This was my premise for "Circe 2," based on the "Odyssey" episode in which Ulysses' crew of sailors are changed to swine after drinking a magic potion from a sorceress. The back, solid panel shows a man receiving a cup from Circe, and the successive panels show the metamorphosis. I also was interested in using the connective strips so that one side showed an owl's flight and the other strip had the equivalent text: "within the wingbeat of an owl, they howl from men to beasts." I chose to have the text on the exterior of one strip and the images on the exterior of the other strip, so that the viewer can see only one version at a time.