The Good Book: Barry Moser, Bookwright

In the beginning, God separated the light from the darkness, and it was good. Growing up a Bible-thumping, Southern-bred, segregation-approving Fundamentalist, Barry Moser became a licensed Methodist minister at the tender age of 19. Separating himself from what he saw as that dark genesis, Moser turned to art, eventually becoming an artist, an engraver, and a full-blown book designer. Although never giving up the Good Book entirely, Moser devoted his life to creating good books—works of art full of his illustrations designed, printed, and bound with the highest craftsmanship. In Barry Moser: Bookwright (at the Brandywine River Museum until May 22), the good book lives on in the age of the Kindle and the Nook. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "The Good Book: Barry Moser, Bookwright."

[Image: Barry Moser (B. 1940), Self Portrait with Burin (2nd State) (ca. 1987) (detail), wood engraving on paper, 10 ¼ x 8 ¼ inches, collection of the Brandywine River Museum, Gift of Justin Schiller, 1989.]

[Many thanks to the Brandywine River Museum for providing me with the image above and press materials related to Barry Moser: Bookwright, which runs through until May 22, 2011. Many thanks also to Kessler Brothers for providing me with a review copy of their documentary film A Thief Among the Angels: Barry Moser and the Making of the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible.]

Soulmates: The Collaboration of Leonard Baskin and Ted Hughes

In the midst of another April’s Poetry Month, it’s worth considering how closely the sister arts of verbal poetry and visual poetry can be. The almost symbiotic relationship of British poet Ted Hughes and American artist Leonard Baskin that gave birth to beautiful, complex works such as the illustrated poetry collection Crow: From the Life and the Songs of the Crow shows just how powerful that relationship can be when the right elements are in the right place at the right time. Fortunately, photographer and documentarian Noel Chanan was also in the right place at the right time to capture this relationship for posterity in The Artist and the Poet: Leonard Baskin & Ted Hughes in Conversation 1983. In what Chanan calls “an unrehearsed dialogue” between the two friends and collaborators held one day in Baskin’s studio in 1983 when Chanan turned on a tape recorder and let the magic happen, we witness the true meaning of the term “soulmates,” in which two artistic souls in different media find common ground and inspire one another to greater heights. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Soulmates: The Collaboration of Leonard Baskin and Ted Hughes."

[Images: (Left) Ted Hughes in Leonard Baskin's studio, Devon, England, 1979, © Noel Chanan. (Right) Leonard Baskin, Northampton, Mass., 1991 © Noel Chanan.]

[Many thanks to Noel Chanan for providing the images above and a review copy of The Artist and the Poet: Leonard Baskin & Ted Hughes in Conversation 1983.]