DOUBLE PORTRAIT
Double Portrait, 2019. Handmade, limited edition artists’ book, accordion-fold structure. Created by Madeline Djerejian at the Center for Book Arts, NY.
DOUBLE PORTRAIT, 2019
Handmade, limited edition artists’ book, accordion-fold structure. Text (handset type, Franklin Gothic Italic 14) and images (from polymer plates) are letterpress printed on Somerset Book White 175gsm. Binding consists of cloth-covered Davey Binder’s Board; end pages are flanked by Claret Colorplan 270gsm. Laid-in vintage marbled endpapers are unique to each copy of the edition.
Dimensions (closed): 7.25 x 4.25 inches (H x W)
Edition of 11 with 2 Artist Proofs, each signed and numbered by the artist.
images: DOUBLE PORTRAIT
A narrative of alternating image and text, DOUBLE PORTRAIT unfolds to present a statement by British playwright, screenwriter, actor and director Harold Pinter (1930-2008) made during the course of a 2001 interview published in The Progressive. Pinter’s statement — a brief yet spirited recollection of having been a conscientious objector during his youth — is punctuated by images of François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), the French writer, philosopher and historian most commonly known by his nom de plume Voltaire.
The text reads:
“I was quite resolute. This was 1948, I remind you. And I was simply not, absolutely not, going to join the army. Because I had seen the Cold War beginning before the hot war was over. I knew the atom bomb had been a warning to the Soviet Union. I had two tribunals and two trials. I was prepared to go to prison. I was eighteen. It was a civil offense, you know, not a criminal offense. I had the same magistrate at both trials, and he fined me twice. My father had to find the money, which was a lot of money at the time, but he did. But I took my toothbrush with me to court both times. I was prepared to go to prison.
And I haven’t changed a bit, I have to say.”
Book design, printing and binding by Madeline Djerejian at the Center for Book Arts, New York City.