Poems - About the Book


Poems, my first book published under my publishing imprint Gold Deer Press, is a chapbook, hand set and printed letterpress on fine paper, which investigates the relationship between multiples and unique works. The body of the book is sewn into an abstract drawing, unique and original for each book.

The drawing is larger than the text block so it has a constant physical presence at every turn of the page; it is visible but never in its entirety.  In a book with text, images are considered as illustrations to the text, visible on one page and mentally accompanying us as we read further on subsequent pages. I was interested in creating a visual work that stands on equal ground with the written text, a drawn environment that captures the spirit of the whole book rather than being illustration to a part of it.

Intentionally choosing an edition size quite large, 125, this project also allowed me to examine how as an artist I can maintain a continuous state of motivation, imagination and inspiration for an extended period of time to create 125 unique drawings that relates to each other and to the poems in mood and spirit but they are distinctly different and not just mere variations of a basic theme with minor differences.

Gabriella Solti