The Great Wall of China; | Translated by Ian Johnston | Illustrated by Duncan Major
Flatrock, Newfoundland: walking bird press, 2017. 34.6 x 17.2 cm. Concertina-fold leaves tipped to boards covered in grey Iris Book cloth. Title-label, printed in black, to the upper cover. A linocut roundel, printed in red, is inset to the lower cover. Unpaginated [ll. 12, concertina-fold double-leaves; plus ll. 2, self-ends]. A fine copy. The text was cast and set in Bembo at the Foundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler. It was printed by Tara Bryan on Double Xuan paper. The text pages are printed on one side of the concertina structure. A scene of hovering images depicting the Great Wall, composed with linocuts by Duncan Major, spans the other side. The linocuts were printed in black, grey, and red. A linocut roundel adorns the title-page and another embellishes the last page of Kafka’s text. Both were printed in red. The text is appended by an essay, Kafka’s ‘Great Wall of China’: A Parable of Hegemony and ‘Nation Building’, by Vihanga Perera. From an edition of 75 copies. The present copy is number 15. Signed in pencil by Duncan Major and Tara Bryan on the colophon page. Item #428
“I have been intrigued by the Great Wall since long before the year I spent teaching English in China in the mid-1980s. I discovered Kafka’s short story while doing research for a small artist’s book in 1986, and it has lingered in the back of my mind for three decades. This book is printed to honour the persistence of the story and to explore my continuing interest in the Great Wall as a mythical structure.” — Tara Bryan.
Out of stock