A89. Forty

A89. Peter Thomas. Forty. Santa Cruz, California: Peter & Donna Thomas, 1997.

70 x 51 mm (2 ¾” x 2”), 12 pages, 40 copies.

Binding: Flap book; case-bound in printed paper over boards. Pages are attached to six rotating wooden dowels set in a frame made of green painted wood and printed paper over boards. Inside cover paper cream, printed. Paper: Cream, handmade by Peter Thomas. Printing: Letterpress. Typography: Hand set American Uncial and Canterbury. Notes: All paper used is printed in various fonts, sizes, and colors with “40” or “forty.” The pages rotate on the dowels to reveal the text in English on the front and Latin on the back. Made for the occasion of Donna’s 40th birthday. Miniature Book Society Distinguished Book of the Year, 1997.

“Further exploration of the binding structure used for the deluxe copies of Meditations at the Edge [A83] led to the creation of the doweled flap binding. Forty was the first time the binding was used in an edition. Early versions of the doweled flap book had the flapping book block mounted to the spine so the whole structure could be turned like a page. Influenced by the concept of the book as a container (in which openings and closings hide and reveal images) we began to attach the book block to the inside of the back cover. In this way, an image or message is revealed whenever the flaps are raised.”