A121. Time I$

A121. Time I$

Thomas, Peter and Donna
Quotes by Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain.

63.5 x 51 mm (2 ½” x 2”), 10 pages, 100 copies.

Binding: Flap book; full-bound in printed white paper over boards. Five dowels with flaps that flip to display text are set in a wooden frame affixed to the back inside cover of the binding. Dowels and wooden frame are painted gold. End sheets same as cover paper. Paper: White, handmade by Peter Thomas. Printing: Letterpress. Typography: Handset Broadway and Lydian. Notes: Cover and end sheets printed with phrases about time and linocut illustrations of clocks. The text on the flaps are quotes by Ben Franklin and Mark Twain. A one dollar bill is slipped into a recess behind the flaps. It is printed with the words “Money is Money.”

“This was our third flap book. (The initial idea for the book came when I first read Twain’s quote ‘Geographical time is not money.’ I thought of Franklin’s original aphorism and how I could print it as ‘Time I$’ where the $ sign makes the saying complete). Influenced by recent discussions we had been having about the book as a container (in which the opening and closing hide and reveal images) we decided to vary the structure and attach the book block inside of the back cover. This way what is printed on the back of the flaps cannot be seen until they are turned. The front side of the flaps has Franklin’s quote, the back side of the flaps has Twain’s rejoinder. A hallmark of every successful art work is the perfect level of complexity. In this book there is a second rejoinder, our own, printed over the cover and end pages of the book: ‘Time is time. Money is money’ (with images of clocks used to represent the former.) To enhance the thematic treatment, the wooden structure holding the flapping pages was painted gold. By mounting that structure directly to the back cover we created space for a sort of pocket behind the text. In that we placed a dollar bill, which could be removed, and was revealed as the flaps were turned horizontal. The original concept was to use 100 dollar bills, since they have Franklin’s portrait on them, but we had to make a compromise and use one dollar bills instead. The one dollar bills were ordered direct from the US Treasury and were sequentially numbered, thus we could make the last few numbers on the bill match the book's edition number.

There were two special copies, bound in leather with embedded clock parts on the front and back covers, and with a one hundred dollar bill behind the text. We had a problem finding a $100 bill with a serial number ending with 101 and 102 to use for making the special copies. 101 was purchased by a finance person who had a banker friend assist in finding the bill, which took months. He had the book on display in his lobby and one day found the bill missing. We thought about looking for another bill with a 101 serial number, but knew it would take months. In a moment of inspiration we told the client that we were the artists and could do whatever we wanted, and so we took a $100 bill and crossed out the old serial number and wrote in 101.”

Santa Cruz, California: Peter & Donna Thomas

2003

English