Corn

7 x 8 inches. 48 pages. The Picture Press, 2023. Edition of 44. 16 woodcuts, 5 wood engravings. With an afterword by the author. Codex version using the same woodcuts as the scroll though formatted as a wordless novel, a genre popular in the 1920s and 1930s. A series of woodcuts documenting the production chain of America's top crop: corn. Printed from the original blocks, with handset metal type and Linotype text. Bound in a sewn board binding with drummed on cover sheets so it feels like a corn husk.

It is a very Iowan book. The type for the afterword was line cast by Tim Fay, the man behind the Wapsipinicon Almanac, and the binding was developed by Gary Frost, Conservator Emeritus at the University of Iowa Libraries. I learned this binding while a student at the University of Iowa Center for the Book and find it to be a lovely synthesis between historical and modern bookbinding practices, prioritizing function, durability, and efficiency of production. The hippie meets Buckminster Fuller approach.