NOW (NON)LIVE ONLINE: THE DROWNABLE SPECIES by BRIAN EVENSON

& this post is the fulfillment of another long-term goal for the NewLights Press Digital Archives: in the spirit of The William Blake Archive, not one, but three complete copies of The Drownable Species by Brian Evenson.

Why three? Because the process of making these books (detailed here) was rooted in chaos and variability, taking advantage of the unpredictability of water and the often unnoticed physicality of inkjet printing. Each book in the edition is different, and three seemed like the right number to allow readers to see how those differences emerge from copy to copy.

All of the other archived books on this blog are either out-of-print or unique. The Drownable Species is still available for purchase. It originally was published in late 2008 (right around Halloween actually) after 3 years of on & off labor. I am still very proud of this book. & now it’s more accessible. & if you enjoy the story, it was very recently published in Brian’s newest collection of short stories, Windeye (buy here and reviews here and here).

The three copies that have been digitized are numbers 6, 29 and 34. 

Open publication - Free publishing - More artists books

Open publication - Free publishing - More artists books

Open publication - Free publishing - More artists books

The Drownable Species
Short story by Brian Evenson with images by Aaron Cohick 


48 pages, hardcover, casebound, 8 ¼” x 5 ¼” 


Letterpress printed text, digitally printed images with hand manipulation 


Variable edition of 40 


2008

GOOD READING ON THE INTERNET

HTMLGiant is running a series by contributor Christopher Higgs called "What is Experimental Literature?" The posts are essentially mini-interviews with a different writer each time, gathering various thoughts on, you guessed it, "experimental fiction." This week's post featured NewLights author Brian Evenson, and it is a really interesting read. My favorite jewel-like gem is:

[...] That strikes me as the heart of innovative writing: necessity and seriousness (even if it’s a comedic seriousness) inextricably bound to a real attention to language and form, whatever the specifics of that attention might be. All the other things that we might find in innovative writing–typographical experimentation, sexual transgressiveness, narrative disruption, verbal bedazzlement, etc., etc.,–all of which are readily identifiable and can be very good things in the right hands, they all come secondary to that. But since those things are much easier to talk about, we tend to think of them as characterizing innovative writing. But such characterizations are faulty, maybe even lazy, and I think end up missing the point. [...]

You can read the rest here.

Also, Brian has a related essay in this month's issue of The Collagist, which is also really good, and deals with an idea (the process/aesthetics of stripping away) that I am very, very interested in.

SOUTH OF THE BEAST

Text by Brian Evenson
Letterpress with hand-mechanical printing and delamination
Variable edition of 25
12” x 18”
2009
$200

THE DROWNABLE SPECIES

Short story by Brian Evenson with images by Aaron Cohick
48 pages, hardcover, casebound, 8 ¼” x 5 ¼”
Letterpress printed text, digitally printed images with hand manipulation
Variable edition of 40
2008
$400

THE DROWNABLE SPECIES

At the beginning of November (before the existence of this blog) the NewLights Press (finally) released The Drownable Species, which features a never-before-published-in-its-entirety short story by Brian Evenson, and image-object manipulations courtesy of NewLights Press: Aaron Cohick (writing this post). The specs: 48 pages, hardcover, printed and bound by hand. The text is letterpress printed in Palatino from photopolymer plates on Somerset Book Heavyweight Wove paper. The images are individually hand manipulated inkjet prints, made by printing on top of gesso (which keeps the ink from absorbing into the paper and drying immediately) and then pouring water, ink wash, and/or more gesso on top of the still wet prints. Variable edition of 40 plus 10 artists’ proofs. The image here shows the title page spread.

This was a really fun and interesting project to do. It was definitely the most complicated book that I’ve produced in an edition to date. I worked on it, off and on, for three years. (Brian was very patient the whole time—he never asked me when it would be done. But when it was, finally, he flew out to Baltimore for the release reading.) The challenge of the book, as with all of the collaborative books that I do, is how to make the book in such a way as to a) make it as strong as the writing, b) make it integrate with the writing in an interesting way (form and content), and c) make it connect to my broader concerns as an artist (production and reception). Generally, fulfilling requirements “b” and “c” lead to the satisfaction of requirement “a.” Things start to work really well when requirements “b” and “c” are fulfilled simultaneously, with a single, unified approach. So with this book I got to use an appropriate image and image-making process for the story (a man’s face/photo, water damage) (requirement “b”) and have that image-making process open out to broader concerns in the field of artists’ books—ideas about proper design (transparency vs. objectness), the preciousness of the handmade book, the “lack of physicality” of digital printing, chaotic systems/variable editions, and hand-mechanical processes (requirement “c”).

33 books remain for sale, at $400 each. Contact me at newlightspressATgmailDOTcom if you’re interested in purchasing a copy. There will eventually be a PDF version of the book released.