Quartering

Trumansburg, NY: Out of Step Press. Fine with no dust jacket. 2016. Numbered Edition; First Printing. Pamphlet. The author's non-linear poem about the billeting of soldiers in civilian homes in wartime. Copy 89 of a limited edition of 250. Folded into the form of a letter, the work was letterpress printed in wraps of handmade "combat paper" made from military uniforms. The author says: "Some time ago-maybe a year, maybe two? I had a conversation with some of my Combat Paper brothers (well, the kids call them their combat paper uncles, so it follows…) that led to me writing the poem "Quartering." Which was informed by them, of course, and by all the rooms I'm in, and by imagining what is really required of all the caregivers I love. It's a thought experiment: if we tore down the barracks at military hospitals and offered incentives for Americans in the surrounding neighborhoods to quarter injured service members, what would the honest instructions be? How would that change the public's relationship with war, with foreign policy? How would it affect the baffling popular fascination with the Kardashians? The poem has been performed with musical accompaniment in front of a really big fancy audience, published in Bellevue Literary Review, and is now the limited-edition art book in the photo above, made by the very people whose conversation sparked the idea. We worked on the project when I was up in Ithaca in the winter-I wrote about that trip here. We decided the book should have the feel of opening a letter. The cover is Combat Paper (paper made from used military uniforms), and it's printed by letterpress and bound with hand-dyed thread." The book is a collaboration between the poet, Kevin Basl (editor, author, US Army veteran, anti-war activist) Nathan Lewis (papermaker), Laura Rowley (designer, printer, publisher of Illuminated Press), and Eli Wright (illustrator, US Army veteran). Wright's white on black illustration spans the central leaf of the book. Published by Out of Step Press at Revival Book Arts, Trumansburg, NY, a shared studio for Out of Step Press and Illuminated Press. Letterpress printed, wraps of mould-made rag paper "made from military uniforms: Combat Paper," leaves of faintly variegated recycled paper. All paper was hand made by Nathan Lewis from military uniforms, donated by veterans and family specifically for paper making. Made in 3 1/2" x 8" oblong trim size. Saddle string-bound in gray thread, long enough to tie the pamphlet closed, as issued. A thought-provoking work, in clean, Fine condition with no defects.; B&W Illustrations; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 17,1 pages .