Gallo, Phil

This side up: 1 [- 2] [- 3] [cover titles]. Typographica Broodthaers excerpta. Word bags. Palabra* Sixteen samples sixteen voices

[Minneapolis & Saint Paul]: Hermetic Press, 2016-17-18. The complete series in 3 volumes, edition limited to 30 copies, 8vo, pp. 18; 18; 56; illustrated throughout; original cream printed wrappers. Fine. On Typographica Broodthaers excerpta: "This book started out as an installation but devolved into conceptual art and lay dormant until now. But my first idea was to set it in a kind of poison pen letter fashion, and as I had a complete run of Eurostile Extended-which I felt quite suited to it-I went ahead and printed it on a half sheet of Strathmore. It was not long before I decided that the copy was irrelevant-that the idea was simply an idea-or more to the point-joke-that the piece did not need to be produced and that a written description would suffice: The idea of the thing being better than the thing itself. I still have the press and the type (still standing after 25 years) and for the book I reprinted the form, photographed the original drawing and sheet of Strathmore; along with the press and the type piled up and into it. On Word Bags: "Graffiti on a bank building. A suite of seven cibachromes showing individually the letters of the word PROTEST. Building maintenance went over the letters with lacquer thinner and then covered the entire word in clear plastic to protect passers-by. The red spray paint spread and ran down the side of the building, imparting a blood & tear-like aspect to the letterforms under the billowing shroud of plastic. Hence body bag, viz. word bags." On Palabra*, Found poems in lowercase Peignot - by way of its modified ascenders and dotted i - if handled as a unicameral may be seen as a democratization of type; or as a kind of gentrified graffiti. Item #55799

Price: $1,500.00