Adventures in the burning bush adapted from Amos Tutuola's The palm-wine drunkard

Minneapolis: Vermillion Editions, 1987. Edition limited to 40 copies consisting of 5 printer's proofs and 35 in the edition (this, copy no. 11); 4to, [10] unbound sheets printed on rectos only, and contained in a black cloth-covered portfolio with printed paper label on spine and pictorial pastedown on upper cover; fine. Rathman's first book printed at Vermillion Editions under the guidance of Steve Anderson. Gerald Lange of the Bieler Press and Norman Fritzberg of the Hansestadt Letterfoundry were responsible for the typographic design and composition. The portfolios were constructed by the Campbell-Logan Bindery. "Mythological in conception and Nigerian in origin...the linocut illumination that accompanies the text exhibits such regimented verve that it almost seems as if a scourge has been placed upon each page. The jags, curves, and swirls of the elemental, naturalistic borders take on pantheistic qualities as they move organically into the inner sanctum ... harbors dangerous, disorderly creatures, alongside humans with their primitive and fantastic accoutrements. Gesture, posture, and facial expressions of beasts, trees, and humans...exhibit a stunning force of feeling and an atavistic quality that illuminates meaning and emotion..." (Pamela Sund, in Artscape, Volume 2, no. 4).