Fall by Plimpton, Sarah - 2016

[New York, NY], 2016. Artist's book, one of 12 copies, all on black Somerset paper, each signed and numbered by the author / artist, Sarah Plimpton. Page size: 12 x 8.5 inches; 20pp. Bound: loose in black Somerset paper wrappers with title and author / artist debossed on front panel, housed in blue cloth over boards clamshell box by Claudia Cohen with black paper label on spine, author / artist and title in printed in red on label. The silkscreens and text were printed by Brad Ewing at The Grenfell Press; the text was set in Din. The author uses the verbal and visual imagery of flocks of swallows migrating south in the fall. These migratory songbirds are small - with long, pointed wings, dark glossy-blue backs, red throats, pale underparts and long tail streamers. The author / artist suggests their form with strong lines and the occasional grouping of many tiny circles moving forward. Each page conveys a sense of swift motion. The author ends her verse with, "I said nothing / a sharp day of cold / on an empty sky" and the reader is left to consider the bleak season coming on. Once again, Sarah Plimpton employs nature, here fall migration, to conjure up the human condition. The use of silkscreens is particularly well done. The bright colors and stark forms on the black paper have an immediacy that almost makes the reader shiver. A wonderfully strong and moving book - perfectly executed - and a pleasure to view.