Book of Spirits

Unpaginated artists' book [24 pages, french fold] printed in letterpress on cream colored laid paper, reproducing texts and images that relate to Spirits. 4to. Hand numbered and signed at the colophon. Fine. Single hand-sewn signature in a card stock cover, wrapped in mottled brown laid paper printed with the title text. [1143]
Book of Spirits was printed at Firefly Press to accompany the exhibition of paintings by Naomi Yang at Galerie Mourlot, Boston, September 6-October 15, 1994. According to Yang's introduction, "this little book is an attempt to give some account of those Spirits about whom every person ought to know something. The Grimorium (truncated) Verum mentions seventeen of the most important subordinate Spirits. As in choosing a cricket eleven the first choices are easy and the last very difficult to make, so it has been here. And if the reader feels that some Spirit who has been omitted should have the place of one who is represented, why, very likely the reader is right." Co-publisher of Exact Change Press (with her partner Damon Krukowski), Yang is also a noted graphic designer, visual artist, filmmaker, and musician known for her work with Damon & Naomi and Galaxie 500. The Book of Spirits is her only artist's book to date. It pairs a dozen elegant line drawings of Spirits with short descriptive texts providing their true names and brief descriptions of their distinguishing qualities. Examples include SIRCHADE, which "has the power to show thee all kinds of animals, of whatever nature they may be" and HUMOTS, which "can transport all manner of books for thy pleasure." Yang has explained that the text of Book of Spirits is derived, in part, from her readings of 'Everyman's Book of Saints' by C.P.S. Clarke (1914) and 'The Book of Ceremonial Magic' by A.E. Waite (1961), and that her original drawings are based on illustrations in Waite's book, which are taken from the Grimorium Verum (1517), a magical textbook. As of January 2021, we are able to locate only one institutional holding, at The New York Public Library. (Inventory #: 1143)