Hope?

Santa Cruz, CA, etc.: Peter and Donna Thomas, et al, 2022.

12 artists books, described below, are housed in a wooden reliquary. The reliquary measures 13 x 8.5 x 7 inches. Books, made of handmade and commercial paper using woodcut, linoleum cut, pressure print, photogram, letterpress, digital printing, watercolor, gouache, and ink painting; other materials include brass, wood, wildfire charcoal and ash, as described below. SIGNED by the 4 artists on the colophon. TPK1123-001. Fine.

LIMITED EDITION of 32 copies, this is copy number 14. Hope? is a collaborative art project created by Susan Lowdermilk, Donna Thomas, Peter Thomas, and Andie (truncated) Thrams. Through field work in recently burned and still green forests in Oregon and California, the artists investigated the complex topics of tree mortality, catastrophic wildfire, and climate change. The artists created this reliquary of artists' books and artifacts to bear witness to the devastation of western forests and share their discoveries as they grappled with what they learned and pondered the question of hope at this pivotal moment in the Anthropocene epoch.

The reliquary was made by Taylor Millar, a woodworker from Lagunitas, California. The reliquary is made of repurposed Douglas fir and locally sourced coast redwood. The title is hand-stamped on brass attached to the base of the structure. The colophon for the project is mounted inside the center shelf in the reliquary and is SIGNED by all four artists.

Titles in this series are:

LOWDERMILK, Susan, THOMAS, Donna, THOMAS, Peter, and THRAMS, Andie. About Hope? Eugene, OR; Santa Cruz, CA; Coloma, CA, 2022. Tall Narrow 8vo. 9 x 4 3/8 inches. 39 pp. 3 artist's statements, short description of the books in the series, color photographic illustrations; text clean, unmarked. Color pictorial wraps, perfect bound; binding square and tight. #25 of 32 copies. Fine.

THOMAS, Donna and THOMAS, Peter. Text by BERRY, Wendell (b. 1934). Be Joyful. Santa Cruz, CA: Peter and Donna Thomas, 2022. Accordion-Fold Narrow Broadsheet. 8 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches. Unpaginated. [2] pp. Multicolor design with Wendell Barry's text on one side and Peter and Donna Thomas's linocut nature design as the background for the text. Two slices of thin wood veneer in dark brown with two panels of the broadsheet mounted to the boards; binding square and tight. Fine.

LOWDERMILK, Susan. Text by JOHNSON, Boris (b. 1964). Breathe. Eugene, OR: Susan Lowdermilk, 2022. Single sheet of paper measures 8 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches and is printed on both sides. The Boris Johnston quote is printed in light green ink, and is hidden by a tipped-in woodcut illustration of the view looking up into a canopy of redwood forest, the sheet is folded twice, the other side of the sheet is printed in black ink. All is laid in a bifold of light green paper with windows cut-out so as to read the black-ink text. Fine.

THOMAS, Peter, text. LOWDERMILK, Susan, THOMAS, Donna, and THRAMS, Andie. Catastrophic Wildfire. Delta Campground, Willamette National Forest, OR, 2022. 10 x 4 3/4 inches. Single sheet of printed paper, lashed to a stretcher frame with red thread, the sticks lacked together with copper wire, the frame made of burned sticks gathered at the site of the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. Fine.

LOWDERMILK, Susan, THOMAS, Peter, and THRAMS, Andie, text. Invinsible/Endangered. N. P.: 2022. Single sheet of paper, O-folded to form a long narrow book, 9 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches. Both sides of the paper are printed with pressure printed images of giant sequoias, text printed in metal and wood types on the "pages" of the text. The paper is vintage Bodleian mold-made paper from Hayle Mill, England, the "book" is housed in a sleeve made with Glama translucent vellum paper. Fine.

THOMAS, Donna and WHITMAN, Walt (1819-1892), text. Fire Followers. Santa Cruz, CA: Donna Thomas, 2022. Paper folder 6 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches. Cover paper handmade by Peter Thomas and relief printed by Donna Thomas using redwood leaves, illustrated front cover label on the folder. The folder houses 8 individual sheets of paper, 7 with Donna Thomas' hand-colored linoleum cut illustrations of flowers and 1 sheet with the Walt Whitman quotes. Fine.

ATTENBOROUGH, David (b. 1926), BERRY, Wendell (b. 1934), RICH, Louise Dickinson (1903-1991), SOLNIT, Rebecca (b. 1961), and THUNBERG, Greta (b. 2003), texts. Hope Calls for Action. Single Sheet of folded paper. 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches. [4] pp. The text block of this work is a square flexagon with 4 flexagon pages with quotes from various writers and thinkers on the subject of climate change and its implications for our planet and the life it nourishes, the flexagon paper is Strathmore Pastel, the text is letter press printed with metal type and wood types in various colors; the flexagon is held in an expanding file folder made with French Paper Company Speckletone paper. Fine.

THOMAS, Donna, THOMAS, Peter, and THRAMS, Andie. Old Growth Matters. Santa Cruz, CA; Coloma, CA, 2022. Hand-sewn Pamphlet. 6 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches. [20] pp. Cover and text papers handmade by Peter Thomas, text letterpress printed by Peter Thomas and includes woodcuts by Susan Lowdermilk, Donna Thomas, and Andie Thrams. Covers are painted with ink, watercolor, and gouaches by Lowdermilk, D. Thomas and Thrams, cover images vary as they were painted while visiting burn sites in Oregon and California. Fine.

THRAMS, Andie. Mass Unraveling. Coloma, CA: Andie Thrams, 2022. Scroll. 4 7/8 x 1 inch, closed. Unravels to 4 1/2 x 40 inches. Single sheet of Awagami kozo paper, attached to a wooden dowel and wooden strip and tied with linen thread, the imagery on the scroll was handprinted in ink by A. Thrams and digitally printed on this scroll, "The burnt forest imagery evokes the destructive force of catastrophic wildfire in the American West." Fine.

DIOUM, Baba (b. 1937), HILL, Julia Butterfly (b. 1974), and LOWDERMILK, Susan, text. Only What We Love. Two 6-page accordions bound together between printed-paper-covered boards. 5 5/8 x 2 3/4 inches. [6] pp. Printed letterpress by Donna Thomas on Peter's handmade papers, foreground accordion in shape of trees by Donna Thomas. Fine.

GEISEL, Theodor Suess (1904-1991). Resilience. Eugene, OR; Santa Cruz, CA; Coloma, CA: The Artists, 2022. 12-Page Accordion-Fold Pages. 6 3/4 x 4 3/8 inches. Text letterpress printed by Peter Thomas using wood type on Arches Text Wove paper, watercolor and gouache painting by Andie Thrams, woodcuts by Susan Lowdermilk, linoleum cut by Donna Thomas. Fine.

LOWDERMILK, Susan, THOMAS, Donna, THOMAS, Peter, and THRAMS, Andie, text. Vast Unseen Networks. Eugene, OR; Santa Cruz, CA; Coloma, CA: The artists, 2022. 6 Accordion Pages. 6 3/8 x 4 inches. Folded paper cover pamphlet-stitched through first valley fold of accordion, cave paper handmade by Peter Thomas, text paper marbled by Iris Nevins, Cover and interior woodcuts by Donna Thomas and Andie Thrams, text letterpress printed using metal and wood types. Fine.

THRAMS, Andie, et al, text. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Coloma, CA: Andie Thrams, 2022. 24 G-Fold pages housed in a folding paper case. 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches. Original images by Andie Thrams scanned from ink and watercolor on kozo paper, text paper is Awagami kozo, cover paper handmade by Cave Paper, printed paper label on front cover. Fine.

The reliquary holds a vial containing charcoal and ash, relics the artists gathered from burned forests in California and Oregon. (Inventory #: TPK1123-001)