Rare Books: Boxes With Respect by Kimiko Hahn

Rare Books is a regular column showcasing items from the L.R. Benes Rare Book Room. The L.R. Benes Rare Book Room features artist books, first editions, chapbooks, and broadsides, among many other treasures of literary significance. These holdings are searchable in the Poetry Center catalog and may be viewed by the public upon request during our open hours, Monday through Friday.

 

Boxes With Respect, at least initially, or from afar, is standard in shape and size and can fool you into thinking it will be a typical reading experience. Then you pick it up. It's light, and textured in a way that suggests what's inside is going to be magical. 

The two sections of the book, "Boxes with Respect to Millay" and "Boxes with Respect to Moore," are similarly bright, with text inset like a box and images of boxes stitched with metallic and neon thread. The pages are Thai Mulberry and Durotone Butcher papers, making the texture playful and unlike anything else in our library.

       

The work put into the book is just as stunning as its physical presence. The text was letterpress printed and assembled by Ana Cordeiro and Bridget Elmer at the Center for Book Arts. It was printed using a combination of wood-cuts, photo-polymer plates, and foundry typefaces. The cover was hot-stamped from a magnesium plate on a Kensol Press. 

   

The pleasure of interacting with the book is part of its charm, but the text itself is also a delight. Reading this book like opening small boxes, finding another and another inside each one. 

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