Five Poems / Five Paintings.
Granary Books, 2003. Item #GB_112
5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in., 12 pp., folding structure wrappers, envelope.
“When I went to visit John’s loft last Thanksgiving I noticed some brown construction paper was covering his beautiful windows and that a star was sitting on the floor. In one corner was a nest of tissue, crumpled up with pieces of mirror nestled in the folds. There is nothing I like better than looking sometimes. Dazzled by art and friendship.”
–Rodney Phillips, "Playground"
Five Poems/Five Paintings is a collaboration between Rodney Phillips and John Jurayj. Phillips’s unadorned free-verse lays bare a later-day New York School sensibility and unassuming lyricism. These poems transfigure the everyday like letters home, lending small occurrences significance simply because they have been noted and written around. Each poem is accompanied by its visual twin: paintings by John Jurayj, executed with a delicacy usually reserved for lighter material— watercolor or gouache. The interplay of verbal and visual is apparent in content as well as form.
The poems by were written in 2000 and 2001. The original paintings were created in 1999 and 2000; they measure 30 x 30 ft. and are made of caseine and graphite on linen. The design for 5 Poems/5 Paintings was created by Tim Convery and refined by Inge Bruggeman, who printed the work at Textura Letterpress in Portland, Oregon, during the autumn of 2002. The text is printed letterpress on Zerkall Book, and the images were reproduced via Canon Lasercopier. This is from an edition of 150 copies, of which 100 are for sale; each signed, in a pink translucent envelope. As new.
Price: $75.00