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Shake a speer : Assoziationen zu vier Sonetten von William Shakespeare

Artist's Book
1988 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This book was published under the imprint of Unica T, 'a fictitious person making real books'; in fact a group of Austrian women artists who worked closely together between 1986 and 2001.

Artists Ulrike Stoltz and Ute Schneider produced the work on a hand printing press, during their residency at an art fair in England, selecting for their text four sonnets by William Shakespeare. However they did not treat this greatest of English cultural icons with undue reverence: not only is his name rearranged, but the poems are interspersed with, and interrupted by, overprinting and collage, sometimes to the point of semi-illegibility. Brightly-coloured geometric shapes, and further texts, in German, are taken from modern books on various aspects of mortality – a strong theme in Shakespeare's sonnet sequence.

The slim volume is bound in delicate paper boards covered with tissue. Traditionalist craft values combine with a modernist poetic sensibility of fracture, fragmentation and allusion. The bold and busy visual style is characteristic of late 20th-century graphic design.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleShake a speer : Assoziationen zu vier Sonetten von William Shakespeare (published title)
Materials and techniques
'Set & printed at the European Arts' Tent during Art in Action 87 at Waterperry House, Oxford, England, 16-19th July '87 on a Hopkinson 30 x 46 press ("Kniehebelpresse") ...' - colophon
Brief description
Artist's book, 'Shake a speer: Assoziationen zu vier Sonetten von William Shakespeare', by Ulrike Stoltz, Unica T, Offenbach-am-Main, 1988
Physical description
Artist's book featuring Sonnets 18, 24, 23 & 66 by William Shakespeare (in English).
German commentary chiefly about death derived from a number of different sources.
The page layout and typography are experimental, and are overlaid with abstract (silk-screen print?) designs.

Colour illustrations.

Paper boards covered with tissue-paper.

32 pages.
Dimensions
  • Height: 23cm
Summary
This book was published under the imprint of Unica T, 'a fictitious person making real books'; in fact a group of Austrian women artists who worked closely together between 1986 and 2001.

Artists Ulrike Stoltz and Ute Schneider produced the work on a hand printing press, during their residency at an art fair in England, selecting for their text four sonnets by William Shakespeare. However they did not treat this greatest of English cultural icons with undue reverence: not only is his name rearranged, but the poems are interspersed with, and interrupted by, overprinting and collage, sometimes to the point of semi-illegibility. Brightly-coloured geometric shapes, and further texts, in German, are taken from modern books on various aspects of mortality – a strong theme in Shakespeare's sonnet sequence.

The slim volume is bound in delicate paper boards covered with tissue. Traditionalist craft values combine with a modernist poetic sensibility of fracture, fragmentation and allusion. The bold and busy visual style is characteristic of late 20th-century graphic design.
Other number
X890026 - NAL Pressmark
Collection
Library number
38041989023072

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Record createdFebruary 13, 2014
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