New York — Peter Rutledge Koch has been designing and printing limited edition books, portfolios, and ephemera since 1974. He has long been recognized as one of the most accomplished printers and typographic designers of his generation. His training, influences, and achievements place him in the lineage of San Francisco literary fine press printers. A forty-five-year retrospective opens at the Grolier Club on September 11 and remains on view through November 23, 2019.  

The works on display, published by Koch between 1974 and 2019, span wide-ranging territory, from cowboy surrealism to pre-Socratic philosophy, and from contemporary and Renaissance poetry to hard-hitting photo-based requiems to the American West.

Koch spent his youth in Montana, steeped in the lore of the American West and witness to its aftermath of environmental and cultural destruction, which continues to influence his work more than four decades later. His aesthetic was subsequently shaped by apprenticeship to the great San Francisco printer Adrian Wilson as well as close study of the work of Jack Stauffacher and William Everson, and matured through various imprints in studios in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Venice.

Koch’s printing career began in Missoula, where he founded Black Stone Press in 1974. The press’s first publication, Montana Gothic (1974–1977), best described as a cowboy surrealist literary journal, prompted William S. Burroughs to comment, “Montana Gothic poets may seem like strapping cowboys chugging absinthe and shooting out streetlights, but they are damned fine shots.” The press relocated to San Francisco in 1978 and closed six years later.  Koch subsequently published under press names that reveal his eclectic interests and seriousness of purpose as well as his irreverence: Peter Rutledge Koch, Typographic Design; Peter and the Wolf Editions; Editions Koch; Hormone Derange Editions; Last Chance Gulch; and Peter Koch Printer.   

Point Lobos (1987) was Koch’s first mature contribution to the tradition of Bay Area fine press printing as well as his first post-Black Stone Press publication and remains a masterwork. It consists of a portfolio of fifteen poems by Robinson Jeffers and fifteen photographs by Wolf von dem Bussche (Peter and the Wolf editions) housed in a black walnut slipcase.

In 1990, with Herakleitos, Koch began a series of works by Greek pre-Socratic philosophers that ventured into a new realm of art practice. “Herakleitos led me out of the framework of traditional typographic refinement into what I believed to be the arena of the book as a work of art,” he said in a 2015 interview. Several works based on Greek philosophical texts followed. The Fragments of Parmenides (2004), a ten-year, multi-faceted collaboration with poet/translator Robert Bringhurst, stonecutter Christopher Stinehour, type designer Dan Carr (whom Koch commissioned to cut and cast a new Greek type for the edition), typesetter Richard Seibert, engraver Richard Wagener, and bookbinders Peggy Gotthold and Daniel Kelm.

The 2005 bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition became a galvanizing point for a group of publications described collectively as the “Montana Suite.” To date, this group of work consists of four titles: Hard Words (2000); Nature Morte (2005); The Lost Journals of Sacajewea (with writer Debra Magpie Earling, 2010); and Liber Ignis (with poet Adam Cornford, 2015). Each work reveals aspects of the transformation of the American West by European migration and the destruction of native territory and traditions through what Koch describes as “photo interventions.” Describing his motivation, Koch says “by my fifty-seventh year, I had buried most of my Montana family and inherited their books and manuscripts, as well as their dreams and responsibilities. I came, finally, to the realization that I owed a deep debt to the land and tribe(s) I grew up in. . . .I had the tools and the knowledge to shape a new way of seeing Montana, shorn of the myths that I was expected to swallow—especially the gospel of Manifest Destiny and all the inglorious puffery about civilizing the American West.”

Poetry—contemporary American, classical Greek, and Italian Renaissance—forms the warp of Koch’s publishing cloth; its weft is the creative work of his many collaborators, whose engravings, etchings, drawings, collages, and paintings accompany and animate the texts he chooses to print. Richly varied but never predictable, Koch’s work has an integrity that arises out of his engagement with ideas, and design solutions that, in his own words, “cut close to the bone of meaning and content.”

In addition to traditional codex fine press books and portfolios printed on paper, Koch at times expresses his ideas in varied formats he refers to as “text transmission objects.” Materials include the use of lead as a printing substrate, acid-etched zinc plates, and innovative binding structures and housings custom-designed to support the pages. The Defictions of Diogenes (1994) presents twenty-one short philosophical performance pieces by Thomas McEvilley based on the life of the arch-cynic Diogenes of Sinope (b. 404 BC).  The text is hand-lettered by Christopher Stinehour, printed letterpress from zinc engravings onto lead tablets by Koch, and housed in a unique ceramic box by sculptor Stephen Braun.

Koch is co-director with his wife, art conservator Susan K. Filter, of the Codex Foundation (est. 2005), devoted to preserving and promoting the book as a work of art. The foundation organizes the biennial CODEX International Book Fair and Symposium, which brings artists who work in the form of the book from all over the world to the Bay Area with support from Stanford Libraries among many other institutions and individuals.

To accompany the show is a heavily illustrated three-volume catalogue. For a full description of the catalogue see www.peterkochprinters.com. The Grolier Club exhibition originated with Stanford Libraries Department of Special Collections, the repository of Koch's archive.  

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Grolier Club will host a joint Symposium on artists’ books with the CODEX Foundation: A CODEX/Grolier International Symposium: The CODEX Effect: A Conversation Between Artists, Curators, Scholars, and Collectors, October 18 -19, 2019, at the Grolier Club. For more information and tickets go to www.codexfoundation.org

New York — Swann Galleries will open their fall 2019 season on Thursday, September 19 with a sale of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings. Replete with exceptional pieces by European and American visionaries, the auction features work from nineteenth-century harbingers of modernism through the major Modern art movements of the twentieth century.

Marc Chagall, who held an avid interest in the circus throughout his career, leads the sale with one of his most widely-appreciated livres d’artiste, Cirque—a 1967 portfolio with complete text, 38  lithographs. The lively work is expected to bring $120,000 to $180,000. Additional portfolios by Chagall include Ls Sept Péchés Capitaux, a 1926 bound volume with complete text and 17 etchings, two signed in pencil ($8,000-12,000); and Regards sur Paris, 1963, with complete text and three color lithographs by the artist, as well as an additional 30 prints by others, such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque ($10,000-15,000).

Additional Modern highlights include a complete set of 22 drypoints by Elie Nadelman from 1951 ($20,000-30,000); Femme Nue Pêchant des Truites à la Main, color linoleum print, 1962, by Picasso ($20,000-30,000); and Odalisque au Coffret Rouge, color aquatint, circa 1952, by Henri Matisse ($20,000-30,000).

From the turn of the nineteenth century come several important drypoints by Mary Cassatt including The Crocheting Lesson, circa 1902 ($15,000-20,000), Margot Leaning Against Her Mother, circa 1902 ($12,000-18,000), and Margot Resting Her Arms on Back of Armchair, circa 1903 ($10,000-15,000). James Ensor is present with La Vengeance de Hop-Frog, a 1898 etching, with hand-coloring in watercolor and gouache, based off an Edgar Allan Poe’s short story ($30,000-50,000).

Swann is pleased to offer a selection of works from the collection of the late print dealers Betty and Douglas Duffy of The Bethesda Art Gallery, including dizzying portraits of New York City skyscrapers by Howard Cook. Most notably by Cook: the wood engravings Skyscraper, 1928 ($10,000-15,000) and Chrysler Building, 1930 ($8,000-12,000), as well as his 1931 lithograph New York Night ($5,000-8,000). Further American artists include George Bellows, with the 1923-24 lithograph Dempsey and Firpo ($30,000-50,000), and Gustave Baumann’s 1917 color woodcut Mending the Seine (Provincetown) ($8,000-12,000).

Building on the success of Swann’s first standalone Latin American art auction last spring, the house is poised to offer another strong selection of works. Highlights include Miguel Covarrubias’s gouache on paper Portrait of Somerset Maugham, circa 1925 ($5,000-8,000), and José Clemente Orozco’s lithograph Fin de Fiesta (Miseria), 1935 ($2,500-3,500). Also of note is an array of color aquatints and Mixografías by Rufino Tamayo with Gato, color lithograph, 1959 ($4,000-6,000), Personajes con Pajaros, color Mixografía, 1988 ($3,000-5,000),

Exhibition opening in New York City September 14. The complete catalogue and bidding information is available at www.swanngalleries.com and on the Swann Galleries App.

Berlin – Friends with Books: Art Book Fair Berlin, Europe’s leading art book fair committed to the distribution and promotion of artists’ books and associated mediums, launches its sixth edition in the iconic Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin. From September 20–22, 2019, a diverse array of over 200 international exhibitors, ranging from artists to art publishers, will present their publications, reflecting the diversity of today’s art publishing. Free and open to the public, the fair explores all facettes of contemporary art publishing through a strong programme of lectures, panel discussions, book presentations, performances and art installations, bringing understanding to the discipline and celebrating its resurgence in today’s digital climate.

The 2019 edition will host a series of curated temporary Art Installations including Alias (MX), Tamami Iinuma (FR/JP), Kathrin Köster (DE), Marlena Kudlicka (PL) and Rudolf Samohejl (CZ). For the second year running, Friends with Books will present a newly commissioned Children’s Art Installation – this year by artist Egill Sæbjörnsson (IS), Iceland’s representative at the 57th Venice Biennale, in parallel with a children’s workshop and daily activities. Performances will include the artist collective Black Palm (DE) and artists Mette Edvardson (NO), Jeroen Peeters (BE) and Lara Salmon (US).

The yearly Public Programmes series will feature lectures, conversations, panel discussions and performances presented in partnership with Argobooks: Birgit Rieger and Claudia Wahjudi; Artphilein Editions: Caio Reisewitz and Daniela Labra; Tamami Iinuma and Thibaut de Ruyter; Black Palm: Sonja Cvitkovic, Verena Dengler, Marine Drouan, Anke Dyes, and Megan Francis Sullivan; Verlag der Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung: Micha Bonk, Ulrike Boskamp, Joerg Franzbecker, Annette Hans, and Sebastian Stein; Marlena Kudlicka and Agnieszka Gratza; EECLECTIC: Chiara Capodici, Erik Göngrich, Janine Sack; The Invisible Archive (in collaboration with Goodbye Books): Yon Natalie Mik, Lara Salmon, and Micaela Terk; Hatje Cantz: Nanne Meyer and Lena Kiessler; Fiona Geuss; neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbk): Florian Wüst; Varamo Press: Mette Edvardsen and Jeroen Peeters, among others.

This year’s Friends with Books Blog interview will welcome artist Elisabeth Tonnard in conversation with art critic Agnieszka Gratza.

The annual Friends with Books Artist Poster Edition will feature a new poster edition by Anne Schwalbe in an edition of 200 – 25 of which will be signed and priced at 50 € to help support Friends with Books.
Established in 2014 by co-founders Vanessa Adler and Savannah Gorton, Friends With Books is a non-profit organisation dedicated to contemporary art publishing. The event draws over 12,000 visitors each year, acting as a platform for exchange between art publishing professionals and the general public.

Special Thanks: Udo Kittelmann, Dr. Gabriele Knapstein, Dr. Nina Schallenberg, Fiona Geuss, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin; Gaby Horn, KW Institute for Contemporary Art; Barbara Wien; Dr. Michael Lailach, Kunstbibliothek Berlin; Claus Due, Studio Claus Due; Virginia Illner, Medialis Druck.

Support: Friends with Books is generously supported in part by Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Chicago — Hindman will sell the 85-lot rare book collection of a single Midwestern collector that includes extremely fine first editions of Charles Darwin, Euclid, Galileo Galilei, James Joyce, Issac Newton, J. K. Rowling, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton and many others.
 
Head of Hindman Book Department, Gretchen Hause, comments: “This highly curated, 85-lot sale offers the rare opportunity to own a number of the most influential books in the development of western thought and civilization. It is a unique opportunity for all bibliophiles or anyone who values rare objects of great cultural significance.”
 
The collection consists of landmark titles, many with notable provenance, in the fields of science, technology, math and statistics, literature, Americana, and the social sciences, including:
 
CHARLES DARWIN. On the Origin of Species. London: John Murray, 1859. First edition.
Est. $120,000–180,000.
The superb Garden Copy, also previously owned by American philanthropist Paul Mellon (1907–1999), the most significant scientific work of the nineteenth century in which Darwin “revolutionized our methods of thinking and our outlook on the natural order of things.” (Printing and the Mind of Man).
 
SIR ISAAC NEWTON. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. London: Joseph Streater for the Royal Society, to be sold by Samuel Smith and other booksellers, 1687. First edition.
Est. $150,000–250,000
This edition of Newton’s pivotal book was described by Albert Einstein as “The greatest intellectual stride that it has ever been granted to any man to make,” and in Printing and the Mind of Man as “The greatest work in the history of science.”
 
GALILEO GALILEI: Dialogo. Florence: Giovanni Batista Landini, 1632. The First edition of Galileo’s Dialogo, which, “more than any other work, made the heliocentric system a commonplace” (Printing and the Mind of Man)
Est. $30,000-40,000
EUCLID: Elementa geometriae. Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, May 25, 1482. First edition of (Printing and the Mind of Man)
One of the "oldest mathematical textbooks still in common use today" (Printing and the Mind of Man) and one of the earliest printed books with geometrical figures.
Est. $60,000-80,000            
 
JAMES JOYCE. Ulysses. Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1922. First Edition. Original publisher’s “Greek flag” blue wrappers in a cloth slipcase. Limited issue, copy 74 of 100 copies on Dutch handmade paper, signed by the author on the limitation page.
Est. $120,000–180,000
First edition of the most significant English-language novel of the 20th century.
 
ADAM SMITH. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. First edition. London: for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776. 2 volumes. Provenance: Jn. Evans (signature on title-page).
Est. $70,000–90,000
Smith’s landmark opus is considered the first classic of modern economic thought, and the first major exposition of free trade.

[FEDERALIST]. ALEXANDER HAMILTON. — MADISON, James. — JAY, John. The Federalist: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution. First edition. New York: J. and A. M'Lean, 1788. 2 volumes.
Est. $60,000–80,000
A collection of all 85 essays written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay in defense of the new Constitution, first published anonymously and serially in New York newspapers. Described in Printing and the Mind of Man as “One of the new nation’s most important contributions to the theory of government.”
 
J. K ROWLING. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. First edition. London: Bloomsbury, 1997. Original publisher's pictorial boards. Signed by the author (6/9/97).
Est. $80,000–120,000
A superlative copy of the first edition of Rowling’s first work, signed by the author in the year of publication.

Washington, D.C. — Book lovers of all ages came together by the tens of thousands to celebrate reading and meet their favorite authors Saturday at the 19th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival, held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Thousands more watched the festival’s Main Stage streamed live on the Library’s YouTube platform.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg drew a record-setting crowd of more than 5,000 people on the Main Stage at the festival, who cheered and applauded her rock-star persona. Interviewed by NPR’s Nina Totenberg, the 86-year-old justice shared highlights from her life before and after her appointment as the second woman on the high court.

Just eight days earlier, the Supreme Court announced that the associate justice had undergone treatment for a malignant tumor on her pancreas that had been discovered in July. Addressing the often raucous crowd, she addressed her health and immediate future on the court. “How am I feeling? Well, first, this audience can see that I am alive,” she said to huge cheer, “and I’m on my way to being very well. The term – we have more than a month yet to go. I’ll be prepared when the time comes.”

An unprecedented 20 new books were launched at the festival, including Sharon Robinson’s “Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963”; Victoria “V.E.” Schwab’s “Tunnel of Bones”; Cece Bell’s “Chick and Brain: Smell My Foot!”; Fred Bowen’s “Speed Demon”; Linda Sue Park’s “Nya’s Long Walk: A Step at a Time”; Sherri Duskey Rinker’s “Three Cheers for Kid McGear!”; Jennifer Swanson’s “Save the Crash-Test Dummies”; Jon Scieszk and Steven Weinberg’s “AstroNuts Mission One: The Plant Planet”; Alexandra Horowitz’s “Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond”; Mitali Perkins’ “Forward Me Back to You”; Pamela Paul and Maria Russo’s “How to Raise a Reader”; and Amy Gutmann and Jonathan D. Moreno’s “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die.”

On the festival’s Fiction Stage, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction to acclaimed writer Richard Ford, author of “Independence Day” — the first novel to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. The prize, one of the Library’s most prestigious awards, honors an American literary writer whose body of work is distinguished for its mastery of the art, originality and imagination. Ford, in accepting the award before a packed auditorium, said that to make his work have lasting impact, he often chose to write in first-person narration with present-tense verbs.

Closing the festival, Hayden announced the 20th National Book Festival will be held Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020.

On Friday, the Librarian announced the winners of the 2019 Library of Congress Literacy Awards, honoring organizations for their exemplary, innovative work to confront illiteracy, raise reading levels and promote reading. The top prizes were awarded to: ProLiteracy Worldwide of Syracuse, New York; American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults of Baltimore; and ConTextos of Chicago.

The National Book Festival is made possible by the generous support of private- and public-sector sponsors who share the Library’s commitment to reading and literacy, led by National Book Festival Co-Chairman David M. Rubenstein. Charter sponsors are the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Washington Post and Wells Fargo; Patron sponsors are the James Madison Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Champions are Thomas V. Girardi, the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, PBS and Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program; and, in the Friends category, Booklovers Circle Members, Bookshare - a Benetech initiative, Buffy Cafritz, Marshall B. Coyne Foundation Inc., Joseph and Lynn Deutsch, Embassy of Australia, Embassy of Canada, Embassy of Germany, Embassy of Ireland, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Peru, Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction administered by The University of Alabama School of Law, The Hay-Adams, Inter-American Development Bank, The Junior League of Washington, Andy King, Leon Levy Center for Biography (CUNY), Library of Congress Federal Credit Union, Mensa Foundation, Mexican Cultural Institute, Timothy and Diane Naughton, Planet Word, Nora Roberts Foundation, Scholastic, Small Press Expo (SPX), Spain Arts & Culture and Western Writers of America;Media Partners are C-SPAN2’s Book TV, The New York Times, NPR and PBS Books. Those interested in supporting the National Book Festival can contact the Library at devofc@loc.gov.

Falls Church, VA – The Waverly Rare Books division of Quinn’s Auction Galleries will conduct a Sept. 12, 2019 auction packed with 471 lots of rare books, high-quality prints, autographs and other ephemera. A featured lot is a complete set of original watercolors by beloved children’s author Tasha Tudor for her 1966 book, The Great Corgiville Kidnapping, with impeccable family provenance.

Additional highlights include early editions of James Joyce’s Ulysses and Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage; rare documents signed by John Hancock, Gustave Flaubert, Johannes Brahms and Honore de Balzac; and original artworks prepared for the U.S. Capitol and the George Washington Masonic Temple by the muralist Allyn Cox.

Tasha Tudor (1915-2008, Mass./Vt.) was a beloved illustrator and writer of children's books. The original Tudor watercolors in the auction – 55 in all, 41 of which are signed and dated – comprise the complete collection used for The Great Corgiville Kidnapping (Little Brown, Boston, 1997). The art has been consigned by Thomas Tudor, Tasha Tudor’s youngest son. The lot includes a first-edition copy of the book in illustrated, glazed boards and carries an estimate of $60,000-$90,000.

A partly printed document signed by John Hancock (1737-1793) in Boston and dated March 26, 1781, when Hancock was governor, should change hands for $3,000-$4,000. The document appoints Jesse Bullock of Freetown as Justice of the Peace for Bristol County. It is countersigned by John Avery Jr., Secretary, and bears an intact seal above Hancock’s large, trademark signature.

A second-state etching with drypoint on heavy laid paper by the Dutch Master Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), titled The Hundred Guilder Print (or “Christ Healing the Sick”), is estimated to bring $3,000-$5,000. The 17th-century print, on a sheet measuring 11½ inches by 15¾ inches, is graded VG+ condition.

A second-edition copy of Stephen Crane’s classic book The Red Badge of Courage (D. Appleton & Co., N.Y., 1896) should reach $1,000-$2,000. The tan dust jacket with red and black text decoration shows ads on the back for “Gilbert Parker’s Best Books” and “A. Conan Doyle.” There is an ownership inscription on the front flap of the dust jacket.

An unfinished, hand-painted and illuminated copy of John Milton’s poem In the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, in a modern brown leather binding with gilt decorations and dated 1894, is expected to make $800-$1,200. The last few pages have sketches, but watercolor was never applied. Each sheet, on J. Whatman paper, is 7¾ inches by 9¼ inches and is in a bound sleeve.

Allyn Cox (American, 1896-1982) was a muralist best known for his works in the U.S. Capitol and the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. The lot pertaining to Cox consists of five pieces: a watercolor with four tracing paper sheets from the Washington Masonic Temple’s Grand Hall murals, featuring George Washington. It should settle in the $400-$600 range.

A circa-1520 woodcut and letterpress print of Wolf Traut’s (circa 1485-1520) Battle for Liege, from the Triumphal Arch of Emperor Maximilian I, designed by Albrecht Durer and with Latin prose by Benedictus Chelidonius, in VG+ condition, has an estimate of $300-$500. The sheet, which measures approximately 9 inches by 6 inches, includes a label from Ferdinand Roten Galleries in Baltimore.

An etching on wove paper of Francisco de Goya’s (Spanish, 1746-1828) Le Petit Prisonnier (circa 1810), printed in Delatre (Paris) as part of a posthumous edition published in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, is in near-fine condition and is framed, with the plate measuring 4¼ inches by 3½ inches. De Goya was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker and is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th/early 19th century. Estimate: $200-$400.

The Sept. 12, 2019 auction will be held at Quinn’s gallery, 360 South Washington Street in Falls Church, Virginia 22046. All remote forms of bidding will be available, including absentee, phone and live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers or Invaluable. The auction will commence at 6 p.m. ET. Previews will be held Saturday, Sept. 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Monday, Sept. 9, from 10-5; and Tuesday through Thursday, Sept. 10-12, from 10-6.

For additional information about any item in the Thursday, Sept. 12 auction, call 703-532-5632, extension 575; or e-mail waverly@quinnsauction.com. Visit Quinn’s and Waverly online at www.quinnsauction.com. Quinn’s is always accepting consignments for future auctions.

Amherst, MA — Dive in for an underwater adventure with a new exhibition at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Under the Sea with Eric Carle showcases the artist's vibrant images of penguins, jellyfish, dolphins, seals, turtles, and whales from 11 picture books. The dynamic array of sea life is complemented by Carle's colorful collages of mythological sea creatures-mermaids, leviathans, and the legendary kraken. Under the Sea with Eric Carle opens September 7, 2019 and is on view until March 1, 2020.

Carle combines research and imaginative storytelling to explore the aquatic world in his picture books. The real-life behaviors of hermit crabs and seahorses serve as jumping off points for his anthropomorphic tales A House for Hermit Crab (1987) and Mr. Seahorse (2004). Other books demonstrate Carle's interest in conservation. Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do You See? (2003), written by Bill Martin, Jr., introduces children to endangered species. Carle's two artworks from the book depict a green turtle and a sea lion. Also on view is one of 12 large counting posters Carle created in the early 1970s of threatened wildlife-the manatee, in this instance. The posters were originally sold at school books fairs.

The exhibition features several examples of Carle's early picture-book art. Hand-painted tissue paper collages from the 1973 book Do Bears Have a Mother Too? show an Emperor penguin with its chick and a seal with its pup. "The large scale of these images is really wonderful," says Ellen Keiter, chief curator. While the majority of art is executed in Carle's signature collage technique, the exhibition also includes his carved linoleum printing blocks from The Boastful Fisherman (1970) and two pen-and-ink drawings from Otter Nonsense (1982).

Museum visitors to Under the Sea with Eric Carle can engage in creative play in a custom-designed "reading boat" and a "submerged" puppet theater stage. Two "shell phones" play recorded ocean jokes and underwater sounds of dolphins, whales, and other sea creatures. As always, the gallery offers numerous Eric Carle books for guests to enjoy.

This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Hsin-Yi Foundation.

Exhibition artworks from the following books:
The Boastful Fisherman, William Knowlton, 1970
The Tiny Seed, Eric Carle, 1970 and 1987
Do Bears Have a Mother Too?, Aileen Fisher, 1973
Otter Nonsense, Norton Juster, 1982
All Around Us, Eric Carle, 1986
A House for Hermit Crab, Eric Carle, 1987
Dragons, Dragons, & Other Creatures That Never Were, Eric Carle, 1988
Animals, Animals, Eric Carle, 1989
Mister Seahorse, Eric Carle, 2002
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? Bill Martin Jr., 2003
10 Little Rubber Ducks, Eric Carle, 2005