Pyramus1

Pyramus & Thisbe

distilled from the pages of A Midsummer Night?s Dream
by William Shakespeare

chiaroscuro woodcuts by Chris Nurse

2004

250x280mm. 64 pages

The edition is limited to 160 copies, numbered and signed by the artist.

ISBN: 0 907664 63 6

£195
(+ £6 p&p in UK;
overseas at cost)

The somewhat irreverent decision to make a book out of just the ?play within a play? so that the ?rude mechanicals? could literally take centre stage, has here given rise to a suite of masterly relief prints. In a recent essay about the work of Chris Nurse, Ann Jones, a curator at the Hayward Gallery wrote, of these images: They are, however, not really illustrations in the conventional sense. Although they are clearly inspired by the richness of the text, like the best artists? books, they capture a parallel vision. They convey the atmosphere and complexity of the written word, rather than illustrating it literally.

Chris Nurse writes: The project draws together many earlier preoccupations and influences; the tradition of the grotesque, carnival and folkloric rites that make light of sex and death. It is always preferable to first learn of death through the loss of a guinea pig or goldfish.

he type is Bulmer. The paper is 250gsm Somerset Printmaking. All the images, single- and two-colour, are woodcuts by Chris Nurse and were printed from the wood. The book is half-bound in brown leather with heavy boards covered with printed papers with designs by the artist. Further designs, together with titling, are blind-blocked on the leather.



				Pyramus & Thisbe
	distilled from the pages of A Midsummer Night?s Dream by William Shakespeare chiaroscuro woodcuts by Chris Nurse 2004 250x280mm. 64 pages The edition is limited to 160 copies, numbered and signed by the artist. ISBN: 0 907664 63 6 £195 (+ £6 p&p in UK; overseas at cost)			The somewhat irreverent decision to make a book out of just the ?play within a play? so that the ?rude mechanicals? could literally take centre stage, has here given rise to a suite of masterly relief prints. In a recent essay about the work of Chris Nurse, Ann Jones, a curator at the Hayward Gallery wrote, of these images: They are, however, not really illustrations in the conventional sense. Although they are clearly inspired by the richness of the text, like the best artists? books, they capture a parallel vision. They convey the atmosphere and complexity of the written word, rather than illustrating it literally. Chris Nurse writes: The project draws together many earlier preoccupations and influences; the tradition of the grotesque, carnival and folkloric rites that make light of sex and death. It is always preferable to first learn of death through the loss of a guinea pig or goldfish.

				he type is Bulmer. The paper is 250gsm Somerset Printmaking. All the images, single- and two-colour, are woodcuts by Chris Nurse and were printed from the wood. The book is half-bound in brown leather with heavy boards covered with printed papers with designs by the artist. Further designs, together with titling, are blind-blocked on the leather.