The Apocalypse

San Francisco: The Arion Press, 1982. Limited Edition. Hardcover. New. Dine, Jim. Folio, 14 7/8" by 11 inches, 64 unnumbered pages. The type is Garamond Bold, in Monotype composition by Mackenzie-Harris, with 14 point for the words ascribed to St. John and 18 point for words ascribed to God and the angels, with Hadriano for verse numbers and Stempel Garamond Titling for display. The paper is French handmade Apta Velin from the Richard de Bas Mill, printed damp. The binding, done in-house, is hand-sewn on a concertina and attached to oak plywood boards, with a white alum-tawed pigskin spine. The title is blind-stamped on the spine and a lightening bolt printed on both boards. Special edition copies are in oak boxes made by Miles Karpilow of Berkeley, California, with a bottom book-holding tray and a separate locking lid containing a relief sculpture by Dine of an emerging human skull. In eight copies the sculpture was cast in gray-white sculptural cement, then painted by the artist in acrylic colors. The Revelation of Saint John the Divine, the last book of the New Testament from the King James Version of the Bible, with 29 woodblock prints in a special edition box by Jim Dine.

This was the second artist book of the Arion Press, after "A Travel Book" (No. 4), and the first in a series of collaborations with internationally known contemporary artists. It was the beginning of a long partnership between Jim Dine and Hoyem that has resulted in nine books containing original prints.

The text was broken into poetic lines, set in two sizes of type to differentiate the speakers. The prints were titled with excerpts from the text.

For wood blocks, the publisher supplied the artist with oak boards cut to 11 3/4 inches by 8 3/4 inches, the size of the text block, and milled to type height. But when the artist ran out of the supplied wood, he used any wood that came to hand, including his wife's cutting board and a piece from a lumber pile that was badly cracked and warped, neither of these pieces being type high. The printer managed with careful make-ready and by modifying the ink roller height.

This copy one of the eight special edition copies (plus 2 hors de commerce), signed by the artist, in the special box with a bottom book-holding tray and a separate locking lid containing a relief sculpture by Dine of an emerging human skull, cast in gray-white sculptural cement, then painted by the artist in acrylic colors.

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