The Trudge of Insects. Text by Brendan Jones

The Bird Press, 2012. First edition. Dennerline, Thorsten. Edition of 15 copies with two artists’ proofs. The exquisite binding by Barry Spence cuts no corners, with details like two-color hand sewn end bands and hand worked wooden board covers of quarter sawn oak. The pages are sewn onto hemp cords two of which are inset into the text block to create an unexpected asymmetrical detail in the spine. The hemp cords are exposed on the covers to reveal the flowerlike form that is normally covered with cloth or leather. "This project involves many years of careful work photographing, printing, drawing and printing, writing and then printing again. It began in 2002, when I started photographing insects from the collection of the Entomology labs at the University of Massachusetts. At the time, I was captivated by the idea of looking closely at these beautiful specimens and their death silence created by the wounds of the display pins. It then traveled to Illinois, where I, after much editing, printed the photos using archival inks and then further responded to them with three drawing layers of lithography. The collaborative aspect happened in New Hampshire at the MacDowell Colony where Brendan was introduced the images. He responded with the 94-part poem that is printed upon the handmade paper sheets with Univers type from Wild Carrot Letterpress in Massachusetts.