Birds of the Bible: Quail by never mind the press
Golden writes as she calls it “my fictional interpretation of the story, fleshed out, so to speak - A young person's view of the quail sent to the Israelites in the desert.”
Alisa Golden: “In the Biblical passage, the Israelites are wandering in the desert and the ‘riffraff’ are complaining to Moses that there is nothing to eat but manna and they are sick of it and want meat, particularly the fish and leeks and cucumbers, and so forth that they ate when they were slaves in Egypt. The Creator sends the quail, but there are consequences.
“Selav. Quail was sent unwillingly … I learned how quail need a breeze in order to migrate, which makes the likelihood of this biblical story true. This story became a contemplation of greed and gratitude. I chose a tunnel book format in order to present reduction linocuts of both male and female quail in a large scale and included a two-page opening of the quail covering the ground.”
Alisa Golden, printing details: “Title page is letterpress printed on Somerset Velvet paper with handset metal and wood type. The wood type belonged to my grandfather, who owned a printing and publishing company.
“The righthand section opens up to stand as an accordion-folded tunnel with three quail: two male and one female. The images were based on California quail, which are similar to the migratory quail found in the Bible.”
Processes, Dimensions, and Edition Information
Berkeley, California: never mind the press, 2019. Edition of 18.
5" x 7.25" folded tunnel book. Letterpress printing from handset English and Hebrew metal type. Linocuts. Printed on Somerset Velvet soft white paper. Bound in textured, sand-colored Japanese book cloth. Recess on front cover with cutout reduction linocut quail image. In slipcase. Signed and numbered by the artist.