Category Archives: Booklore

Entries and posts that relate to the creation or consumption of books

creating a collaborative installation

Grayson James at the Ryerson Image Centre and the installation/project After Alexandria I became interested in this project at a point in my life when I was experiencing a loneliness unlike any I had before. As an avid reader, I … Continue reading

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Ephemera and Longevity

Which of these three is still in operation? The Classic Bookshop (Montréal and Ottawa) bookmarker was designed by Allan Harrison. The Writers & Co (Toronto) example makes use of the white space to rubber stamp the new address. A Different … Continue reading

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Paradise of the Paratext

The long list: Contents Editor’s Acknowledgments Note to Readers Forewords Desiring Initiating Transgressing Loving Afterwords Notes on Authors Acknowledgements Index of Authors and Titles Which I condense to a burning core: Desiring Initiating Transgressing Loving from Robert Dessaix Australian Gay … Continue reading

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Three Drawings from THIS IS WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE LIKE THIS

THIS IS WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE LIKE THIS Stephen Ellwood Art Metropole (2005) The book contains 58 text works, each a language-based drawing of a specific moment, object, action, or state, and tour through the bed, the body, … Continue reading

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The Phenomenology of the Hand-held

From a town in eastern Canada (Kentville, Nova Scotia) comes this “simplistic example” notable for its meditation on technology, commerce and craft… Andrew Steves Smoke Proofs: Essays on Literary Publishing, Printing & Typography “The Ecology of Publishing: an interview” I … Continue reading

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Some Awesome Flavoursomeness

Ginger Ko Motherlover “Prayer for What’s Close”           Let me stay here in the West please God           Let me live on in shabby comfort           Let me find the tinned tomatoes aisle without wandering           Let me feel safe enough to have children … Continue reading

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Descant on the Descent of Dissent

I thought there were pronounced distinctly differently (long e for descent; short i for dissent) until I read this accidental in a text by Andrew Steves. Nonconformist publishers can be put at a considerable competitive disadvantage if their choice to … Continue reading

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In Praise of Cover Art and in Praise of Book Design

First, a reminder of the interplay of body and image in the remaking of the world through its shattering… Nicole Brossard Sous la langue (1987) Under Tongue translation by Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood Rien n’est prévu pourtant au bout du corps … Continue reading

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Reading Companions

A story of codex technology in situ from Roger Deakin (Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees) Later, as I sit reading in the afternoon sun, a pearl-bordered fritillary comes and settles on my book, enjoying the reflected sunlight. Insects are often … Continue reading

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Autour de la “jolie femme”

The 1972 edition in the series Nouveaux classiques Larousse reproduces on its cover an illustration of the 1821 edition Smart. Compact. But Incomplete. The first excised section in this edition for schools of Diderot’s Le neveu de Rameau is marked … Continue reading

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