Chansons. Maurice Maeterlink. Gravures by Ginette Litt.

(France: Gustave Arthur Dassonville, 1995.)
21.7cm x 31.9cm x 2.7cm.
Number 8 of an edition of 16; signed by Litt & bibliophile G.A. Dassonville.

A laced-in, full-leather binding in pink goat, montage sur onglets. Cover design interpreted from Litt’s gravures using incised and acrylic-painted lines, sanding, and silk ribbon embellishments. Design elements include hand-sewn silk endbands, leather hinges and black suede pastedowns and flyleaves. Title blind tooled and painted on spine. Bound in 2013.

Six chansons or “songs” make up the text of the book. Litt created seven gravures, one for each song as well as a frontispiece. The shapes on the cover are pulled directly from Litt’s engravings but transformed into single entities, then each shape was sanded for emphasis. Attention was given to placement and consideration to the negative space created between the shapes. Silk ribbon wrapped around thread create bits of linear connection between the cover as a whole and the shapes, much as the songs relate to the whole of the book but are each individual.