Ape & Cat by Jim Dine, and, The Madonna of the Future by Henry James, with art by Jim Dine.
Arion Press – Limited Edition
Ape & Cat, accordion-fold album of 18 photogravures by Jim Dine, and The Madonna of the Future by Henry James, with an introduction by Arthur C. Danto and one photogravure by Dine and one tipped-in photograph, in a bound book, presented together in a box with lead-alloy bas-relief sculpture by Dine on lid, 1997.
This publication came about by a remarkable coincidence. The artist Jim Dine had been inspired by a small porcelain figurine of a cat and monkey in human clothes. He enlarged and reinvented the couple for a major series of sculptures, paintings, and drawings. Friends of the artist and the publisher alerted them to a story by Henry James from 1873 that employed the same figurine for different ironic purposes. Dine photographed his clay maquette and bronzes, and Hoyem arranged eighteen of the pictures as a narrative sequence, in which the romance of the two animals movingly evokes the human condition. The philosopher and art critic Arthur Danto wrote an essay on the James story and the Dine works. The book and the album of intaglio prints are enclosed in a box displaying a sculpture specially created by Dine for this edition.
Format, The Madonna of the Future: bound book, 12-1/4 by 83/4 inches, 68 pages. The paper is German Hahnemühle Biblio. The type is Monotype and handset Times New Roman. The photogravure was done as described for Ape & Cat below. The binding is full gray cloth over boards. Numbered and signed by the artist.
Format, Ape & Cat: accordion-fold album, 16 by 12-1/2 inches, opening out to 23 feet in width. The paper is German Hahnemühle Copperplate. The intaglio printing was done at the R. E. Townsend Studio, Georgetown, Massachusetts, from plates made by Jenö Gindl, Berlin, and proofed at Pace Editions, New York City. The covers are full gray cloth over boards. The box containing the album and book is covered in the same cloth, with a bas-relief, 5-1/4 by 6-3/4 inches, in lead alloy by Dine of the heads of a cat and a monkey inset in the lid. The relief mold was made at the Walla Walla Foundry, Washington, and the casting was done at the foundry of M & H Type, San Francisco. The sculpture is inscribed by Dine with his signature and the numbers 97 for the year. The album is numbered and signed by the artist. Edition of 75 copies, $3,500.00.
About the Arion Press
Since its inception in 1974, the Arion Press has published 81 deluxe limited editions that are breathtaking in their scope and artistry. Combining notable literature illustrated with original artwork from prominent artists, Andrew Hoyem and his team at the Arion Press have carried on the tradition of the livre d’artiste in spectacular fashion. Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times put it best when he wrote, "The Arion Press produces some of the most beautiful limited-edition, hand printed books in the world."
