Additional Broadsides:
These broadsides are a special few that are favored and have been selected from numbers of others made for specific and varied occasions from nearly the beginning of Ninja Press in 1984.
“Of a Little River in Oxfordshire Neare Kiddington,” Mary Sidney 2010. This previously unpublished sonnet is from a 17th-century manuscript of English poems, a verse miscellany, created circa 1641. It is one of five poems in the miscellany attributed to Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621), by scholars June & Paul Schlueter. The poems were brought to light in 2010 by the Schlueters while researching in the Landesbibliothek und Murhardsche Bibliothek der Stadt in Kassel, Germany. The poems are the only extant examples of the later work of Elizabethan England’s most prolific & highly regarded female poet. (A portrait of Mary Sidney follows the broadside.) Printed in Libra in four colors with additional gold pigment applied by hand. The paper is dampened handmade Velke Losiny, a vintage sheet from the former Czechoslovakia. The mill began making paper in 1596. Mary Sidney was 35 years old. The broadside was printed in honor of the 2010 Paul & June Schlueter Lectureship given by Carolee Campbell and coincides with the 25th anniversary retrospective exhibition of the work of Ninja Press presented at Lafayette College’s Skillman Library in Easton, Pennsylvania, November 8 to January 7, 2011. There are 85 copies in the edition. 16 x 11 inches.
“The Good Marriage,” Michael Hannon 2010, Printed in Bernhard Modern with Hadriano for the display in three colors onto dampened Domestic Etching. Each broadside is hand painted using sumi ink and salt, making every copy unique. The broadside was printed especially for the deluxe edition of Parenthesis 19, the journal of The Fine Press Book Association in an edition of 150 numbered and signed copies. 11 x 7 inches.
“In Praise of Hands,” Stuart Kestenbaum 2008. Printed in Perpetua with Erbar Initials for the display in four colors onto dampened Nideggen. The appropriated ēnso or empty circle is printed from a magnesium plate. The broadside was printed to honor Stuart Kestenbaum and celebrate his twenty years as Director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle in Maine. There are 100 signed copies in the edition. 19 x 13 inches.
“To the Surgeon Kevin Lin,” W.S. Merwin 2005. Printed in Eve (Koch Antiqua) in two colors onto Japanese gasen-shi. The decoration is suminagashi or ‘spilled ink,’ a Japanese technique for decorating paper with ink patterns floating on the surface of water. Every sheet is hand decorated, making each broadside unique. The sheets are attached to a larger sheet of gasen-shi and the two are attached to a still larger sheet of Canson Mi-Teintes, creating a double frame effect. The broadside was printed to honor the work of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and its Director, Dr. Abraham Verghese on the occasion of a visit by W.S. Merwin and a reading of his work. Concurrent with that event was the opening of Ninja Press at Twenty, the twentieth anniversary retrospective exhibition of books, broadsides, and ephemera produced by Carolee Campbell at Ninja Press. 20 x 9.25 inches.
“To the Book,” W.S. Merwin 2003. Printed in Libra in two colors onto dampened kozo kusaki, a Japanese handmade sheet which is no longer available. There are 75 numbered and signed copies in the edition. 12 x 5 inches.
“Flying the Body,” Nathaniel Tarn 2003. Printed in Perpetua with Neuland for the display in four colors onto a dampened handmade Indian sheet in an edition of 70 signed copies. 18 x 13 inches.
“Twin Double-Barrel Shogun,” José Montoya 1990. Printed in Perpetua in two colors onto two different papers: dampened Renaissance III, a handmade sheet from the Barcham Green Hayle Mill in England (and no longer available); and a white T.H. Saunders paper. The broadside is illustrated with a drawing by José Montoya of a Mexican revolutionary arm-in-arm with a ‘pachuco.’ This image is printed from a magnesium plate and was taken from a series of pen-and-ink drawings by Montoya originally created on brown paper towels. There are 75 copies in the edition. Copies on T.H. Saunders paper are signed. Copies on Renaissance III are unsigned. 15 x 22.5 inches.