Janus

2008 · rif. 9780 — Newark VT: Janus Press 2008. Original Wrappers. Fine binding. Quarto. 65 3 pp. illus specimens. Limited edition one of 200 numbered copies. Letterpress printed from polymer plates on Finale paper the last paper made at Hayle Mill. Longstitch binding in wrappers with printed paper title label on the front cover. Housed in a clamshell box containing a letterpress printed three color map of "Loose Valley 1856 with the Mills on Loose Stream"; a portfolio with 19 photographs reprinted from the Hayle Mill Archives; and a portfolio of sample papers. A fine copy. This remarkable work of scholarship delves into the history of papermaking in Kent along the Loose Stream and the history of this particular firm started by John Pine and sold before a decade had passed to John Green whose descendants would remain at the helm generation after generation until it closed in 1987. At which time it was the "last industrial handmade mill of its kind in commercial operation in Britain" p. 60. But this book is so much more: to look at the care and presentation of this history it is as much an ode to paper and papermaking as it is a mere history. Van Vliet is an artist whose relationship with paper is distinctive among her peers-from her pulp painting and paper making to the fact that most all the books from the Janus Press are bound in thoughtfully designed paper bindings the structure of many being her own invention paper is part of every design aspect. The 16th century epigraph speaks volumes: "I prayse the man that first did paper make the only thing that sets all vertues forth: It shoes newe bookes and keepes old workes awake much more of price than all this world is worth. . . ." It's fitting that this history is printed on paper from the Hayle Mill with a watermark specially designed by Van Vliet for the final paper made at the mill. Janus Press unknown