BLAKE I Happy Abstract, Russel Maret I Open Set, 2020 I Grolier Club, NYC

Fine printer Russel Maret printing of a letter written by William Blake to a client apologizing for running late on a commission, a failing which he attributes to being as he described "a happy abstract". William Blake, one of the first ever Book Artists, was famously given to hallucinations and visitations from angels and Michaelangelo himself. The ends attempt to reflect this frenetic part of his personality, with a reproduction in copper-plate of an etching titled "the damned soul" which was coloured and inked over, with surface leaf and purple paper inlays. This is in contrast to a more muted covering in white calf with grey mono-printing, and inlays of mother of pearl.