James MacSwain

From Dionysus to Florence Nightengale

The tunnel book is not a particularly well known book form. Their construction was inspired by Baroque theatrical stage sets that used the proscenium opening as a frame to present fantastical plots by mythological characters and events. Tunnel books represent an unique meshing of narrative meaning with three-dimensional art. James MacSwain has been making these beautiful books for years and in this new publication he presents five of his books with a narrative written for each one.
Printed in an edition of 20 signed and number copies. 16 pages, 5 in colour. 19 x 18 cm. Letterpress cover in black and gold.

OUT OF PRINT

Bucky Fleur

Emily Goodden

The End of August at the Hotel Ozone

In 1967, Czech new wave film maker, Jan Schmidt, released his archetypal post-apocalyptic film, The End of August at the Hotel Ozone. Through a series of mysterious flukes Schmidt's film was screened at the Pesaro film festival where it received a prize from the Pope. That same year, the film was shown at the science fiction film festival in Trieste. There it began to receive international recognition.
Perro Verlag's publication is a humorous hommage to Schmidt's film and a new, though not particularly contemporary, version of the Hotel. Printed in an edition of 29 copies. Fifty pages with rainbow roll cover. A Small fold-out booklet by Goodden is bound into the “Guest Book” section.
Each copy comes in an oversized letterpressed interdepartmental envelope. 31 x 22cm.

OUT OF PRINT

Oscar Scott

The Everything Patterns

For an eight year old, Oscar Scot is surprisingly interested in abstract painting and drawing. His book, The Everything Patterns maps out his technique of inventing new forms with a variety of materials as he progresses through the book.
12 pages. 21.5 x.14 cm. Fabriano carta crea cream cover stock. Printed in an edition of 20.

Out of print.

Ray Fenwick

New Titles from Babel Press

In August 2013, Ray Fenwick participated in the Print and Publishing Symposium in Dawson City, Yukon. Each of the seven invited participants spent the three days giving demonstrations of a variety of printmaking techniques. Working with a 36 point sans serif font and a table top platen press Fenwick created these title pages to demonstrate the art of composing, setting and printing with lead type. Beginning with the first title: THE COMBED THUNDER CLAP, each succesive title was created by changing only one or two letters of the previous title to make a new variation. The resulting permutations are a display of concrete poetry that is hilarious and brilliant. This publication is a facsimile edition of the suite of 30 title pages printed in the historic Dawson Daily News building during the symposium.
32 pages, perfect bound. Printed in an edition of 50.

OUT OF PRINT

Jo Cook

Aparine

The tall sticky plants that cling to your clothes when walking up late summer hedgerows are a species of aparine, taken from the Greek apara meaning to “seize”. With seven illustrations and six very brief poems, Cook collages references to Galium aparine, otherwise known as cleavers, or clivers, cliver-ma-clitch and sticky willy (young leaves may be eaten as a cooked vegetable). 16 pages saddle-stitched with letterpress cover and peacock blue end sheets.
Printed in an edition of 35 copies. 19,5x14 cm.

OUT OF PRINT

Julia Feyrer

Script Ruins by Page Turner

Script Ruins by Page Turner compiles photocopied pages of escape scenes taken from action/adventure movie scripts. Feyrer alters the script’s recto and verso sides with doodles, smudges, tears and unrelated but essential information. Annotations and mnemonics (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally) scribbled across the surfaces take marginalia to a new level where the additional content not only competes with the narrative of the original scripts but completely takes it over.
Printed in a limited edition of 40 copies. 26 pages with ruined woodcut front and back covers. 27,5 x 21,5.

OUT OF PRINT

Jo Cook

Sparrows for the Astronomer

Relying heavily on Arthur Koestler’s book The Sleepwalkers, Cook uses her notes taken after reading about and imagining events in the early life of Johannes Kepler. While enduring painful physical disabilities, bitter disappointments, unrelenting financial difficulties and severe myopia, Kepler kept his eyes on the stars. The wonder of it is this chapbook’s subject. Printed in an edition of 40 copies. 24 pages saddle-stitched with wrap-around 3 colour letterpress dust jacket.
Printed end sheets.21x15cm.

OUT OF PRINT

James MacSwain and Jo Cook

Dora and Leonora

Dora and Leonora by James MacSwain and Jo Cook is an other-worldly account of the friendship between the artists Leonora Carrington and Dora Carrington. The two Carringtons were from different generations. They were not related and never met in this world, but the fictional story of their meeting and journey together is a tale of what can happen in the world of the imagination. Illustrated with fourteen full-colour collages. 36 pages. 23x18cm.

OUT OF PRINT

Allen Ginsberg Illustrated by James MacSwain

A Supermarket in California

A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg Illustrated by James MacSwain is the 4th of MacSwain’s lavishly coloured collage books published by Perro Verlag. In this new title, full-page images illustrate each of Ginsberg’s melancholy stanzas - a song to Walt Whitman from the supermarket isles. The sections of text are printed on sheets of heavy-weight vellum. Gorgeous and erotic! 16 pages, 21 x 31 cm.

OUT OF PRINT

Individual $35.00 CADInstitution $45.00 CAD

Courtney Burke and James Whitman

Behead Roll Tell

Behead Roll Tell by Courtney Burke and James Whitman is an astonishing tour-de-force of linocut printing: Inside are ten full-page ink jet prints and ten full-page 1 and 2 colour linocut prints on two shades of blue paper. The cover is a linocut printed in silver ink on heavy wine-coloured stock. Wowee! An exceptionally gorgeous book.

Printed in an edition of 50 signed and numbered copies. Perfect bound. 24 pages, 26x19cm.

OUT OF PRINT

Julia Feyrer and Tamara Henderson

Les Bouteilles de la Table Ronde

Les Bouteilles de la Table Ronde by Julia Feyrer and Tamara Henderson is an epic collection of women’s drinking songs sung to the tune of “Chevaliars de la Table Ronde”. A full page drawing by Feyrer and Henderson faces each page of lyrics with one uniquely fingerprinted page. Printed on five different shades of paper. Two-colour woodblock and letterpress printed cover. A wild colourful collection of lyrics and images.

Printed in an edition of 50 copies. 44 pages. 30x24cm.

OUT OF PRINT

Jo Cook

HGFED.JANVr

The images in this book, pieced together from rough photocopied pages of early astronomical, astrological and alchemical treatises, are combined using chance operations to produce mixed-up oneiric diagrams that float in and out of recognizable representation. The verso of each sheet is illuminated with hand-drawn oil pastel star forms. Every copy of this book is different from every other one. Published in a first edition of 37 copies.

32 pages, 16 on cream paper and 16 on blue paper. Linocut and letterpress covers printed on Canson Wave Green. 27,5x21,5 cm. 2012.

OUT OF PRINT

ISBN 978-1-89724390-9

Wesley Mulvin

All the Time in the World

Wesley Mulvin builds and repairs clocks. He keeps his eye on the time. In this book he presents diagrams of his research into flat time, orange time, tea time, the end of time and even reproductive time. Also included are drawings of various clock parts: suspension springs, escape wheels and cannon pinions for Smith, Enfield and Seth Thomas clocks. 20 pages.

Rubber-stamp cover. Saddle-stitched. 21x14,5 cm. 2011.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978-1-897243-89-3

Peggy Thompson

The Lost Journals of Mocha Chien

Peggy Thompson, a Genie award-winning screenwriter, deploys her storytelling art in this hilariously poignant tale of a confusion of genders and the power of the canine nose to problem-solve. The plot focuses on the adventures of the intrepid duo Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, as told from the point of view of their dapper dachshund, Mocha Chien. Thompson also uses her not inconsiderable skill as a comic artist to create illuminating illustrations.

14 pages. Two-colour letterpress cover on St-Armand handmade paper. Perfect-bound. 13,5x21,5 cm. 2011.

Out of Print

ISBN 978–1–897243–82–4

Susan Kooi

The Existing and the Extinct

Is there life on the earth? Is there life after birth? These are the opening questions on the first page of this book. Kooi’s interest in dinosaurs and the time and space continuum—or, just as often, no time and no space—are evident in these collages and drawings. Despite its funny and fun appearance, though, this book is not for children. It’s all deeply metaphysical while aiming to break into the historical fiction genre. Brought to you by the Lystrosaurus, whose survival made it all possible.

24 pages, 8 in colour. Screenprint cover. Saddle-stitched. 11x14 cm. 2010.

Out of Print

ISBN 978–1–897243–74–9

Billy Mavreas

Seeds

Have you ever wondered about the energy stored in dried-up seeds? What’s inside that makes it possible for life to spring out with just a wee bit of watering? Billy Mavreas has either spent his childhood dissecting seeds to find out just what a seed is made of, or he’s used the powers of his X-ray vision to compose the drawings for this book. Smudgy, spirited and teeming with rockin’ roiling energy, Billy’s drawings give us an entry into the vast mysteries a seed can hold.

28 pages. Two-colour letterpress cover. Saddle-stitched. 15x13,5 cm. 2010.

OUT OF PRINT

ISBN978–1–897243–75–6

Julia Feyrer

Scraps

How do you know if it’s there? And where’s the there anyway? Especially when what’s there on the page was never there in the first place. Scraps is a collection of related and unrelated, blurred, shadowy and half melted-away stuff—the stuff of museum catalogues, bus shelters, derelict garages and the studio floor. The images are a degraded low-res motley hodgepodge of mysterious beauty. As in Feyrer’s films, the narrative is found in the beholder’s imagination. Oh, and the magus, Aleister Crowley, is there too—if you can find him.

12 full-colour pages. Perfect-bound. 27x21,5 cm. 2011.

OUT OF PRINT

ISBN 978–1–897243–76–3

Owen Plummer

Owen Plummer's Trouble Doubles

This book reads from front to back, but when you get to the end and close the cover you will want to turn the back cover upside down and look through the pages all over again from a brand-new perspective. Designed by Plummer to be read either way, this is a two-for-the-price-of-one book. All of Plummer’s elaborately detailed images look fantastic whichever way the book is opened.

24 pages, 4 in full colour. Two-colour letterpress and linocut cover on silver paper. Saddle-stitched. 21x15,5 cm. 2011.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978-1-896243-86-2

Ross Macaulay

Recipe Written from Memory #1

It’s OK. Even if you still have your greasy forty-year-old copy of Joy of Cooking, you can take delight in Ross Macaulay’s Recipe Written from Memory #1, and even make use of it. The first in Macaulay’s series of illustrated cookbooks, Recipe #1 is subtitled This is HOW I BAKE Focaccia. Each page of the booklet displays a new and different font produced by Macaulay to add more interest and pleasure to your time spent baking than any traditional cookbook could provide. NB: This focaccia recipe was tested in the Perro Verlag Kitchens to ensure quality and accuracy of measurement.

12 pages. Letterpress cover. Saddle-stitched. 21x14 cm. 2011.

Out of Print

ISBN 978–1–897243–79–4

Marlaina Buch

Hunter Rapper

In this book, the performance artist Marlaina Buch gives us her rap lyrics that are not for the faint vegetarian heart. Buch’s message might be that eating meat is OK, and even good for you, and hunting animals for food is better than buying your meat over the counter in the supermarket. “Forest Flesh ain’t diabolical. Grill it Babe, it’s biological!” Is Buch being ironic here? In another stanza from the same song: “‘I don’t eat eggs. I don’t eat cheese.’ Please! Your cell phone is killing off them killer bees.” 20 pages, with 5 colour pages of Buch’s performances.

Two-colour letterpress cover complete with digital camouflage binding tape. A link to some free tunes is provided on a faux CD at the back of the book. Saddle-stitched. 16x17,5 cm. 2011.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978–1–897243–81–7

Owen Plummer

Owen Plummer´s Mystic Crossing

Reader beware! This 60-page book will blow your mind. It is something of a biblio-retrospective for Plummer—none of the drawings here have ever been seen before, but it’s like a “Best of,” crammed as it is with full-colour drawings, black-and-white drawings on green paper, and pages of text with important hand-lettered information like: LOST lightning bolt! If found call: ZEUS!

20 full-colour pages, with 40 black-and-white drawings. Two-colour letterpress and linoleum cover. Perfect-bound. (Pass the Tooth! Gnaw the Goose!) 18,5x13,5 cm. 2010.

Out of Print

ISBN 978–1–897243.71–8

Jo Cook & James Whitman

Altered Art Treasures

With a new photocopier and generous amounts of white gouache, Jo Cook and James Whitman spent a weekend de-facing and re-imagining seventeen museum classics, including Cranach’s Portrait of Anna Buchner and Uccello’s Peccato Originale. Worked on more than seven years ago and published here for the first time, these grotty and dangerous collages depict an art history that has been abducted by aliens, never to return.

30 black-and-white pages. Letterpress and rubber stamp cover with vellum endpapers. Saddle-stitched. 19x14,5 cm. 2011.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978–1–897243–41–1

Bucky Fleur

Lost Worlds #1

Lost Worlds #1 is a short story told with rubber stamps. In fact, every letter of every word is individually stamped. The characters too are rubber-stamped. The plot of this chapbook focuses on the Black Spider Crab King, whose purse of gold money has been stolen by the Prawns, who were once the King’s loyal subjects. Now the prawns are revolting (in both senses). There are some slippery fish and inquisitive dinosaurs who also get involved in the mayhem.

16 pages printed on manila paper. Letterpress and screenprints on scrappy orange construction paper cover. Saddle-stitched. 21,5x17,5 cm. 2010.

Out of Print

ISBN 978-1-897243-73-2

Nico Vassilakis

Correlated Readings

How many people these days are able to read and write shorthand? It is still possible to find two-column spiral-bound stenographic notebooks in dollar stores and it is also possible to find course books on stenography. The Seattle poet Nico Vassilakis has taken one of these instructional books, Thomas Natural Shorthand, to work with in this series of images for a correlated reading practice. The shorthand textbook pages provide a wave-like ground for Vassilakis’s collaged cut-up letter patterns as they tumble down and across the pages.

16 pages. Three-colour letterpress cover. Saddle-stitched. 17,5x10,5 cm. 2011.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978-1-897243-83-1

Jo Cook

e(ye(s)ee)

This twelve-page poetry pamphlet asks, “What eyls yr two een e’e wit?”—in short, nonsensical rhymes. Cook has thoughtfully included a glossary for een, eyer, eyren, eyr and eyrar as a guide for the perplexed, but even with the gloss there’s not much sense to be found here. It is better just to sing-song the rhymes and enjoy the nonsense.

Two-colour cover with collaged eye stickers. Saddle-stitched. 21x13,5 cm. 2010.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978-1-897243-68-8

Wesley Mulvin

Where We Come From

After watching films about the cosmos, we’re often left wondering if the traditional myths about our beginnings are any more far-fetched than the physicists’ theories. Where We Come From is a chapbook that harkens back to the spare rib myth to explain certain events at the dawn of human history. Illustrated with a series of 12 crayon-and-pencil drawings that foreground Eros as the primary mover and shaker of our existence. Each copy comes sealed by a fluorescent pink strip with a 14+ rating.

12 pages. Perfect-bound. 13,5x19,5 cm. 2010.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978-1-897243-31-2

Rebecca Dolen

It’s My Sketchbook

As it says on this book’s title page, It’s My Sketchbook is “a collection of drawings from the sketchbook of Rebecca Dolen.” The subtitle might read: A treatise on levitation, architecture and the magical beams we are all the time beaming—or shying away from. In her sketchbook Dolen records enchanted events in a universe of marvels. Turning these pages is equivalent to saying “Open Sesame!” Fasten your seatbelt! These are imagination-expanding drawings.

36 full-colour pages. Letterpress cover. Saddle-stitched. 22,5x14,5 cm. Second edition 2011.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978-1-897243- 62-6

Peggy Thompson

Night School

After taking various night school courses, Peggy Thompson’s mice have acquired skills far beyond the abilities of our common household rodents. These charming creatures have learned to drive, break-dance, play the ukulele and ride a two-wheeler—and they are proud of it. Illustrated with fluid pen-and-ink drawings made during one summer afternoon session.

24 pages. Saddle-stitched. 15x13,5 cm. 2010.

Out of Print

ISBN 978-1-897243-65-7

Ed Varney

The Book of Nada

“Nada, in its purist form, doesn’t exist even as a ground for potential or possibility. It is absolutely and entirely vacant, it absorbs and negates every idea of what it could be,” writes Varney. This Nada sounds like the Dark Energy our leading physicists now believe dominates the contents of the universe. Nothing (Nada) is more than everything else! This could be a book of theoretical physics or a book of literature akin to Alfred Jarry’s pataphysical essays. In any case it is a wonderful work by a mature artist/writer who has been thinking about Nada for most of his life.

16 pages, with 3 illustrations by Jo Cook. Two-colour cover on Papeterie St-Armand handmade paper. Saddle-stitched. 17,5x10,5 cm. 2011.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978-1-897243-80-0

 

James MacSwain

Illustrations for Kubla Khan

What artist would consider taking on Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Where most artists fear to tread, James MacSwain is invited in. For his Illustrations for Kubla Khan, MacSwain dreamt up wild, evocative images laid out as catalogue displays of shimmering anatomical, architectural, naval, floral and equestrian exhibits. Conceived in excessive and possibly opium-drenched abandon.

22 pages, 10 in full colour, and 10 pages of text printed on heavyweight vellum. Two-colour letterpress cover on Papeterie St-Armand handmade paper. Hand-sewn Japanese binding. 21x32 cm. 2011.

Out of Print

ISBN 978-1-897243-82-4

Wesley Mulvin

Remorse

Wesley Mulvin has written this about his book: These sketches were drawn in a London movie house while watching The Arbor, a film without remorse. Now that I’ve made these sketches I will never get this film out of my head. But what is the use of remorse to us now? Darkly comic, overdrawn and chaotic, the images are a complex combination of gritty intensity and thrown-off casualness.

30 pages. Orange vellum cover. Perfect-bound. 10x11,5 cm. 2010.

OUT OF PRINT 

ISBN 978-1-897243-78-7

derek beaulieu

Quartet for 6 Voices

Well known for his large letraset installations, beaulieu has made a bookwork bursting with the same energetic expansiveness that his room-size works encompass.

4 full-colour pages, which open out as gatefolds. Letterpress cover and title page. Perfect-bound. 12x17,5 cm. 2010.

Out of Print

ISBN 978-1-897243-70-1