Pyramus & Thisbe; distilled from the pages of A Midsummer Night's Dream, woodcuts by Chris Nurse

Oblong 4to, 10 x 11 1/4 inches (247 x 286 mm), 52 pp. unnumbered, Somerset 250g paper, Somerset type. 20+ chiaroscuro woodcuts, including 2 double-page spreads and numerous headers and tail pieces also woodcut. 3/4 brown morocco binding with blind stamping and printed boards from woodcuts by the artist, title on spine in blind, edges uncut. Signed by the artist, and numbered 55 in pencil on the limitation page, from the edition of 160. The somewhat irreverent decision to make a book out of just the 'play within a play' so that the 'rude mechanicals' could literally take centre stage, has here given rise to a suite of masterly relief prints. In a recent essay about the work of Chris Nurse, Ann Jones, a curator at the Hayward Gallery wrote, of these images: They are, however, not really illustrations in the conventional sense. Although they are clearly inspired by the richness of the text, like the best artists' books, they capture a parallel vision. They convey the atmosphere and complexity of the written word, rather than illustrating it literally. Chris Nurse writes: The project draws together many earlier preoccupations and influences; the tradition of the grotesque, carnival and folkloric rites that make light of sex and death. It is always preferable to first learn of death through the loss of a guinea pig or goldfish. [book presentation on Old Stile Press' website.] Chris Nurse was born in London in 1962 and studied Printmaking at the Royal College of Art before completing a Rome Scholarship in 1991. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally in Kyoto, Baltimore, Missouri, Guttersloh, and Rome.…