DANNY: Man, Horse, and Sea

Danny Pierce.
Man, Horse, and Sea. [Shorewood, Wis.: Red Door Studio, 1979]. 44 x 35 cm.
Call Number: (SPL-FOLIO) NE 1325 .P5x M3

COLOPHON: This is the tenth in the series of limited edition folio-books published by the Red Door Studio
press. The Plates and Illuminations are original woodcuts and printed on a Gordon Platen Press. The text is set
in Caslon Oldstyle No. 471-50 and the titles are designed after Plantin and cut in wood. The paper is handmade
HMP grey 88, 70 lb., cold press, waterleaf, wove, 100 percent rag content supplied by HMP Papers, Barlow
Cemetery Road, Woodstock Valley, Connecticut. (The paper was run through an etching press to flatten the
texture on one side.) Box designed and constructed in English calf and Belgian linen by the Artist-Author.
Limited to 30 signed and numbered copies. Volume Number 8.

Danny Pierce.
Man, Horse, and Sea. [Woodcuts, Danny Pierce; Verse, Bert Peleman; translation, Marcus Cumberlege]. [Shorewood, Wis.: Red Door Studio, 1982] 44 x 35 cm.
Call Number: (RARE) NE 1325 .P5x M36

COLOPHON: This edition of Man Horse and Sea is a second state with ten woodcuts from the original and
ten Flemish poems with English translations. The woodcuts are hand rubbed on Tableau. The text is hand set
Caslon Oldstyle No. 471 series 51 and printed on Stonehinge, a 100 percent rag paper. The cover is designed
and made by Danny Pierce. Vol. No. 8/30 2nd state.

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"May 1980 a student knowing my interest in horses and the sea brought a National Geographic magazine to class with a photograph of a great horse mounted by a Belgian shrimp fisherman with large wicker baskets hanging from both sides. When I arrived home I said, ‘Let's go to Belgium when summer vacation starts.' It gave us only a month to prepare. Information was hard to get. I finally wrote to the man who wrote the article in the magazine. I also called a friend in New York City, and within an hour had all the information about the Belgian shrimp festival, dates, etc.

"In Bruge, we made contact with the man who had helped the magazine author. He drove us to Oostduinkerke, and arranged for us to meet one of the shrimp fishermen. He also made arrangements for my wife and me to stay in a hotel as guests of the Belgium Government and the city of Oostduinkerke. I followed the fisherman for two weeks whenever the tide was right or the day was calm. The assistant mayor met us for breakfast each morning and escorted us around Flanders on the days bad for fishing.

"On returning to the studio in Shorewood I started working on the book. Before leaving the States I had made up an outline to help organize the research for the story. This proved very helpful and I avoided wasting time as well as film even when in some cases things changed drastically on location.

"For Man, Horse, and Sea I could not find the paper I wanted. I called John Kohler, a former student of mine who was producing hand made paper in Connecticut. He came up with a beautiful grey paper suggestive of the North Sea. The problem was it would not take a good impression from the woodblock. I solved this by running it through the etching press sheet by sheet.

"In 1981 I was invited to have an exhibition of the book along with paintings and drawings in Oostduinkerke, Belgium. Arrangements were made for a Belgium poet Mr. Bert Pelman, of Antwerp, to compose 10 four line poems to be read at the opening. They were poems about 10 of the woodcuts in Man Horse and Sea. Before leaving Belgium, I contacted a man in Bruge, to translate the poems into English. Thus Man Horse and Sea II was born. It is fortunate I still had the blocks as it is my custom to destroy them after the editions are run."

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Text Accompanying Above Horse

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URL: http://www.uwm.edu/Library/special/exhibits/danny/danpg10.htm
Last edited on Friday, November 30, 2001.