Coast
CF + John Pratt + Bernard Hardy, 2019
8pp gatefold chapbook, 270 x 160 (closed). Handset letterpress on Zerkall laid 120gsm paper. Edition of 36, 24 for sale at Aus$450 each (pph).
Design + woodcuts (JP), design + letterpress (CF), poetry by BH.
Coast is a fine press folded chapbook featuring selection of five poems from Bernard Hardy’s 2004 poetry volume Berlang (Canberra: Textures Press). Each poem is situated on the gorgeous far south coast of NSW: Bermagui, Berlang, Ulladulla, and Near Nowra, along with an excerpt from the poem Coast:
Clouds pile up to the noon, mask the sun
We watch the ocean turn from ultramarine
To prussian,as it suits the sky’s
Mercurial moods, a mirror blue to the cumulus
Climbing the horizon’s step;
Then we wade the dunes to the ti-trees
Shading the road’s shoulder,
Its gravel edge.
The gorgeous multi-block coloured woodcuts by John Pratt extend Hardy’s poetic imagery across the folded pages, and the unobtrusive typography by Caren Florance is handset in 10pt Grotesque lead type. The archival rag mould-made paper has a fine waving watermark through it.
All production was undertaken in the Printmedia & Drawing Book Studio at the ANU School of Art and Design, Canberra, Australia.
Each copy is signed by both artists and the poet.
