The Illuminated Desert
Moab, UT: Canyonlands Natural History Association / Back of Beyond Books, 2008. Chloe Hedden. Very limited edition. Leather bound. Unpaginated. Duodecimo [18 cm] Text by Terry Tempest Williams. Art by Chloe Hedden. Calligraphy by Chris Montague. One of five copies of this very limited edition, custom-bound in brown leather by Restoration Books in Logan, Utah. The five were smaller printer's dummies for a limited folio edition of 26 for Back of Beyond Books in Moab, Utah. The boards are decoratively embossed in blind with representations of pictographs. Gilt spine, marbled endpapers. Fine. Item #57673
This charming production is patterned after the illuminated manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The author describes it as: "...a naturalist's book of prayers, a collection of episodes, seen by two students of the natural world." The volume is arranged alphabetically with each page representing a different letter of the alphabet (A is for Antelope). The pages are beautifully illustrated. A glossary at the end of the book provides natural histories to accompany the small devotions of the desert alphabet.
Price: $500.00