A Golden Thread

A Golden Thread: The Minotaur – A Contemporary Illumination
Mindy Belloff, artist, designer, printer, and publisher. Text: The Minotaur short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne from Tanglewood Tales, 1853. Additional text includes quotes of Carl Jung and text from Lorem Ipsum. Edition of 32 standard in quarter leather and 8 deluxe design bindings, all with 23-karat gilt edges, one hundred original drawings and two hundred press runs; 14.75 x 11 inches; 2018. (Please email IntimaPress at yahoo.com for current price.) View Prospectus:  AGoldenThread2018ProspectusWeb

Exhibition: A Golden Thread was prominently featured in an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum titled, “The Creative Legacy of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Selections from the Phillips Library” (September 2019 – March 2020).

Award Winning Book: A Golden Thread: The Minotaur received a Fine Press Book Association Collector’s Prize during New York’s Rare Book Week, considered among the Best in Show at the March 2020 Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair, the book was awarded 2nd place, Honorable Mention.

Parenthesis journal Review: Michael Ryan described A Golden Thread as, “a genuine masterpiece of art and design, an exuberant mix of color, texture, style, and format,” and concluded, “The book is a stunning achievement by one of our most gifted artists, mature and at the peak of her powers.” See full review: A Golden Thread Review 2019

Released May 2018, A Golden Thread is a new tour de force edition from Intima Press. The text by Hawthorne retells the classic Greek tragedy of Theseus, brave son of King Aegeus, who ventures into Daedalus’ labyrinth with his sword at the ready seeking the Minotaur beast, and a silken thread in hand held by the heroine, Ariadne, who awaits at the entrance to the maze.

Composed of 100 original drawings, each page is meticulously designed and letterpress printed in multiple press runs with an elegant color palette. With inspiration from historic illuminated manuscripts, the pages in the first and third sections are adorned with hand drawn initial caps, ornate borders, and lively calligrams. A selection of the exquisite illustrations are hand painted with watercolor and gouache. Elegantly typeset in Adobe Garamond with additional type faces, the text comes alive, as it gradually becomes larger and more animated with each page, as Theseus bravely winds his way through the dreaded labyrinth to confront the bull-headed monster. The dynamic typographic designs of the middle section of the book become more frenzied and chaotic as the narrative describes the fight between the beast and the hero.

The pages are printed on lush cotton rag papers with deckled fore edge. The story unfolds on ivory colored pages which darken to tan as our hero enters the mizmaze, and transitions to bright white as he emerges victorious. The St. Armand paper fibers are made of offcuts from the clothing industry (T-shirts, denim) and flax straw sourced from farms.

Fine Edition limited to 32 + 8 unique design bindings, 92-pages [28 blank] in format of folios. Printed on a Vandercook Uni III Automatic A/B press. Endsheets letterpress printed, front and back uniquely illustrated. One hundred original drawings and approximately two hundred press runs.

Two gilt edges on head and tail in 23-karat gold, with cover design and label in gold foil on leather, gilded by Peter Geraty, MA. Hand sewn on linen tapes with cover in quarter leather Pergamena blue calf skin with white Canal paper, housed inside a gold cloth clamshell box with gold foil stamped leather label, bound by Celine Lombardi, NY. Cotton rag papers in ivory, tan, and white, made at St. Armand Paperie, Canada. Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates produced at Boxcar Press, NY. Signed by the artist, M. Belloff, Intima Press, New York.

Design Binding No. 1:
Design, artwork and letterpress printing by artist Mindy Belloff.
Binding and clamshell box executed by Gabby Cooksey, WA.
23-karat gold gilding on head & tail by Peter Geraty, MA.
Full white goat leather with letterpress printing, leather inlays and onlays; 38 all natural gemstones may include genuine sapphire, emerald, ruby, citrine, amethyst, garnet, topaz, peridot, agate, topaz, carnelian, and iolite stones; inlayed Mother of Pearl horns wrapped with gold thread; brass with gold stamped leather serpentine clasp; red goat full leather clamshell box with gold tooling and label onlay. [SOLD – 1 variation available on commission]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design Binding No. 2:
Design, artwork and letterpress printing by artist Mindy Belloff.
Binding, gilding and clamshell box executed by Master Binder Peter Geraty, MA.
Text design letterpress printed in multiple color runs with Cowley’s fine Vellum calfskin cover, black leather spine, 23-karat gold labyrinth and black foil stamping of quotes of Carl Jung, border and raven drawings. Full black goat leather clamshell with leather inlays and 23-karat gilding. [SOLD – 1 variation available on commission]

 

 

 

 

 

Design Binding No. 3 (Jan. 2021):
Designed, letterpress printed, and collaged by Mindy Belloff
Bound by Mark Tomlinson, MA. Sewing and box by Celine Lombardi, ME.
Text letterpress printed in multiple color runs, collaged front and back covers by Mindy Belloff with red leather onlays and red leather spine, binding executed by Mark Tomlinson. Clamshell box in deep blue book cloth with red leather onlays, titling gold leaf on red leather, and sewing by Celine Lombardi. 23-karat gold gilding on head and tail, by Peter Geraty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design Binding No. 4  (February 2023)
Letterpress printed trilogy portrait on parchment with leather case.
Designed, letterpress printed, and hand painted with watercolor and gouache on Pergamena parchment by Mindy Belloff.
Leather buffalo skin and parchment covers bound by Rebecca Staley, MA. Sewing and clamshell box with purple buffalo skin and leather onlays by Celine Lombardi, ME. Gilding 23k of head and tail by Peter Geraty, MA.  Please inquire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video of A Golden Thread 2016-2023, all imagery copyright MBelloff, Intima Press: