The Golden Hair of Medusa – A Contemporary Illumination
Mindy Belloff, artist, designer, printer, and publisher. Text from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, The Gorgon’s Head, a retelling of the myth of Medusa in A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys: Heroes & Monsters of Greek Mythology, published in 1852. Additional text from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book IV and V, quotes of Sigmund Freud on Medusa and the castration complex, Carl G. Jung’s writings on archetypes, and song lyrics by the The Who.
Edition of 40: 32 standard in quarter leather and up to 8 deluxe design bindings. Over 100 original drawings, hand painting, 23-karat gilt edges, 14.5 x 10.75 inches, 2025. Released April 2025 – A Companion Book to the award winning volume, A Golden Thread: The Minotaur. TheGoldenHairOfMedusa IntimaPressProspectus
The Golden Hair of Medusa is a new dynamic edition from Intima Press. This Greek tragedy recounts the story of Perseus, son of Danaë (visited by Zeus in a shower of gold), who is commanded by the evil King Polydectes to bring the head of the Gorgon Medusa to him as a wedding gift for his betrothed. Perseus is aided by Quicksilver (Hermes/Mercury) and his sister (Athena/Minerva), as they seek to find the three Gray Women (the Graeae sisters) and the Nymphs for guidance.
The reader is taken on a visually stunning adventure. Although it is not only the journey of Perseus, as Hawthorne retells it. It is very much Medusa’s story as well, as the artist reminds us in the title and throughout book with additions to the origins of the myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and jolting images, “at once beautiful and savage.” It is Medusa, the young woman, raped by Poseidon and punished by the goddess Athena, who changes Medusa’s golden hair into hissing snakes, who is the forgotten character. Medusa, banished to a life secluded, is trapped in turmoil only to be hunted and violated again – a decapitated trophy, feared by men. Medusa transformed, possesses the power of her own gaze now turned upon the male gaze, as the reader, engaged in the seductive beauty of each page – it’s color, texture, composition and images – cannot look away.
The narrative and mini-narratives are realized through the Artist’s deep understanding of color and composition. Mediterranean aqua blues, purples, oranges, and golds are printed on a variety of colored sheets. The Artist leads the eyes of the viewer in and out of each page, traveling from light into darkness, as paper, ink, typography and sequencing builds drama and intrigue.
About the Edition: The volume is beautifully composed with over 100 original drawings and exceptional typography, meticulously printed letterpress in multiple press runs, with an exquisite color palette. The Golden Hair unfolds throughout four colors of lush, textured handmade papers. Beginning with the white of daylight, it transitions to silver grey as dusk falls and Perseus meets the Three Gray Women and the Nymphs. The paper and mood shifts to the darker grey of evening as Perseus approaches the island of the Gorgons. The haze of translucent paper segues into blackness as the attack on Medusa begins, and the dynamic typography becomes more frenzied and chaotic. The viewer strains to see in the darkness of the deep night through muted greens, pinks, blues, metallic golds, silvers, and coppers as we meet the Ethiopian Princess Andromeda and Pegasus. The section concludes with the regal head of Medusa revealed. In the final paper change, we emerge again in a blinding light of bright white, as Medusa’s gaze turns men to stone and contemporary commentary shifts the focus.
Inspired by medieval manuscripts and Japanese prints, pages are adorned with hand drawn initial caps, ornate borders, whimsical bas-de-page images, and lively calligrams. A selection of the exquisite illustrations are hand painted with watercolor, gouache, and liquid acrylic. The main text is elegantly typeset in Adobe Garamond with additional type faces highlighting passages. In the black section the text becomes more animated, larger and chaotic, as Perseus approaches the island of the Gorgon sisters to decapitate Medusa.
There were over 1,300 sheets in various stages of printing at the Studio for over a year, as the press was run over 10,000 times, with more than 160 press set ups for the edition. Additional sheets of translucent Satin Vellum were printed for the black paper section.
Fine Edition: This Fine Letterpress Edition is limited to 40 copies: 32 standard + up to 8 unique design deluxe bindings. Approximately 108-pages [33 blank] in format of folios, printed on a Vandercook Universal III Automatic A/B press, with over 100 original drawings, a selection of which are hand painted. Front and back endsheets are letterpress printed and uniquely illustrated with an ancient map and mythological portraits.
Two gilt edges o
n the head and tail in 23-karat gold, with cover design and label in gold on leather, are gilded by Peter Geraty, MA. Hand sewn on linen tapes with cover in quarter leather Pergamena teal calf skin with white handmade paper covering, housed inside a yellow-gold cloth clamshell box,with gold stamped leather label, sewn and bound by Celine Lombardi, ME. Cotton rag handmade papers with deckle edge in white, silver grey, dark grey, and black, commissioned from Saint Armand Paperie, Canada. Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates produced at Boxcar Press, NY. Signed by the artist, M. Belloff, Intima Press, New York, NY, c. 2025.
Copyright M. Belloff & Intima Press Editions.
All rights reserved. All images on this website and works of art
are protected by the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990.
