Springs, An Artist Book By Enid Mark

Book Cover

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University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

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Introduction

Springs is a limited edition artist's book created by Mark, Enid and published by the ELM Press in 1990. The book was made in Wallingford Pennsylvania, and features a series of hand-pulled lithographs printed from a combination of hand-drawn and photographic plates. This 11.5 x 36-inch book comprises of 10 pages, each page featuring a full-length image. Text is sparse, and can be found hidden within the pictures, title page, and front cover. The book is Mark's reflection of her visit to the Pollock-Krasner house. This particular copy is the second of only 25 signed copies by the author. It was acquired for the Penn Libraries with the assistance of Martin and Margy Meyerson Endowment Fund for Special Collections. Springs offers a unique creative experience, as it blends elements of Pollock's action painting with Mark's own artistic style.

Historical Context

Born in 1932, in New York City, Mark attended the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan and Smith College, where she studied English literature and studio art. In the early years of her career, she pursued painting and printmaking, and came to favor the technique of photolithography. As her career progressed, she began to gain the reputation of an adventurous bookmaker who explored many printing techniques. The texts of most of her books are works by contemporary American women poets. Each of Mark's books is devoted to a theme (such as travel, mythology, or botany). Mark selects poems that reflect that theme and develops images to complement those poems. She once wrote, “I imagine the book as a continuous picture plane on which word, image, sequence and structure all reinforce each other. What interests me most is the relationship between word and image. I plan no hierarchy of them. An artist’s book is a unique form of visual disclosure. It must be slowly savored. It should be held in the hand and carefully considered. Only then are its contents fully revealed.”

Mark was especially inspired by Pollock