Millboard series: Book Art publications from Weproductions

The MILLBOARD series

Stokes, T. Back to Back, Weproductions, Yarrow, 1980, 108pp, 13x19cms, letterpress, edition 500.
Stokes, T. Young Masters and Misses, MOMA, New York, 1984, 114pp, 13x19cms, offset, edition 2000, ISBN 0870706748.
Stokes, T. / Douglas, H. Spin Off, Weproductions, Yarrow, 1985, 100pp, 13x19cms, offset, edition 400. (o/p)
Stokes, T. / Douglas, H. Mim, Weproductions, Yarrow, 1986, 120pp, 13x19cms, offset, edition 600. (o/p)
Stokes, T. / Douglas, H. Real Fiction, (An inquiry into the Bookeresque), Weproductions/VSW, Rochester, NY, 1987, 114pp, 13x19cms, offset, edition 800, ISBN 0898220521.

This series of five books published between 1979 -1987 demonstrate a widening vocabulary in book art, particularly in the innovative combination of text and image. Also, the artists' varied use of printing processes, made possible through the setting up of their press and collaboration with other presses in the USA, becomes an additional level in the developing language of the book. Back to Back (out of print), the first book to be printed by Telfer Stokes explores the boldness of black on the letterpress, Young Masters and Misses published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, utilises contrasting qualities of half-tone screening in offset printing while Spin Off (also out of print) and Mim, explore the splicing and overlay of imagery and print made possible through the artists' hands on access to the offset reprographic process.

BACK to BACK

Stokes, Telfer. Back to Back, (out of print), 1980
Signatures of sixteen pages are used to explore visual narrative in relation to both the central double spread and the single pages to either side of it; on the left leading up to the centre and on the right away from the centre. In addition, the first and last page of each signature provides the place for text which serves to link the story one from signature to the next. The movement in the story is from the fireside kitchen stove - the inside - to the outside, along sheep trails to the hills and then back again by stream, river, to lake. Printed Letterpress in an edition of 500 by Stokes, this book is now only available in a slip case comprising the five books in the Millboard series.

YOUNG MASTERS and MISSES

Stokes, Telfer. Young Masters and Misses, 1984
The several modes of storytelling in this book relate to different layers of time. The snapshots of renaissance buildings evoke the distant past in the present while the people in the scenes and text portray the recent past in the present. The photo realism of the imposed objects that sit on the pages and breal them up as illusionistic windows, suggest the present or the present now past. Commissioned by Riva Castleman, this book is one of a series published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

SPIN OFF

Stokes, Telfer / Douglas, Helen. Spin Off, 1985. (o/p)
A visual narrative is built up in sequence through the devise of car windscreen wipers, which when wiping enable the viewer to see the road and the developing events in the book ahead. However not well enough to avoid a collision with a motorcyclist. On collision, everything turns upside down and leads to a new sense of time and space floating loose. Originally printed in an edition of 500, this book is now only available in a slip case comprising the five books in the Millboard series.

MIM

MIM Stokes, Telfer/ Douglas, Helen. Mim, 1986. (o/p)
Mim develops different aspects reading on the subject of mimicry. Mimincry in the image, a model whose clothing in various way mimics the background she is posed against: the discursive text whose column formation works spatially in relation to the image and the different papers both in texture and colour that this book is printed on. Printed flock wallpaper cover.
Originally printed in Edinburgh in an edition of 600, this book is now only available in a slipcase comprising the five books in the Millboard series.

REAL FICTION

Stokes, Telfer / Douglas, Helen. Real Fiction, (An inquiry into the Bookeresque) 1987.
Taking as a starting point the incongruous space and shadows made by the open pages of the book, the process of opening or "entering " is explored as one would an unknown dwelling. This process of exploration develops into the construction of a room within the book and then leads from the core of this interior place outwards, as fusion between inside and outside. Interspersed, a constructive text hovers and casts shadows on the open pages as an active commentary and associative dialogue on the "construction ". Published by The Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY in conjunction with Weproduction on an artist in residency scheme. In short supply.