Fine Press
Artists' Books
Mother Tongue (Forthcoming)
As language shapes human relationships, ecologies, and landforms, how might shared language represent both a point of origin and a barrier to developing an intimate knowledge of place? How is the renewal of language, especially the shared language of place, fundamental to the sense of belonging or being ‘at home’? The asemic text or invented glyphs in Mother Tongue constitute gestural, dance-like response to birdsong, become artifacts of listening, as well as memory devices recalling encounters with home places. The audio information of spectograms—originally intended to chart and monitor soundscapes—erodes through the process of photogravure and assumes an abstract, visual form better suited for the functions of metaphor. Image, structure, and the written word overlap, combine, and hybridize to explore spectrums of legibility, the mutable nature of shared language, and the possibility for language to breath life into forgotten, absent, erased, or dormant human-land relationships.
Mother Tongue includes etchings, relief, and text by Chelsea Herman. The text is set in Perpetua and printed letterpress on Gampi and overbeaten Abaca papers. The book is bound softcover with exposed, raised Gampi cords. Edition limited to 8 copies, each signed and numbered. Forthcoming 2024.
$1200.00
Kaleidoscopes
Kaleidoscopes responds to post forest fire landscape of the Monterey Bay Area and ponders how to contextualize, read, and articulate the sudden blooms of life and growth encountered in the wake of a fire storm.
Kaleidoscopes includes chinè colle etchings and text by Chelsea Herman. The text is handset in Romulus and printed letterpress on Rives and Somerset papers. The book is bound leporello style as a dos-a-dos and covered in handmade abaca paper. Ash recovered from books burnt in the CZU Lightning Complex fire Cover are laminated within each sheet of cover paper. Edition limited to 8 copies, each signed and numbered. 2022.
$1200.00
Millie's Foil
Millie's Foil reflects on the recovery of generational knowledge and wisdom, and considers how these may simultaniously be protected, sabotaged, lost, transformed and recovered. Trees encountered in city scapes or isolated from the forests in which they evolved act as muses for this book.
Millie's Foil includes multi-plate etchings and a poem by Chelsea Herman. Etchings and trace transfers are printed on Rives paper. The text was set in Perpetua and printed letterpress. The book is bound with a Criss-Cross binding and includes an image of the artist's grandmother as a young woman. The edition is limited to 8 copies, each signed and numbered. 2022.
$1200.00
Chelsea Herman, Cypress, Artist’s Book, Cover Size: 12 1/4 X 8 3/4, 2013.
Chelsea Herman, Cypress, Artist’s Book, Cover Size: 12 1/4 X 8 3/4, 2013.
Chelsea Herman, Cypress, Artist’s Book, Cover Size: 12 1/4 X 8 3/4, 2013.
Chelsea Herman, Cypress, Artist’s Book, Cover Size: 12 1/4 X 8 3/4, 2013.
Cypress
Cypress responds to the long inhabited natural landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area and borrows its forms to explore what it means to be shaped by a distinctive environment, language, or tradition over time versus occupying a more transient existence in which innovation, mobility, and adapting to rapid change are central themes.
Cypress includes chinè colle etchings and text by Chelsea Herman. The text is handset in Bembo and printed letterpress on Stonehenge paper. The book is bound leporello style and covered in hand painted paste paper. Cover size: 10 1/2" X 12 1/2," 2013. Edition limited to 15 copies, each signed and numbered.
$700.00
Chelsea Herman, Empty Vessels, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 12" X 17," 2013.
Chelsea Herman, Empty Vessels, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 12" X 17," 2013.
Chelsea Herman, Empty Vessels, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 12" X 17," 2013.
Chelsea Herman, Empty Vessels, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 12" X 17," 2013.
Empty Vessels
Empty Vessels questions the changing visibility of nature in daily life, loss of shared language for describing the landscape and how mental, spiritual, and intellectual elements of identity depend on shared language for describing the natural world.
Empty Vessels includes etchings and a poem by Chelsea Herman. Drypoints and spit bite etchings printed by hand on Gampi paper. The text was set in Centaur and Arrigi and printed letterpress. The edition is limited to 20 copies, each signed and numbered. Published in 2013 by Flight Path Press.
$700.00
Chelsea Herman, Untitled Book I, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 10 3/4" X 13 1/2," 2011.
Chelsea Herman, Untitled Book I, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 10 3/4" X 13 1/2," 2011.
Chelsea Herman, Untitled Book I, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 10 3/4" X 13 1/2," 2011.
Chelsea Herman, Untitled Book I, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 10 3/4" X 13 1/2," 2011.
Untitled Book I
Untitled Book I reflects on how languages become distinctive over time depending on their context. This book combines visual, written, invented, and material languages through etchings, a poem, invented text, rubbings, and various kinds of paper. It explores how a mark, sound or material’s ability to convey specific meaning depends on its context. A mark that is evocative on a visceral level for some people may operate as an abstract symbol for others. Eventually, the same mark may become illegible, yet remain identifiable as a form of communication. This book questions how we recover forgotten knowledge or access highly specialized information.
Untitled Book I was created, printed and bound by Chelsea Laurel Herman in 2011. The colophon was set in Perpetua and printed letterpress. The etchings and rubbings were printed by hand on Reeves paper and Gampi infused with encaustic wax. Edition of 12.
$700.00
Chelsea Herman and Angela Mele, Recall: e. T512694339A55309428, Artist’s Book, Cover Size 3 1/4" X 3 3/4," 2016.
Chelsea Herman and Angela Mele, Recall: e. T512694339A55309428, Artist’s Book, Cover Size 3 1/4" X 3 3/4," 2016.
Chelsea Herman and Angela Mele, Recall: e. T512694339A55309428, Artist’s Book, Cover Size 3 1/4" X 3 3/4," 2016.
Chelsea Herman and Angela Mele, Recall: e. T512694339A55309428, Artist’s Book, Cover Size 3 1/4" X 3 3/4," 2016.
Recall: e. T51269439A55309428
Recall: e. T51269439A55309428 was concieved as a collaboration between artists Angela Mele and Chelsea Herman to be part of entomologist Barrett Anthony Klein and artist Karen Anne Klein's project, The Cabinet of Insect Dreams. The Cabinet of Insect Dreams includes books by over thirty artists and writers that interpret and respond to the theme of insect dreams. Recall: e. T51269439A55309428 explores how human visions of the Western landscape might be stored in physical and archival remnants of the extinct Rocky Mountain Locust, Melanoplus spretus.
Recall: e. T51269439A55309428 includes pen and ink drawings by Angela Mele printed letterpress from photopolymer plates on Usu Kuchi paper and etchings by Chelsea Herman. The title was hand set in Venus Light Extended and printed letterpress. The Colophon was set in Athelas. The book is bound Japanese side stab and covered in hand painted Mulberry paper infused with encaustic wax. Recall: e. T51269439A55309428 was published by FlightPath Press in 2016. Pen and ink drawings printed letterpress from photopolymer plates © 2016 by Angela Mele. Etchings © 2016 by Chelsea Herman.
Edition of forty copies, each signed and numbered.
$200.00
Chelsea Herman, Copse, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 5 1/2" X 10." 2011
Chelsea Herman, Copse, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 5 1/2" X 10." 2011
Chelsea Herman, Copse, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 5 1/2" X 10." 2011
Chelsea Herman, Copse, Artist's Book, Cover size when closed: 5 1/2" X 10." 2011
Copse
Copse questions what must be discarded in order for intentional growth or expansion to take place. This book uses the viual metaphor of a thicket to explore the constant human need for deciding what to cut away, release, cover, sink, or bury and what to grasp, tie down, bind
or keep.
Copse was created printed and bound by Chelsea Herman in the Spring of 2011.
It was hand set in Bembo and printed letterpress on Rives paper. The etchings were printed by hand. The book was coptic bound with wood covers. The Edition is limited to seven copies, each signed and numbered.
$700.00
Chelsea Herman, Reclaim, Artist's Book. Cover size when closed: 7” X 8 ½,” 2010.
Chelsea Herman, Reclaim, Artist's Book. Cover size when closed: 7” X 8 ½,” 2010.
Chelsea Herman, Reclaim, Artist's Book. Cover size when closed: 7” X 8 ½,” 2010.
Reclaim
Reclaim explores how details can be both miniscule parts of greater structures and provide insight into vastly complex worlds of information. Collaged bits of photo etchings, woodcuts, drawings and a found poem are combined within Leporello binding.
This book includes text and imagery by Chelsea Herman. The etchings and woodcuts were printed by hand, collaged and drawn on with ink. The poem was assembled from parts of Women’s Wear of the 1920’s: With Complete Patterns by Ruth S. Countryman and Elizabeth Weiss Hopper, Studio City, Players Press, 1998. The poem was set in Bauer Bodoni and printed letterpress on Stonehenge paper. Bound with paste paper. Edition of five. 2010.
Out of Print
Chelsea Herman, Read Fields, Artist's Book, Cover size: 9 ¼ “X 9 ¼,” 2009.
Chelsea Herman, Read Fields, Artist's Book, Cover size: 9 ¼ “X 9 ¼,” 2009.
Chelsea Herman, Read Fields, Artist's Book, Cover size: 9 ¼ “X 9 ¼,” 2009.
Chelsea Herman, Read Fields, Artist's Book, Cover size: 9 ¼ “X 9 ¼,” 2009.
Read Fields
Read Fields questions how the human creative process may be embedded within greater, concrete natural processes. Etchings of imagined, remembered, and dreamed landscapes overlay fractal-like salt and ink paintings.
Read Fields includes etchings, drypoints, and a poem by Chelsea Herman assembled from parts of Seeing Earth from Space by Patricia Lauber, New York, Orchard Books, 1990. The text is set in Cambria and printed letterpress on hand painted Stonehenge paper. Cover size: 9 ¼ “X 9 ¼,” 2009. Edition of five.
Out of Print
See additional artwork by Chelsea Herman at: