Firedogs: abstract

1991: edition of 28
356 x 241 mm; 22 pp.

11 double sheets, folded at the head, printed letterpress in Stephenson Blake Bodoni. Worn type turned on its side gives a stark image of heat and cold, stick and ash. The cover has a polychrome image printed on paper over boards, and the book is held in a paper slipcase.

‘Firedogs: abstract’ carries the poetry to be found in the larger and much more complex ‘Firedogs’; it was done as a typographic press-up, a clean-fingered exercise. I had the type for the poems in ‘Firedogs’ standing and decided to find out if I could make a very simple, reserved book: a nod to those who, over time, had asked for the poetry to be released from the graphic intricacies of the main body of work.