Ken
Campbell is an artist
working in print,
painting, and recently
computer graphics.
The seventeen books
he has made since
1978 bring together
arts and crafts and
focus mainly on his
own poems and imagery.
He writes, designs,
and prints his books
by letterpress, with
the occasional deployment
of etching, embossing
and hand work. He
is considered one
of the leading book
artists of our period.
The
Word Returned
is two books in one--Dos-a-dos,
back to back, enfolding
each other. Each book
is begun and ended
by the poem "Dear
Judas": "In the name
of God / on my left
the great Angel Michael,
on my right the great
Angel Gabriel / before
me the Shekinah."
The text and design
attempt to enfold
the Jewish blessing
with images of earth
and references to
Celtic notions of
death and mourning
at birth. At the center
of the book, at the
intersection of the
two versions of the
poem, is the core
of Campbell's text:
"Men seek the shadow
of Your wings."
This
extraordinarily complicated
printing employed
multicolor letterpress
and handwork using
lead type, wood letters,
zinc and polymer plates,
and zinc stencils.
Because of the size
of the book and the
limitations of the
printing press and
the stencils, the
poem was printed one
letter at a time,
requiring over 66,000
pulls on a one-ton
press.
