Bartalos

My Imprint crew and I at the San Francisco Center for the Book are excited to announce the release of Emory Douglas’s artist’s book REPARATIONS this week, issued in an edition of 100 signed and numbered copies.

Emory’s edition is letterpress-printed in two colors on handmade Amate bark paper covers and on removable accordion-fold interiors which function as framable pieces of art. The artist describes: “The content of my Imprint publication deals with the subject of reparations and slavery, with each abstract designed figure chained together making up the word “REPARATIONS.”

For over four decades Emory’s art has been an iconic representation of political and social struggles. From the late 1960s to the late ’70s he was minister of culture in the Black Panther Party for which he created a variety of posters, flyers and promotional cards in a distinctive graphic style, while also managing the design and production of the party’s newspaper. Emory later turned to promoting its social programs, and today his images continue to advocate for community education and outreach in the Bay Area and beyond. An example is his recent collaboration with a team of New York City youngsters to create a permanent outdoor mural in Harlem titled What We Want, What We Believe. He’s also led workshops at the Beirut Art Center in Lebanon and the Urbis in Manchester UK among other places.

While Emory’s recognition has grown exponentially with recent shows at the New Museum in New York City and MOCA in Los Angeles (to name just a couple), he remains generously committed to Bay Area causes including the SFCB. In 2008 he contributed a 3′ x 3′ linoleum block print to our Roadworks steamroller printing fundraiser, and this year we thank Emory for the donation of his art to create REPARATIONS whose sales directly benefit the Center and its programs.

Emory’s edition is part of our Small Plates series which invites selected artists and writers to create compact letterpress-printed books issued in limited editions. Big thanks go to our production manager Rhiannon Alpers and our fabulous team of volunteers for their hard work and commitment to excellence. Lili Ong and I are proud to have worked on the book design too, and we hope you join us in celebrating the release of this dynamic edition with Emory in attendance.

When: Friday June 4th from 6-8 P.M.
Where: The San Francisco Center for the Book, 300 DeHaro Street (entrance on 16th Street) in Potrero Hill. 415-565-0545 | www.sfcb.org | imprint@sfcb.org

Please visit the Imprint page for more on the Center’s publications and our Etsy page for sales.