CHIMERAE
New life for old texts
Illustrations (new or old) to ornament old texts (some translated).
They are all presented in a square format to accommodate the variety of original books as a uniform series.
A KING OF DREAMS AND SHADOWS
Salik
This is a mysterious book of late Victorian Christian Symbolism prose poems, written by a pseudonymous author who wrote only this book. From the reviews and correspondences of the time there is a suggestion that the identity was an open secret among literary and artistic, but that secret is now lost. Whistler had a copy, and doodled in the margins of his well-thumbed copy.
The original edition was tiny, and the beautifully-set text equally miniscule, This new edition resets the text in a Belle-Epoque font with matching lettrines, and makes it a new artist book by illustrating it with engravings by Odille Redon.
DREAMS
Olive Schreiner
Olive Schreiner was a South African writer and a pioneer in many different fields of literature. Amongst her earliest writing was a series of Christian Symbolist prose poems, collectively titled Dreams.
This edition using the design of a limited edition Belle-Epoque edition by a French editor who saw in Schreiner the equal of his own Symbolist writers, and commissioned a series of illustrations from the Swiss symbolist artist Carlos Schwabe. It uses a recreation of the original typeface and lettrines, and is set in colours that match the original ink.
By setting the prose poems in this way, perhaps Schreiner's genius can find a new recognition for the gems that they are.