Messenger consists of five folios with text by the artist, printed letterpress from polymer plates. Within each folio is an offset lithograph reproduced from an original monotype by the artist. The birds in this book - a Northern Flicker, Barred Owl, Evening Grosbeak, Bald Eagle and Pileated Woodpecker - are messengers, urging us to pay attention to the world around and within us. Messenger is printed in an edition of forty, and housed in a clamshell box made by Linda Lembke of Green River Bindery. Eleven copies remain. 14" x 11 1/2". $650
In the collections of Baylor University, George Mason University, Swarthmore College, Smith College, Colby College, University of Vermont, Trinity College, University of Denver and The University of the Arts. Winner of the 2014 Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair Juror's Award and Purchase Prize. Selected for inclusion in the Guild of Book Workers 100th Anniversary exhibition.
Photography by Stephen Petegorsky
With Messenger, Valerie Carrigan took me into a mythical and intimate family journey — one of signs and omens, death, love and continuation. A large book, I immediately knew this book would require my full attention. I cleared the table to give Messenger space. I initially found it open, “in display”. I wanted to start from the beginning, so I closed it …. I first read the text printed on the outside of each folio – poems, parts of the story that ultimately become the book. I folded back the folio, and each time found a large lithographic image of a bird, intensely close up. The intensity of each bird’s gaze mirrored the impact of each omen on the family. And so I moved through the book, lifting out each folio as if it were its own small book. If you have the chance, grab this book. It holds an exquisite combination of rawness and tenderness.
- Heidi Zednik