Preludes
Preludes
POETRY BY T. S. ELIOT⠀•⠀ARTWORKS BY FRELE SIVINAIGRE
No Reply Press is pleased to present T. S. Eliot’s Preludes – printed, bound, and accompaniedwith artwork by Frêle Sivinaigre.
The edition is a true livre d’artiste. Frêle has let her own personality and love for Paris at night spill onto every page. Combining her passion for letterpress and painting, she has created a series of vignettes, entitled T. Shirt Eliot and Pervigilium Paris I through IV, which are printed giclée on thin Japanese paper and tipped in to accompany the text.
Preludes is one of Eliot’s most understated early works. Alternately mundane and existential, the four poems are a sort of pervigilium, relatable to all who have wandered city streets at night, wondering after their place in the world and in the universe. As Eliot writes:
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
COLOPHON
•⠀The first edition of the eleventh imprint of No Reply, 2 0 2 0 .
•⠀Limited to 5 0 numbered copies.
•⠀Measuring 6 by 9 ¾ inches and 2 4 pages.
•⠀Printed letterpress on a hand-operated Kelsey excelsior tabletop press.
•⠀An unknown paper stock, found in the back of an English teacher’s classroom closet.
•⠀Artworks printed giclée and tipped in.
•⠀Typset in 1 2 - point Perpetua.
•⠀Hand-bound in a three piece Bradel binding, with a cloth spine and paste papers boards, handmade at the press specially for the edition.
•⠀Housed in a handmade slipcase.