AN ADDRESS BY TONI MORRISON⠀•⠀THE WOODCUT PRINTS OF ELIZABETH CATLETT

At the pinnacle of world literature, in her lecture upon receiving the Nobel Prize, Toni Morrison used her platform to urge care with words. "Language," she said, "is susceptible to death, erasure; certainly imperiled and salvageable only by an effort of the will."

Language is not fixed, but precious and delicate – like a bird in your hands. 

With its elegiac prose and interweaving of narrative and polemic, Morrison’s meditation is worth continual close reading. To celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, and with special permission from the Nobel Prize Committee, we have printed her lecture alongside the gripping woodblocks of Elizabeth Catlett.