Oak Knoll

Limited to 400 copies, of which this is one of 15 deluxe numbered copies with parts 1-3 bound in one single volume and signed by Peter Koch. Fine in fine slipcases.

The first volume begins with a preface by Michael A. Keller, followed by a Curator's Note by Roberto G. Trujillo, and finally a small introduction titled A Printers Geography: Peter Rutledge Koch, Printer & Typographer by Mark Dimunation, Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.

The three parts of volume one are as follows:
1) Embodied Language and the Form of the Book: An interview with Peter Rutledge Koch by Roberto G. Trujillo, Assistant University Librarian and Director of Special Collections, Stanford University. Maverick Poets and Cowboy Surrealists by Timothy D. Murray, Head, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, and Peter Rutledge Koch | A Descriptive Bibliography of his Works 1975-2016 by Nina M. Schneider, Rare Books Librarian, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
2) Hard Words: Memory and Death in the Wild West, with the contents being: The Minotaur and the River by Aaron Parrett, Hard Words by Peter Rutledge Koch, Rick Newby, and Griff Williams, Nature Morte by Peter Rutledge Koch, Rick Newby, and Griff Williams, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling & Peter Koch, Liber Ignis by Peter Rutledge Koch and Adam Cornford, and finally Hard Words: Memory and Death in the Wild West, which documents Koch's Western Suite consisting of three portfolio editions, two books, and two installation/exhibitions dedicated to themes of exploration and the subsequent destruction of the American West. Both Liber Ignis and The Lost Journals of Sacajewea, are fully illustrated in facsimile. Two exhibition/portfolios, Hard Words and Nature Morte, are presented in their entirety. The editions and commentaries by are accompanied by a lengthy critical essay by novelist and scholar Aaron Parrett.
3) Against Design: an Interview with Peter Rutledge Koch by Monique Comacchio and Camden Richards, which contains an introduction by Russell Maret. Against Design: an interview by Monique Comacchio and Camden Richards is an interview conducted by professional graphic designers and educators Monique Comacchio and Camden Richards questioning Koch about his printing practice and thoughts on typography and design. The result is an exploration of ideas related to material literacy and the art of printing as a philosophical practice. This volume focuses on the typographic design and letterpress printing that issued from the Koch studios over a forty-two year span. Generously illustrated with numerous examples of Kochs bibliophilic, typographic, and cowboy surrealist ephemera.

Volume 2: 'The Musæum Kochianum' [edition of 15 copies]
'The Musæum Kochianum' features two parts: The Ur-text Musæum, a suite of studies for a work-in-progress which consists of ten bifolia pieces printed on vintage Fabriano Umbria handmade paper at Peter Koch Printers and Magnolia Editions, as well as Koch Ephemera, which is a selection of pieces of ephemera, prints, and broadsides.

1) The Ur-text Musæum is composed of appropriated texts and images, and is altered, annotated, and supplemented by Koch's visual and verbal imagination, a surreal Liber Chronicarum for the 21st Century.

The origin of The Ur-text Musæum is Ur-text Volume 2, begun in 1994 and abandoned in favor of this treatment in 2017. The conceptual forerunners are Koch's Ur-Text Volume 1, Christopher Plantin's polyglot Biblia Regia, and Anton Koberger's Liber Chronicarum. Texts include selections from the Book of Genesis (Jerome translation; also appearing in Hebrew and Greek); The Revelation of St. John from The New English Bible; the Inferno by Dante Alighieri; I Modi by Pietro Aretino; The Effects of Nuclear Weapons by The United States Department of Defense, with additional marginalia, commentary, and Koch's long poem "Magnus Annus", first published in The Aldebaran Review, Berkeley, 1968.

Images are collected from a number of sources including: Liber Chronicarum by Hartmann Schedel, Nuremburg 1493; I Modi by Pietro Aretino, Venice 1550; Heinrich Khunrath's Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, Solius, Verae, Christiano- Kabalisticum, Divino-Magicum, Physico-Chymicum, Tertriunum-Catholicon. Hamburg 1595; The Robert Fludd's Utriusque Cosmi ... metaphysica, physica atque technica Historia, &c., Oppenheim and Frankfort, 161724; The Effects of Nuclear Weapons United States Department of Defense and the Energy Research and Development Administration, Washington D.C. 1977; with additional images from US Department of Defense; the Library Of Congress; the Montana Historical Society Photographic Archives; random internet captures; etc.

2) Koch Ephemera [selected 1974-2016]

The Koch Ephemera -- an assembling of ephemera, original prints, exhibition and lecture announcements, posters, type specimens, etc. -- also includes four exhibition catalogues: Peter Koch Printer | Cowboy Surrealists, Maverick Poets & Pre-Socratic Philosophers published jointly by the New York Public and the San Francisco Public Libraries in 1995; Peter Koch Printer | Recent Work published by the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, The Houghton Library, Harvard University [1995]; Hard Words published by Gallery 16 and the University of Montana Art Galeries [2000]; Nature Morte published by the Holter Museum of Art [2004].

Additionally the collection includes original prospectuses for sixteen publications designed and printed by Koch.