Oak Knoll

Printed in an edition limited to only 150 numbered and signed copies. A fine copy in fine slipcase.

A visual and textual remembrance of various travels by Rigby Graham created while in the hospital. Graham returned to the pages of his sketchbooks and drew once again vistas and images which moved him at various locales and at various times of his life. This means of escape later formed the basic structure of a book. It became a major testament of the artist approach to his work and travels and the artistic environment in which he operates. Fabulously illustrated with magnificent large color woodcuts many of which san double pages. The text was printed in Baskerville typeface and each woodcut was printed by Nicolas McDowall from the 44 woodblocks cut by the artist.

Interestingly, the publisher notes that the textual portions of this amaxing work was conceptualized while Graham was being treated for cancer. He says that he "retreated into recollections of the past to escape the sterile detention of the infirmary; the overall structure of the book is built around that method of circumvention during a time of calamity."

As Graham shares in his introduction: "Cuts would be the answer. Woodcuts. I had always like the stiff angularity of woodcuts. The wood was not only unyielding, it bit back with a ferocity more readily associated with a rabid dog. Perhaps it is because of our civilised pattern of living that we tend unthinkingly to look on many natural things as attractive and somehow imply, or suggest, 'gentle'. We imbue them at times with qualities they do not acctually possess."