Black Rock Press Publications

Black Rock Press is a publishing entity focused on the book as art, craft and concept. We aim to publish a range of literary, visual and experimental materials, addressing the evolving nature of the book in diverse environments. Our mission to publish experimental poetry and writing while investigating the book form manifests as artist’s books, unique trade publications, broadsides and ephemera. We practice the traditions of fine printing, typography, illustration, graphic design, printmaking, papermaking and bookbinding, among others, while considering the abilities of new media to express content and meaning.

close up of text on the pages of the Selected Durations book

Selected Durations

by David Abel (2017)
Edition of 70
7.25 x 13.5 x 1
$375
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Selected Durations by David Abel is simultaneously a poem and a score for performance that captures, analyzes, quantifies and archives time. The kinesthetic and material qualities of this artist’s book embed Abel’s text in multiple layers of meaning, requiring the reader to perform the experience of the passage of time, which ticks away with each turn of the page.

The publication of Selected Durations was prompted by the author’s performance of the piece in a BFA seminar in the Art Department at the University of Nevada, Reno, taught by Inge Bruggeman. Experiencing the pace and the compression of time in the reading led Bruggeman to propose that the text be editioned. Beginning with a prototype originally created by artist Katherine Kuehn, the Black Rock Press reimagined the work, bringing it to life in the hands of readers. Designed, printed and bound at the Black Rock Press, the book was published in the fall of 2017. Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates on Yupo Synthetic Paper and Neenah Touché.

Notes from Byzantium book cover

Notes from Byzantium

by Shelly Taylor and Eben Goff (2019)
7”x9”x.25”
Edition 250
$55
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A unique edition that combines Shelly Taylor’s intense, language-driven investigations into place and identity with the erosional utterances of Eben Goff’s entropic and elegant oil engravings in wax panels.

Things You See in the Dark book cover

Things You See in the Dark

by Lauren Cardenas and Daniel Enrique Perez (2018)
Edition of 50
June 2018
11.5” x 14.5” x .25”
$175.00
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Things You See in the Dark, the newest Parley Project created by the 2016-2018 Black Rock Press Redfield Fellow, Lauren Cardenas, is a collaboration with Daniel Enrique Perez, an associate professor of Chicanx and Latinx studies in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at the University of Nevada, Reno and David Kirkland, a DJ based out of St. Louis, MO. The Parley Project is a biennial interdisciplinary book art project that fosters research and conversation across the University campus and involves Black Rock Press students, staff and faculty in its production.

Things You See in the Dark is a visual, tactile and auditory experience that pays homage to the uncertainties one might experience in the dark. Composed of a suite of prints and poems, along with a vinyl soundtrack, this artist book invites the viewer to slow down while meditating on the elusive nature of the dark.

Old Geiger Grade book cover

Old Geiger Grade

by Jaime Lynn Shafer (2016)
Edition of 50
6.75 x 4.375”
Sold out

Letterpress printed from handset metal type and photopolymer plates on Rives BFK. The typefaces that appear in the book are Craw Clarendon and Clarendon. The book is handbound in a drum leaf structure and presented in a paper wrapper and slipcase. Laser cut on an Epilog Helix 24 Laser Cutter and handcut by the artist. Signed and numbered by the artist on the colophon.

Jamie Shafer: “Created as part of my experience as the Black Rock Press Redfield Fellow in Book Arts at the University of Nevada, Reno, Old Geiger Grade is the first book produced by the Black Rock Press for the Parley Project. It was influenced by the W.M. Keck Museum at the University of Nevada, Reno — the second oldest museum in the state. Special thanks to the staff and students at the University of Nevada, Reno who assisted with production: Inge Bruggeman, Amy Thompson, Amaris Martin, Judith Rodby and Su Tran.

“Old Geiger Grade was inspired by Geiger Grade Road and the history of the Comstock. It places readers in the steep, dangerous terrain of the 1860s as they travel to Virginia City where they hope their fortunes might be found.”