Printess & the p, 2014

Christine Tacq has reimagined the famous Hans Anderson tale as a story of insomnia and the night time invention of printing.

With 20 relief prints, including seven richly coloured double-page spreads with embossing that hint at past and future events. 54 pages include 2 poems, one by Emily Dickinson. The book measures 310 x 210mm and comes in a linen slipcase. The special copies numbered 1–10 are bound in hand-printed silk and each includes a folder with 6 signed prints. The standard edition are bound in hand-printed linen.

The text is set in Optima. Relief collagraphs are on Zerkall, intaglio collagraphs are on Fabriano and the covers were designed with relief-blocks. Printed at the P's & Q's Press in Thame and bound at the Fine Book Bindery.

Standard edition sold

Special Edition £750 (plus P&P and insurance)

Shakespeare: Sonnet XLIII, 2009

Christine Tacq uses drawings made from looking at and following the patterns of a Tudor ceiling painting in Thame Museum as the basis for her single page design for Shakespeare’s Sonnet which begins, ‘When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see’.

140 x 120mm, printed on one sheet of Zerkall paper cut and folded, images in drypoint with a collagraph and chine collé cover. Contained within a Perspex CD case. Edition of 25. Signed by Christine Tacq and numbered.

£40 (plus P&P and insurance)

A Memorable Fancy: Une Vision Memorable, 2007
From ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ by William Blake

Parallel translation in English and French by Marie-Christine Natta of Blake’s ‘Memorable Fancy’ from his illuminated book ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ (1790) in which he describes the six chambers of a printing house in Hell and the transmission of knowledge from generation to generation.

28 pages, 182 x 265mm, printed on Somerset paper, woodcuts by José San Martin printed by Jean Jacques Sergent, etchings, embossing and letterpress by Christine Tacq. Cloth binding with inset label glued on front and spine, slipcase with label. 60 copies. Signed and numbered.

£375 (plus P&P and insurance)

Sleep Walking Through Trees, anthology for those born later, 2004
A book of intaglio and relief prints by Christine Tacq

Works by William Blake, Brian Patten, Cicely Herbert, Ben Jonson, Minou Drouet, Margaret Atwood together with a Poem from Japan and the Corpus Christi Carol with layered images based on familiar trees, and blind embossing.

Printed on Somerset Velvet mould-made rag paper with seven full page etchings and four small ones, with soft-ground etched colour printed overlays and small collagraph printed areas, bound in screen-printed linen canvas. Signed by Christine Tacq and numbered.

50 pages, 400 x 330mm, edition of 55.

£700 (plus P&P and insurance)

Books2Eat ABC, 2013

Gastronomy and literature met at the first UK Books2eat tea party when guests made edible books to photograph, eat and share with participants in the rest of the world via the internet.

This the latest ABC has 13 vegetable stamp-printed letterforms from 1st April 2012. They complement 24 tipped-in chosen digital images of edible books, with titles and ingredients from previous years.

180 x 210mm, edition of 25. Letterpress on Zerkall in a slipcase with 2 signed prints by Christine Tacq.

£120 (plus P&P and insurance)

“Hatbox”: A Storm of Stars, 2013

In ‘Hatbox’ Christine Tacq shows herself to be both bookmaker and social historian. The Women’s pages of a 1912 newspaper, together with a poster featuring a 1912 ‘hat trimming competition’ are plundered and combined to illustrate how a slight change in a hat shape or a letterform can convey a different meaning.

Three small concertina bookworks bring together events in the lives of twelve women either side of 1912. The text is from quotes of real women whose dreams of the future are expressed through access to printing and a choice of hat trimmings. The images combine print, collage and drawing. Each concertina ‘book’ has ten or more pages of quotes and collages. A full bibliography is included.

840 x 840mm, colour inkjet printed on Conqueror in a colour stamp-print labelled box. Edition of 25.

£80 (plus P&P and insurance)