Tailpieces are decorative elements used in printing to mark the end of a text or chapter. In the elegant hand made edition Finis Sea Urchin compiles 30 tailpieces that were done in the 19th and 20th centuries by various artists, ranging from Thomas Bewick to Alfred Kubin and George Grosz. The tailpieces have been printed single…
“… Joan Vollmer’s memory has long been framed within the narrative of the troubled five-year common-law marriage to the writer William S. Burroughs… her accidental death at her husband’s hand is unforgettable, the most enduring event of her short life. The shooting made her life a taboo topic for those who knew her well and a subject of fascination for those who did not. But the shooting tells us nothing about the 28 years of Joan’s life that preceded it… Joan Vollmer was extraordinary. The dean of her college knew it. Burroughs knew it. We knew it, too…”
Heinrich Nowak’s tale Die Sonnenseuche (The Sun Scourge) was first published in 1915 in the expressionist magazine Die weißen Blätter from Leipzig. Inspired by reports of an exceptional and life-threatening heatwave in the USA, the apocalyptic tale remained virtually unnoticed until it was re-published as a book in 1920…
In the late 1950s in Paris, at the famed Beat Hotel – 9 rue Gît-le-Coeur – writer Roger Knoebber was living amongst a community of creative people, including the core of what became known as the Beat Generation – Burroughs, Corso, Ginsberg, and others. In this bohemian center of exploration Roger became intimate friends with the artist, writer and mystic Brion Gysin…
In 2024 Jan van Toorn’s Slowscan was about to release a double-LP with previously unpublished material from the Lora-Totino archives, when the pressing plant went bankrupt. Only 57 copies of the intended 200 double albums appeared to have been pressed and printed. 99 LPs were left orphaned. Slowscan has now released those 99 as a single 12″ vinyl edition, with cover art by Arrigo Lora-Totino and a hand numbered obi strip. Beautiful stuff, friendly priced too.