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An awe-inspiring collection of Bryan Nash Gill''s (1961–2013) large-scale relief prints from cross sections of previously felled trees. If there is, indeed, nothing lovelier than a tree, Connecticut-based artist Bryan Nash Gill (1961–2013) showed us why. Creating large-scale relief prints from cross sections of trees, Gill revealed the sublime power locked inside their arboreal rings, patterns not only of great beauty, but also a year-by-year record of the life and times of the fallen or damaged logs. The artist rescued the wood from the property surrounding his studio and neighboring land, extracted and prepared blocks of various species--including ash, maple, oak, spruce, and willow--and then printed them by carefully following and pressing the contours of the rings until the intricate designs transferred from tree to paper. These exquisitely detailed prints are collected and published here in this revised edition and includes an interview with the artist who described his labor-intensive printmaking process. Also featured are Gill''s series of printed lumber and offcuts, such as burls, branches, knots, and scrubs. Woodcut will appeal to anybody who appreciates the grandeur and mystery of trees, as well as those who work with wood and marvel at the rich history embedded in its growth. Bestselling PAP Book: WIth more than 20,000 copies of the original book first published in 2009. Successful product line: notecards (2012) 45,557 sold; journals (2014) 6104 sold; memory game (2016) 42,061 sold; postcards (2019) 7856 sold; notebook (2019) 4067 sold; 3 puzzles (2021) 4571 sold Well reviewed in national media : "A swell coffee table companion for hip young DIY-ers who cultivate a lumberjack look that says they''ve come straight from splitting firewood, the new book "Woodcut" is also likely to appeal to a much wider audience." -- Wall Street Journal "With this mesmerizing series, Bryan Nash Gill doesn''t just bridge the gap between abstraction and representation, object and subject-- he closes them. WOODCUT confirms Gill''s place as one of the most inventive, inspired artists working today" -- Tod Lippy, Esopus magazine It''s a strangely moving experience to flip through Woodcut (Princeton Architectural Press, $30), a book of Bryan Nash Gill''s relief prints of tree-trunk cross sections, which the artist harvests from felled trees, cedar telephone poles and discarded fence posts in his native Connecticut. One is struck by how Gill''s method - cutting blocks with a chain saw, sanding them down, burning them and sealing them with shellac - amplifies the events in the life of a tree: lightning strikes, burgeoning burls, insect holes and, of course, the aging process, evidence of which radiates out in transfixing patterns. Verlyn Klinkenborg , who also writes for The New York Times, describes these cross sections in the book''s preface as "the death mask of a plant, the sustained rigor mortis" of maple, spruce and locust. They remind us, he says, that every biological form "possesses a unique footprint." --- T: The New York Times Style Magazine ...
