PETER & DONNA THOMAS
260 Fifteenth Avenue Santa Cruz CA 95062 (831)
515-2757
peteranddonna@cruzio.com
A170. A Carol at Sixty Nine. (2026) Walt Whitman. Santa Cruz, California, Peter and Donna Thomas. 2.5 x 2.5 inches. 14 map-folded accordion panels (7.5 x15 inches unfolded). Paper open-end slipcase. 69 copies. $69.00. Shipping and handling for single book order will be $10.
Binding: Binder board panel covers, painted, title on front cover, colophon on back cover. Paper: Off-white, handmade by Peter. Printing: Letterpress. Typography: Handset ATF Neuland, multiple wood type fonts.
An artists' statement follows the images
This book was a surprise birthday present for Donna, so I had to make it without her knowing. I want to thank Muskaan Dhingra, who was working with me as an intern, for helping to carry off my ruse that we were working on a different project, by discussing proofs for a different project whenever Donna came into the shop or asked about what we were working on.
Click to view youtube video showing how to open and close the book:
Artists' statement:
As I thought about what sort of book to make for Donna's 69th birthday, the visual similarity of the number 69 and the Yin Yang symbol caught my attention and I decided to work with that. After many experiments I came up with a way to make a map-folded accordion book that reads as 69 on one side and as a yin/yang symbol on the other. Then I needed a text. So I started by searching for literary quotes or poems with the word 69, or like one of Shakespeare's Sonnet 69, was numbered 69. Of those, I was initially attracted to the lyrcs of a Jimmy Hendrix song, as it played with the same concept of reversing the 6 and 9 numbers….
If 6 were 9
Sing a song for us,
If the sun refused to shine
I don't mind, I don't mind
If the mountains fell in the sea,
Let it be, it ain't me.
If a six turned out to be nine,
I don't mind, I don't mind.
I got my own world to look through
I’m going to raise my freak flag high.
But it wasn't really "Donna" so I continued my search, so I refocused my search, looking at Yin and Yang haiku:
In the gentle dark,
Yin breathes in the quiet world,
Resting before day.
With the morning sun
Yang awakes
Day breaks, life in motion.
But I could not find anything just right for Donna on her birthday.
As I read about Yin and Yang in preparation to make Donna's birthday book I realized that in the book we had just completed, The Paradox of Contradiction, which presented pairs of adages with unreconcilable contradictory truths, I had been exploring what could be seen as yin/yang relationships. The principle of Yin and Yang originated in ancient Chinese philosophy and expresses the concept that all things exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites. Female-male, dark-light, old-young, and that equal opposites both attract and complement each other. The small dots inside the Yin and Yang symbol represent the seed of each force existing within its absolute opposite. This suggests one way to approach resolving the paradox of contradictory truths is to recognize each has some of the other’s truth in it.
Returning to my search for literary quotes or poems that contained the word 69, I found Whitman’s poem, Carols Closing Sixty Nine. The poem would speak to Donna, but the title made it inappropriate for her birthday, as she was just starting the year. Deeper in the Whitman digital archives I found his first draft of the poem was titled "A Carol at Sixty Nine," and thus perfect for my purposes. I transcribed the text from his handwritten manuscript, making her birthday book also a first edition Whitman book, even if only a first printing of a first draft.
To choose my color palette I again turned yin/yang for inspiration. I found that in Chinese astrology 2026 was the Year of the Fire Horse, and emerald green and vermilion red were given as highly auspicious colors to balance the year's elemental energies. Emerald (wood) symbolizing growth, stability, and prosperity, with vermilion fire) symbolizing courage, opportunity and passion.
My plan developed. I would use an off-white sheet of my handmade paper, printing both sides of the paper with multiple layers of over-printed wood type numbers, 6 and 9, using every wood type font I had in the shop. Since the ancient Chinese philosophers had recommended using vermillion sparingly, to avoid kindling too much fire, I printed the number background in shades of emerald, and the text in vermillion.
Every step of production presented challenges. There were the physical questions: where to place the text on the map folds, how to use the text to help the reader understand how to open, unfold, and refold the book, how to bind the book, how to attach the covers to the text. And there were the metaphysical questions: how could I better help the reader to understand that I was using the 69 to celebrate Donna’s birthday with the Yin Yang symbol to celebrate the two of us still celebrating together, and what could I do to add a layer of deeper, concealed meaning to the piece?