Artist Books
An introduction to my personal journey
Thinking back, I’ve made artist books since the fourth grade when I placed “Cochrane’s Pun Book” into circulation in the Dublin Consolidated School’s library in Dublin, NH, circa 1979.
It’s not very funny, but it’s my starting place: the speech balloons are auspicious. Lots of non-archival materials here: book assembled with green duct tape and vinyl self-adhesive drawer-liner sheet. I remember having to choose and claim cover material by writing our names on the selected sheet. “George” in blue ball-point bled through over time, backwards. My sister Nell Cochrane Buck was one of the borrowers. To this day, I find this so touching.
I didn’t return to making books for many, many years. It never really occurred to me to make my own books as part of my creative activities until I began work on Long Time Gone. This production starts in earnest in about 2014 when I made a unique, deluxe package for a benefit auction for the gallery Non-Objectif Sud. It was of a copy of Houston and the Space Rider, a graphic novel I’d just made with German artist Ati Maier.
https://www.georgecochrane.net/cochranes-bookstore/houston-and-the-space-rider-by-george-cochrane-ati-maier-2014
This is when I dubbed my book-making enterprise at “10-16 Press,” named for the address of my studio at the time: 10-16 46th Avenue, Long Island City, NY. When my studio moved to Park Slope it became 403 Press, and now it’s 2268 Press in Mapleton, Brooklyn.
I couldn’t have known it at the time, but this object would usher in a new era in my creative life.
Back to the silent auction where there was a bidding war for the book. Then, I was approached by an artist book collector and friend of the gallery who was bidding on the book. He asked if I would make another for him and let the other bidder go home with the one at auction. That way, he reasoned, the gallery would get double the donation. I replied that if he’d give the same money to the gallery, I would. We agreed that he’d come by my studio to pick it up when ready.
Some time later, Leonard came by the studio to get his book. I can’t exactly remember all the details, but it became clear that he was interested in the things I made. At the time, I was preparing a copy of a Long Time Gone: Leaves in the Mist to add to the collection of my work at the Butler library at Columbia. (Howard Cruse put me in touch with their comics library…another story.)
I had no idea about what sorts of special boxes books usually get, so I made up some kind of upholstered box to go inside an upholstered case. I have no idea what I was thinking, but at least the results proved unique. Here are some pictures of the steps:
The next book I made brings together a few different threads: Dante, Richard Nonas, and fountain pens.
I was lucky to be a regular visitor to Richard’s studio, where we would drink his amazing espresso, listen to wild music, and talk shop. One result was our collaboration on a nineteen-page Long Time Gone graphic novel “Lost in Music” for ESOPUS with William Sutton and Fiamma Cochrane
https://www.esopus.org/contents/view/372
The impact these encounters had on me and my work is unnamable. At the time I was diving into the world of fountain pens, and Richard would give me his pens to fix. Once repaired, I’d put them to the test making art before returning. When Richard sadly passed, Jan Meissner presented me with his pen which today I cherish beyond words.
Here’s some pictures of my first Nonas-pen drawn book. The drawings were made on comic boards, reproduced, and bound in a Japanese binding. Only four exist.
The story continues with Leonard becoming my most dedicated patron. Our friendship grew over the years, and he is responsible for opening many creative doors. Without Leonard, I never would have thought about making a new Divine Comedy. That’s a big story, too.
Over the years, he would come to collect dozens on my artist books until his untimely passing from COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic.
The story of my artist books is inextricably linked with Leonard, and I will unspool our story over time.