[Art] Walker, Kara Elizabeth: Freedom A Fable A Curious Interpretation of the Wit of a Negress in Troubled Times...

Walker, Kara Elizabeth
Freedom A Fable A Curious Interpretation of the Wit of a Negress in Troubled Times…
(Pasadena: Typecraft, Inc.) for the Peter Norton Family, 1997. First edition (one of 4,000 copies printed). Small square 4to. Illustrated with die-cut pop-ups and offset lithographs by Walker, and engineered by David Eisen. Original full red faux leather, stamped in blind, adhesive residue on rear board; Philadelphia Museum of Art Library blindstamp on front free endpaper and front blank; accession number in pencil on copyright page; small creasing to some pop-ups; with original 1997 Norton family Christmas card laid in. Caldic Collection, Artist's Books, p. 324-325

A lovely copy of Kara Walker's rarest book, published for the Peter Norton Christmas Project in 1997, and distributed to friends and colleagues. “The painstakingly produced pop-ups create an intimate atmosphere in the hands of the reader. Upon turning each page, with a single movement a whole backdrop is constructed for the dreams of a ‘soon-to-be-emancipated 19th century Negress’, as her character is described in the introduction. In this work Walker also tells the more lugubrious story of a black slave woman who is ill-treated, and whose life ends as a stowaway on a rudderless ship. It is the vision of a just world that keeps the slave woman going." (Artist's Books, p. 324)