2024 Fundraising Auction
Every year we look forward to the auction portion of our Benefit Dinner, a thrilling event in which our community members bid to add new, exciting artworks to their collections while raising funds to support Center for Book Arts.
The items up for auction demonstrate the impressive array of works by artists working in the book arts, and their sale provides essential support for CBA’s workshops, residencies, and exhibitions.
Please direct any questions to corina@centerforbookarts.org.
Meet the Auctioneer
Christina Geiger has worked in rare book auctions for her entire career, starting at Christie’s New York in 2000 where she is now Head of Department. She is an active member and past Councilor of both the Bibliographical Society of America and the Grolier Club.
Auction Items
Messiah, 2021
Published by Arion Press
Lettering by Christopher Stinehour
Gold foil stamped, letterpress printed hardcover book with hand lettering, presented in handmade slipcase
11¾ x 8¼ in.
Edition of 200
Est. Value: $850
Starting Bid: $600
Since its Dublin premiere in 1742, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah has been performed all over the world among an international commune of choruses and orchestras. Handel spent nearly a decade on Messiah, resulting in multiple versions of the same piece. Here, Arion Press offers an adapted, complete vocal score by legendary conductor Nicholas McGegan, presented in its most popular version used in performance today. Arion Press’ Messiah speaks to the endurance of melody, the depth of loss and rebirth, and the power of many voices joined as one.
Three Constitutions, 2021
Russell Maret
Three volumes housed in a three-tray drop-spine case
15 3/4 x 11 1/4 x 2 1/2 in. (closed)
With accompanying informational booklet and broadsides on newsprint, 22.75 x 28 in.
Est. Value: $5,250
Starting Bid: $4000
Three Constitutions consists of three volumes. The largest contains the full text of the United States Constitution and its twenty-seven amendments. It is set in a typeface that, though difficult to read, is legible once one becomes accustomed to its forms. It is housed in a vitrine as if it were an immutable relic rather than a living, adaptable document. The texts of the two smaller volumes were arrived at via the most prevalent modes of constitutional interpretation: selective redaction and algorithmic skewing. The volume titled Constitution is set in Maret’s metal typeface, Hungry Dutch, and subsequently redacted by physically turning key words and phrases over and printing the underside of the type.
from Dancing Vases series, 2024
Deborah Held
Hand built glazed ceramic
11 1⁄2 x 9 1⁄2 x 3 inches
Unique
Est. Value: $800
Starting Bid: $580
Deborah Held sculpts in clay, stone and multimedia, and paints in oil, acrylic and encaustic. In the 30 years since she switched over from being a lawyer to being an artist she’s produced a large body of work; expressionistic, colorful abstract paintings, ceramic sculptures, bronze figures, whimsical mobiles…She studied at the Art Students League in NYC, The Vero Beach Museum Art School, The Art League of Long Island, in the private studio of Lorraine Kulik and at numerous workshops in New York. Her work is sui generis, driven by a passion for creativity, invention and spatial problem solving. It is often humorous, quirky, exuberant, dynamic…engaging the viewer who loves to look at art.
Rubber Stamp Collage, 2024
John Held Jr.
Two-color Risograph on paper
11 x 17 inches
Edition of 75
Waves at my Side, 2007
Kumi Korf
Intaglio prints, Japanese paper, book cloth
5 1⁄8 x 5 1⁄4 inches
Artist’s proof from an edition of 9
Est. Value: $900
Starting Bid: $675
The artist writes: “The pages are images of waves on one side, when unfolded, and of railroad tracks on the other. The piece is inspired by my childhood memories of riding the train alongside a huge cliff at the edge of the Japan Sea. The crashing waves coming close to the tall bluff felt precarious; as a child, needing to trust that the world around must be safe, I felt a foreboding of tragedy. The sea, the cliff, the locomotive with its black smoke, white steam, and shrieking whistles formed a strong memory.”