Gehenna Press Printwork: The Encantadas – 1963

Written by Herman Melville (1854)

This limited edition fine press book contains 6 woodcut prints by Rico Lebrun cut by Leonard Baskin, to accompany two literary sketches from Melville’s Enchanted Isles. It is a large folio, with the woodcuts loose as issued in  a four-flap portfolio and publisher’s cloth chemise and slipcase.

Relief Prints:

Lebrun’s illustrations evoke the raw emotion and bare-bones humanity and animality of Melville’s tale.

“Moreover, everyone knows that tortoises as well as turtle are of such a make that if you but put them on their backs you thereby expose their bright sides without the possibility of their recovering themselves, and turning into view the other. But after you have done this, and because you have done this, you should not swear that the tortoise has no dark side. Enjoy the bright, keep it turned up perpetually if you can, but be honest, and don’t deny the black. Neither should he who cannot turn the tortoise from its natural position so as to hide the darker and expose his livelier aspect, like a great October pumpkin in the sun, for that cause declare the creature to be one total inky blot”

Artwork © The Estate of Leonard Baskin | Reproduction without express written consent is prohibited