Text and engravings by Abigail Rorer with a poem by Don McKay
NOW AVAILABLE. The Lone Oak Press is proud to announce the publication of the first book in our “Extinct Pentalogy” series. Originally we had planned one larger volume covering five diverse animals, four that are extinct and one that came perilously close, but we decided that each animal deserves its own tribute. It was intended to have been published in 2020 and the printed dates in the book reflect this, but life somehow gets in the way of the best of intentions and it has taken longer to complete than originally planned.
Extinction as a theme has been a focus of The Lone Oak Press for a few years now, beginning with the publication of our book Extinction in 2015. We are living in the age of the Sixth Extinction, the Anthropocene: the Human Epoch. Human activity has made such an impact on our planet that climate patterns are changing, glaciers are melting, the ozone layer is thinning, and species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. For such a magnificent and noble animal as the rhinoceros to be on the verge of total extinction is tragic and unacceptable. The rhinoceros has lived and flourished on this earth for tens of thousands of years. Within only a relatively short period of time, the last two hundred years or so, with the advent of guns, the Industrial Revolution, exploding populations, and other factors, we have decimated the rhino population and brought it to the brink of total extinction. This book is a way to honor a subspecies of the black rhinoceros that disappeared in 2011 and to highlight the plight of all species of rhinoceros.
The book measures 7″ x 9″ and has 52 pages. The text was set in Dante and Othello. The 21 engravings and text were printed on Zerkall at The Lone Oak Press by Abigail Rorer. Many of the engravings are multi-block color with some hand-coloring. Amy Borezo of Shelter Bookworks bound the books. It is printed in an edition of 70 copies with 56 standard copies and 14 deluxe copies.
The book is bound in a paper created from a hand-drawn close-up image of rhinoceros skin over boards with a stamped leather spine and a red hole on the back cover representing a bullet hole. The standard edition is housed in a slipcase covered in the same paper. The deluxe edition comes in a special clamshell case covered in gray Cave Paper with a leather spine, cloth sides, and a stamped leather label; it includes the book, a set of the prints in a portfolio, and a unique recessed well with a trap door called the “Cache of Curiosities.” Contained within are seventeen small engravings and ephemera.
Standard Edition: $950 Deluxe Edition: $1800 SOLD OUT
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‘Extinct- The Western Black Rhinoceros’ Deluxe Edition: paper over boards, leather spine and label, clamshell case. $1800
