Wim Delvoye | Fifty Disasters of the 20th Century

Wim Delvoye

Fifty Disasters of the 20th Century

Antwerp, Belgium: Editions Carine Rot, 1990 - 1992

32 x 28.5 x 5.5 cm.

Edition of 25 [+ 4 AP] signed, titled, numbered and dated copies

Never one to shy away from scatalogical humour, Wim Delvoye’s Fifty Disasters of the 20th Century brings to mind Yoko Ono’s film Bottoms (whose script reads "String bottoms together in place of signatures for petition of peace”) and Andy Warhol’s Death and Disaster series. The two-ring binder houses fifty photocopies of asses - of the rowdy seated on the copier office party variety -  purportedly representing twentieth century disasters. 

The work is produced by Editions Carine Rot, the French Fashion editor’s imprint best known for their  Lawrence Weiner publications. 

Ian Roy | Astrid, Aghast

Ian Roy

Astrid, Aghast

Sackville, Canada: Gaspereau Press, 2026

208 pp., 20 x 13.5 x 1.7 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

Last month Gaspereau Press launched its first title since moving to Sackville, New Brunswick, under new ownership. 

Founded almost thirty years ago in 1997 by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press took pride in doing everything in house: editorial, publicity, sales, distribution, design, typesetting, printing, and binding.

“You can’t say I’m alienated from my labour,” Steeves told The Walrus magazine, “I’ve touched every book.”

This artisanal boutique approach to publishing is responsible for much of the acclaim the press has received over the years, but also led to perhaps the most infamous and controversial tale in their storied history.

Johanna Skibsrud’s book The Sentimentalists - a debut novel, published in an edition of 800 copies by Gaspereau - was nominated for the prestigious Giller Prize, in 2010. This is typically the lottery ticket that publishers wait a lifetime for - the kind of attention that can lead to a financial windfall and help keep the lights on. 

But the press was not interested in upscaling their production. The hand-made operation could not handle more than a thousand books a week, and made it known. 

“We got here because we make nice books,” Dunfield said. “The independent book stores, most of them understand that very clearly. They like our books, most of them can pick our books out blindfolded because we make nice books, and that’s our reputation. And a year from now this will have blown over … and we’ll still make nice books and the bookstores will still like them. So why would we change that? That’s what we do. We got here because that’s what we do. And our future is to keep on doing that.”

Then The Sentimentalists - viewed by many as the ‘dark horse’ nominee - won the award. The fifty-thousand dollar prize is typically accompanied by a huge sales bump, known as The Giller Effect. Random House and other big publishers offered to print large quantities of the novel, to help meet demand. When Gaspereau waited a few days to mull the offers over, they were vilified in the press. 

"Pretentious. Antediluvian. Mean-spirited," wrote Tasha Kheiriddin in the National Post, accusing them of sabotage. The Globe and Mail wondered if “perhaps some grudging admiration is due to anyone who hews to a principle” and ran the misleading headline "Author's angst grows over unavailability of Giller winner.” Toronto Life declared “Public denied award-winning book by territorial East Coast publisher.” 

Ultimately, Gaspereau sub-licensed the book to Douglas & McIntyre, who produced a trade edition 

which shipped 30,000 copies ten days after the prize was announced. It retailed for $19.99, ten dollars cheaper than the hand-made Gaspereau Press version, which still racked up 4000 orders. 

Gaspereau gave up the foreign rights to the novel completely. 

The pair weathered the storm and the iconoclastic approach helped cement the legacy of the press that operates by its own rules. They operated together for another fifteen years, until Dunfield announced his intention to retire and they started looking for a succession plan. 

Keagan Hawthorne is a poet and proprietor of Hardscrabble Press, a micropress that shared many of same principles as Gaspereau. He was chosen to succeed Steeves and Dunfield, and has been working closely with the pair long before the transition. The Hardscrabble Press ­will be folded into the larger Gaspereau publishing program and Hawthorne will strive to maintain the approach of his retiring predecessors. 

He shares the pair’s love of letter-pressed covers and their notion of the book as a beautiful object, and brings an indefatigable work ethic. He has also secured one of the most iconic buildings in town to house the press (not sure if this is public knowledge yet)

“Above all else I remain committed to the values that for me, as a  long-time reader and lover of these books, exemplify everything that  Gaspereau Press stands for: great design, careful attention to the  details of production, and a commitment to literature that reminds us of  who we are, and what we have the potential to become,” he wrote on the Gaspereau website. 

At the standing-room-only launch for Astrid, Aghast, Hawthorne introduced its author while carrying his young daughter in his arms, who infectiously giggled into the microphone at every opportunity. He described the manuscript as one of the most exciting pieces of mail he had ever received. 

The book is available for $28.95, from Gaspereau Press, here. 

"The stories in Astrid, Aghast are by turns funny, poignant, magical, and humane. Two public-library workers fall in love with each other’s foibles while stuck in an elevator. A young boy stumbles upon a bucket of eels that stirs up family memories he’d rather forget. A solitary entomologist tries to make sense of a life filled with pianos and beetles. Ian Roy takes us on journeys through a world that is like our own, but not quite: a taxi driver falls in love with his car-jacker; an old man claims he can fly—and can, or almost.

This remarkable collection is understated, often slyly humorous, and peopled by characters so finely-drawn each one seems as familiar as they do strange.”

- press release

Susan Rothenberg | Bear Skin Rug

Susan Rothenberg

Bear Skin Rug 

Zurich, Switzerland: Parkett, 1995

5 x 30 x 33 cm.

Edition of 70 signed and numbered copies

A synthetic latex work cast by Art Foundry in Santa Fé, for Parker Magazine #43. The artists’s signature is incised with the date and the work is date stamped. 

“Susan Rothenberg always outlines, structures, isolates emotion. She has transformed the sounding-board of painting into a sound shape. … Breathing is metaphorically taken out of the painting and transferred to the subject matter. The painting is condensation, condensed in the subject matter, but the subject matter is not the prime mover of the painting. It joins the painting at the juncture of idea, immense feeling, and the necessity of painting.” 

- Jean-Christophe Ammann, Parkett No. 43, 1995

Enzo Mari

Enzo Mari was born on this day in 1932. 

Nelson Ball | Round Table

Nelson Ball

Round Table

Toronto, Canada: Letters Bookshop, 1996

[16 pp], 14 cm., staple-bound

Edition of 225 numbered copies [+ 8 lettered proofs]

The final of sixty-two TWOBITTER publications, released by Letters Bookshop in Toronto, from 1985 to 1996. Other authors in the series include Charles Bukowski, Victor Coleman, jw curry, Douglas Fetherling, Ron Giii, bpNichol, Michael Ondaatje, and numerous others [see below image].

Nelson Ball (1942 – 2019) was a Canadian poet, editor, publisher, and bookseller. He published approximately 50 books during his lifetime, as well as dozens of leaflets and pieces of small press ephemera. Ball was married to artist, writer, and publisher Barbara Caruso until his 2019 death by medically assisted suicide.

Claude Closky | The 365 Days of 1991 Classified by Size

Claude Closky

The 365 Days of 1991 Classified by Size

Paris, France: Self-published, 1992

[14] pp.m 21 x 15 cm., softcover

Edition of 100

Ranging from the shortest (Friday the fifth of July) to the longest (Wednesday the twenty-seventh of November) this slim volume categorizes every date the year by the length of the sentence describing it.