Warren Lehrer

Book/performance score written and designed by Warren Lehrer.
Published by EarSay, 1980.
Original music composed by Dan Plonzey. Hand lettering by Jan Baker.
10” x 16” x 96 pages. Hardcover, cloth over boards. Wiro bound. Printed in an edition of 300 copies, offset lithography on Cranes 100% rag paper, employing fourteen typefaces.

versations was Warren Lehrer’s first offset printed book, which grew out of his MFA thesis at Yale. It began his lifelong attempt to capture the rhythms and cadences of thought, speech, and interpersonal communication within the space/time capsule that is the book form.

versations is a setting for sixteen characters, eight conversations. Sarah the Doll Lady discusses her life as a survivor and dollmaker, a Hindu missionary named Om professes universality, Sailor Bob confesses to wanting to murder his wife’s doctor, there is a Chinese love affair, a French flirtation, and a conversation between a clarinet and cello. The book functions both as a book to be read alone and as a score for performance (in eight movements). Printed on all rag, transluscent paper, its pages reveal the echoes of voices past, present, and future. Cited by Judith Hoffberg in the Umbrella newsletter as the first artist book and first MFA thesis to be awarded an AIGA Book Award.

Out of Print. Limited number available. BUY $5,000 INQUIRE


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