Janus Press: The Silences Between (Moeraki Conversations)

Claire Van Vliet
Poet: Keri Hulme

Among the most ambitious projects of the press, it is one of the largest (at 114 pages) and the longest projects of the Press (taking 20 years from contact to completion). Each of the 6 “Conversations” are printed on different handmade papers, many of which have varying leaf sizes. The poetry by Booker Prize-winning author of Bone People, Keri Hulme, rewards attention and patience. Similarly, Van Vliet’s books require more attention from the reader, and Silences is no exception. For instance, in one “conversation,” she varies the page size and relationship—some leaves being half-page strips on the lower portion of the book can be paged through while sequences of cutouts and illustrations along the top remain are turned less frequently creating a constancy. Even the form of the book can be altered: the page-spread illustrations, for instance, can be pulled forward at the inner fold making what was two dimensional into three-dimensional. One can do this with all the illustrations simultaneously creating what Van Vliet describes in her Notes for Press Patrons, “a three dimensional wagon wheel display.” This book is a beautiful choreography between text, image, and form—all elements in harmony. Buchtel, John A. The Art of Paper: Claire Van Vliet and the Janus Press: Papermaking Collaborations (2024).

Bound using a woven strip binding designed by Claire Van Vliet; the covers are a dynamic pulp-painting with a vitreograph frontispiece with five additional illustrations that were digitally composed by Van Vliet and are original archival inkjet prints on handmade paper; these seem to blend photography and Van Vliet’s pulp painting, creating a striking and textured result. This is accompanied by a small octavo glossary with eight letterpress pages and fold-out photograph. All laid into a clamshell box of paper boards with acrylic-painted fore-edge and moon inset on the spine; map of Moeraki mounted inside the upper cover; maple and tamarack sides. Housed in slipcase with printed title label. A fine copy.