#daniel burnham

It’s Fine Press Friday!

On this Fine Press Friday we bring you a new acquisition, Make No Little Plans, by book artist and University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa book arts professor, Sarah Bryant, published under her imprint Big Jump Press. This book was printed in an edition of 20 at Penland School of Craft while Bryant was there teaching a workshop in Summer 2017. 

Bryant borrowed the title of this book from a quote attributed to urban planner, architect, and the overseer of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Daniel Burnham: “Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” The text is “assembled from Plato’s Republic, a contemplation on the ethics of man and the state.” This book acts as a study for a larger project, The Radiant Republic, 2019, in which Bryant’s Platonic Solids, first appearing here, comprise the visual language. We posted about Radiant Republic earlier.

This small book consists of two sheets, one folded at 3 points into an accordion which can lay flat, with the second sheet folded once and stitched into the first fold of the accordion with a simple pamphlet stitch. It is letterpress printed with metal types, polymer plates made from her drawings, and linoleum relief print.

This simple book form exemplifies that simple structures with minimal text and imagery can be conceptually strong and magical objects that stir us, which contradicts the title and the aspirations of the philosophers and architects Bryant is referencing. 

View more posts on Sarah Bryant and Big Jump Press. 

View our post on The Radiant Republic. 

View more Fine Press Friday posts.