#michael mitchell

1.) H. M. Britannic Majesty, Duke, and Merman originally printed in Britannic Majesty (Libanus Press). 2.) The Miller's Tale from Canterbury Tales (Folio Society). 3.) Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. 4.) Stranger on a train. 5.) From The Symposium (Libanus Press). 6.) Oscar Wilde. 7.) From The Press (Fleece Press). 8.) Magna Carta from Malaprop Chronicle (Malaprop Press). 9.) The Whitehall Venus (Malaprop Press). 10.) Green Man.

Of his medium, Forster wrote:

Is wood-engraving an Art or a Craft -- or a Therapy -- or is it, like having sex, or knitting, or reading a newspaper, simply a method of amusing cats? It is difficult to engrave if a cat is sitting on the block or has his nose two inches from the sharp end. . . . Cats take the most active interest in the actual practice of wood-engraving, the manipulation of the block on the bag, the exact angle of the anglepoise, the orderly disposition of tools. They take as much interest in the finished result as do most publishers, most galleries and most people. Cats are unique in that they would never call a wood-engraving a ‘woodcut,’ though it would be as pointless explaining the difference . . . to them as to anyone else. . . .

Wood-engraving must be the most long-winded method of making a rather small picture ever devised. Wood-engraving is just as about as spontaneous a means of self-expression as making a soufflé.

Matrix was printed by John and Rosalind Randle at the Whittington Press in England, and is a donation from our friend Jerry Buff.

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