Nocturnal - a small handmade book of wood engravings

"Nocturnal" is a new small-format book from The Isle Handpress. Towards the end of 2019 I was working on some commissioned wood engravings of landscapes by moonlight. I have already made several engravings of creatures by moonlight and I started to plan this book.

It consists of eight wood engravings of nocturnal animals, together with engraved title, colophon and label. As an example, here are some photographs of  the engraving of  a fox in the Dean's Meadow by Ely Cathedral.

The engravings were all printed on "Red", our larger Albion Press. The images were printed two at a time and the the other engravings singly:

Once all the sheets were printed and dry, it was a question of folding and collating them and sewing them into their card covers. They were then given wrappers of a lovely hand marbled paper from Payhembury papers. Finally the labed was pasted on and the books signed and numbered:

The book measures about 10 x 14cm. The standard edition of 75 numbered, signed copies is available. There will be 26 specials, numbered from A - Z. They will be printed on larger paper and casebound with a folder of three or fours signed proofs. I will be making these over the next couple of months. I can reserve a copy if you contact me, with no obligation to buy as my specials usually sell out quickly.


I always get great pleasure in making handmade books but I am particularly pleased with this one.
Normally at events, you can handle a copy; the best that I can do is to make a video:




"Nocturnal is available to purchase from my website:
https://www.andyenglish.com/galleries/books/nocturnal-detail

It is also available from my Etsy store:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/776990856/nocturnal-a-hand-printed-book-of-wood?ref=shop_home_active_1&frs=1&crt=1

I hope that you are all keeping your spirits up in these strange times.
Stay well,
Andy