Description

This Collector’s Edition for Allowed to Grow Old is a celebration of the beauty and strength of plant fibers. The box is covered with 100% linen and lined with 100% cotton rag paper that was handmade by the La Papeterie Saint-Armand in Montreal, Canada. Ivory-colored sheets of this paper are used for the edition’s colophon and for the label that appears on the outside of the box.

The bifold portfolio enclosed in the box is made with a vintage kyoseishi paper made approximately 30 years ago by the Awagami Factory in Tokushima, Japan. Derived from the kozo (paper mulberry) plant, the paper was created by hand in a labor-intensive process designed to make it strong and impermeable. Each sheet was vat dyed and then treated several times with konnyaku starch derived from the konjac plant. The paper was then crumpled to give it a wrinkled and cloth-like texture. The resulting sheets appear fragile yet are remarkably resilient, much like the animals who appear in Allowed to Grow Old.

Enclosed inside the portfolio is a limited-edition archival pigment print of Cecil, a LaMancha/Saanen crossbreed goat, age 14+, who was rescued along with 100 other neglected animals from a poorly run sanctuary. Each print was crafted by master printer Paul Sneyd of Panopticon Imaging under the artist’s supervision.

This Collector’s Edition for Allowed to Grow Old is the result of a collaboration between artist Isa Leshko and bookbinder Rebecca Fisher Staley. The pair were inspired by the quiet minimalism of the trade edition of Allowed to Grow Old that was designed by Jill Shimabukuro, Design and Production Director for the University of Chicago Press.

Each box was constructed by Rebecca Fisher Staley at her studio in Providence, Rhode Island. The colophon was letterpress printed by Albertine Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Click any image below for a detailed view.