Blue Barnhouse

Em Literary Asylum: Em III/IV

Em, an irregularly published literary journal edited by Brandon Mise, showcases the work of writers, artists and musicians. This collection is a dos-a-dos book bound with a Coptic stitch, and contains an origami paper boat, a package of Polaroid photographs, a compact disc by the musical group Transmission and other ephemera. The structure is housed inside a canvas parachute.

Brandon Mise, the editor of Em, said: “Blue Barnhouse came out of a love of literature and magazine production. Wanting to steer away from the standard mass-produced fare so common to the publishing industry, we joined the bookbinding and letterpress community at the San Francisco Center for the Book and learned the beauty of doing things the old-fashioned way. Our hand-bound magazine, Em Literary, was met with rabid enthusiasm by the literary underground, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Artist: Collaborative Work
Press: Blue Barnhouse
Date: 2004
Number and Edition: Unnumbered of 400
Size: 6” x 6”