Sibyl Rubottom

Alphabet of Time

Many titles created by Bay Park Press of San Diego have featured alphabet books. Alphabet of Time features text printed in various fonts, including Clarendon, Bernard Modern and Bodoni. The visuals were created using photopolymer plates, wood type, marbling, silkscreen, acetate overlays, collage and hand painting. The visual feat of 50 colors is printed on Rives BFK tan paper, bound on a deckled fore-edge, and bound between two-color book cloth covers. Items representing the letter being featured are inserted in the work on several pages, such as a time card on the letter “T” page. The wraparound covers are covered with bright red book cloth.

Artists: Sibyl Rubottom and Jim Machacek
Press: Bay Park Press
Date: 2002
Number and Edition: 26 of 26
Size: 6.5” x 6.5

 

Cosmic Sidereal Galactic Abecedarium

This ABC extravaganza covers extraterrestrial territory, with each letter of the alphabet boasting five representative words, evidenced in the following excerpt: “N is for Newton Neptune Nova NASA and Nebula.” At least one word from each list is depicted through text or pictures. The structure contains windows, foldout features, tipped-in plates, simple pop-ups, and books within the book, including a small accordion and rotating flexagon.

The letterpress text from the Venus and Clarendon typefaces are mixed with visuals created using photopolymer plates, wood type, monoprinting, digital imaging and a zinc plate cover. Cosmic Sidereal Galactic Abecedarium features Somerset Book, Fabriano Rosaspina, Bianco, and Rives BFK papers.

Artists: Sibyl Rubottom and Jim Machacek
Press: Bay Park Press
Date: 2001
Number and Edition: W of 26
Size: 8” x 8”

 

O is for Opera

O is for Opera is an elaborate alphabet book featuring an accordion fold with pop-outs and multiple movable components. The piece was letterpress printed on Velata paper using Bernhard Modern type and the images were printed by photopolymer plates. Judythe Siecke created the calligraphy design, and the set page drawings were done by Stephen Hendrickson.

Sibyl Rubottom of the Bay Park Press said: "O is for Opera was conceived in March, 2003 and printing began in April. We printed through several life crises (ours, our families, our interns), numerous teaching assignments, other letterpress projects, press breakdowns and new puppies, births and deaths. But at times we wondered if we would ever make our end. But we kept on printing, and printing, some pages having at least 15 color runs through our trusty Vandercook I press. We estimate we cranked the press 19,853 times in this edition of 45."

Artists: Sibyl Rubottom and Jim Machacek
Press: Bay Park Press
Date: 2006
Number and Edition: 6 of 45
Size: 9.4” x 6.75”

 

Spice Market

The sensory experience of most books is a tactile one, produced by touching the pages and feeling the small variations created by the type and illustrations. Rarely does a book appeal to the reader’s sense of smell. Subtitled, An Alphabetical Melange of Spices, this accordion fold book sits in a drawstring bag with a tag, and has a fragrant scent. The BFK tan pages, some of which ran through the press 14 times, were hand-tinted with color and infused with curry, cinnamon and paprika. Typefaces used in Spice Market include Bernhard Modern, Bernhard Tango and Albertus. Many of the pages contain spices that were purchased locally in various Indian stores and markets in Artesia.

Artists: Sibyl Rubottom and Jim Machacek
Press: Bay Park Press
Date: 2004
Number and Edition: 4 of 40
Size: 4.5” x 5”

 

Ten Elephants

Bay Park Press created this meditative accordion fold book which features hand-tinted etchings on Fabriano paper. The title page is embossed with two flying elephants. The structure is glued to the inside back cover, which is made of board and red book cloth. The front cover displays an embossed 1.375” print of a gray elephant.

Some of the ten elephants engraved on the inner pages are familiar, including Ganesh (the Remover of Obstacles) and Babar, while others are more generic, such as a Night Elephant, a Clay Elephant, a Brass Elephant and an Inkwell Elephant. Sibyl Rubottom creates these small books as a source of meditation to help “remove obstacles” while working on larger projects.

Press: Bay Park Press
Date: 2004
Number and Edition: 3 of 15
Size: 5.25” x 5.375”