North-West Passage

Item is a concertina fold bookwork with a poem by Edward Lucie-Smith, lino-cut imagery by Birgit Skiöld, and printed at Print Workshop. Signed by Lucie-Smith and Skiöld. The design is cut from a large single lino-block, printed blind-embossed and gives the effect of a frozen sea, covered in ice floes. The text is printed in light pink on the 2nd leaf, probably using litho-type. The content of the poem alludes to writing, to human endeavour, and to printing as well as snow-bound arctic wastes. Printed on off-white, hand-made paper with a Hayle Mill Watermark. Text is: "North-West Passage White ocean, white Sky mingling with it; The pack-ice grumbling Like a skull that grinds What teeth are left. And In the hidden dark Of icy water The seal-god crooning To the voyager: "Come to me! Come down! Leave one page clean of Steps, one blank unspoilt, Some whiteness in this Scribbled-over world!"