ELM Press collection of Enid Mark lithographs, photographs, and ephemera, 1971-2008.

Format:

Other

Author/Creator:

Mark, Enid, creator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

ELM Press.

Artists.

Book industries and trade.

Book design.

Publishers and publishing.

Women in the book industries and trade.

Women artists.

Penn Provenance:

Gift of Eugene L. Mark, 2015.

Physical Description:

14 boxes (5.6 linear feet)

Arrangement:

Organized into 3 series: I. Works; II. Exhibitions; and III. Awards, education, photographs, printed material, etc.

Place of Publication:

1971-2008.

Biography/History:

Enid Mark was the founder of ELM Press and an American editor, publisher, and artist specializing in handmade books. She was born in New York City on June 4, 1932 to Russian and English Jewish immigrant parents, Harry Epstein and Eva Goodman. As a child, Mark took art courses at the Brooklyn Museum and attended the High School of Music and Art in the Upper West Side. She went on to earn her bachelor's degree in English Literature and Composition from Smith College in 1954. That same year, she married her husband, Eugene Mark, with whom she had two children, Peter and Melanie. She worked in various mediums, including painting, printing, woodcutting, and silk screening until she became interested in "the idea of holding an art object in your hand and not just seeing it on the wall." (Downey) With this realization, she took a course on book design and learned the processes of letterpress printing, hand-set typography, fine papers, hand lithography, and hand-binding. Her early book work, Promises was produced in the early 1980s in her studio in Wallingford, PA. In 1986, she established ELM Press and produced The bewildering thread . According to The Philadelphia inquirer , "Mrs. Mark's limited-edition books explore the relationship between image and text, which are often from contemporary poems by women. Her book About Sylvia was a tribute to poet Sylvia Plath, a friend of hers at Smith. Other book themes include travel, mythology, botany, time and space." (Downey) Mark's work is found in numerous library and museum collections, including Cambridge University, London; Cornell University, New York; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; and the Library of Congress. She additionally exhibited her work widely, holding solo exhibitions at Yale University, Farnsworth Art Museum, Smith College Library, and Eric Makler Gallery. Her work has been included in group exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, The British Library, and Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. She has received Purchase Awards from Delaware Art Museum, Beaver College, and the University of Delaware. She was the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, notably including a Pew Fellowship in 2001. She died on September 30, 2008. ELM Press, founded in 1986 by Enid Mark, published limited-edition books featuring hand-lithography, letterpress binding, and archival hand-binding. It was named for both Enid and Eugene Mark's initials: "E," "L," and "M." The works of ELM Press were a collaborative endeavor as Enid Mark was not a "paper maker, compositor, printer, or binder." Mark was the artist, image-maker, and designer who ultimately oversaw and directed all projects, but collaborated with other specialists and creators on each one.

Summary:

The ELM Press collection of Enid Mark lithographs, photographs, and ephemera primarily documents Enid Mark's work on limited-edition art books with ELM Press and exhibitions featuring this work. This collection is useful to any researcher looking to learn more about Enid Mark's career, works, and process. There is material that demonstrates her artistic process, there are components of her artists' books in various stages of completion, and there is considerable information relating to exhibitions featuring her work. The first series, I. Works, comprises the majority of the collection (approximately 8 boxes), is arranged alphabetically by the title of Mark's works, and features a range of material relating to each of these works. This includes binding mockups, calligraphy plates, correspondence, drafts, exhibition material, lithographs, portfolio prints, press, and photographic material relating to About Sylvia ; An afternoon at les Collettes ; Ars botanica ; The bewildering thread ; Beyond the map ; Black pulse ; The elements ; Fanfare ; Fantasy ; Hand in the fan ; Grace from simple stone ; In Mifflin County ; The inconstant moon ; Pages from a summer album ; Precessional ; Promises ; Springs ; and To Persephone . The first series additionally contains slides documenting Mark's weaving, printmaking, and other various works. The second series, II. Exhibitions, mostly contains catalogs and printed material relating to Mark's solo and group exhibitions. The third series, III. Awards, education, photographs, printed material, etc., primarily contains printed and ephemeral material relating to Mark's career and education. It notably contains printed material related to her Lee Foundation and Pew Fellowship awards, artistic and travel photographs, press, and printed material relating to the work of other artists.

OCLC:

1417233181