The Legacy of Lynd Ward in Contemporary Artists' Books By

Home , Eric Drooker, Frans Masereel, Passionate Journey, Song Without Words, The Sun (wordless novel), Vertigo (wordless novel)

The Legacy of Lynd Ward in Contemporary Artists’ Books

by Sara A. Friedman

A.A. in Business Administration, May 2002, Montgomery College B.A. in Art and Archaeology, May 2012, Hood College

A Thesis submitted to

The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art and the Book

May 15, 2016

Thesis directed by

Kerry McAleer-Keeler Associate Professor of Art and Design Program Head, Art and the Book Graduate Program

Dedication

Dedicated to Lynd Ward for all his inspiration to a new generation of book artists.

iii

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank all the teachers and professors of the Art and the Book

Graduate Program, especially Associate Professors Kerry McAleer-Keeler and Kenneth

Smith, for helping this thesis come to fruition. The author would also like to thank her spouse, Dr. Michael Friedman, for all his support through long nights and days.

Thesis Abstract

The Legacy of Lynd Ward in Contemporary Artists’ Books

Lynd Ward, an American Expressionist artist, and “father of the graphic novel,” helped shape the conventions of contemporary artists’ books. His legacy has influenced the direction beyond the graphic novel in areas such as the use of Expressionism and printmaking in the artists’ book, breaking graphic conventions, and using the artists’ book to convey a socio-political commentary. This paper will explain his influence and legacy by comparing his work to four contemporary artists’ books. Ward’s work, however, has only recently been recognized as a significant influence on graphic novels and has yet to be fully acknowledged as an influence on American artists’ books.

Table of Contents

Dedication ...... iii

Acknowledgements ...... iv

Abstract ...... v

List of Figures ...... vii

Introduction ...... 1

Lynd Ward’s Life And Influences ...... 3

Wordless Novels ...... 6

Lynd Ward’s Wordless Novels ...... 7

The Graphic Novel and The Book Artist ...... 12

Why Is Lynd Ward Largely Absent from the Artists’ Book Dialogue? ...... 14

Shaping The (Then) Future Artists’ Book ...... 16

The Legacy of Lynd Ward and Equinox Press ...... 17

The Comparative Artists’ Books ...... 21

Small Press Production and Printmaking Methods ...... 21

Political Message and Social Commentary ...... 24

Graphic Narrative Styles ...... 26

Conclusion ...... 29

Bibliography ...... 40

List of Figures

Figure 1: untitled [photograph of Lynd Ward] retrieved March 3, 2016 from www.ojsserv.dom.edu. Photo by unknown...... 31

Figure 2: Frans Masereel, The Sun, 1919. Retrieved March 3, 2016 from Borgesian Circulating Depository, http://danskjavlarna.tumblr.com/post/140414856294/djinn- gallery-frans-masereel-the-sun-1919. Photo by Dansk Javlarna...... 31

Figure 3: Lynd Ward, 2010, God’s Man. A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1929). Photo by author……...……………………..……………………………………..32

Figure 4: Lynd Ward, 2010, Madman’s Drum, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1930). Photo by author...... 32

Figure 5: Lynd Ward, 2010, Wild Pilgrimage, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1932). Photo by author...... 33

Figure 6: Lynd Ward, 2010, Prelude To A Million Years, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1933). Photo by author...... 33

Figure 7: Lynd Ward, 2010, Song Without Words, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1936). Photo by author...... 34

Figure 8: Lynd Ward, 2010, Vertigo, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1937). Photo by author….……………….………………………………………………………34

Figure 9: Art Spiegelman, Prisoner on the Hell Planet, from Maus, 1986, graphic novel. Retrieved March 3, 2016 from Julia Alexia Cecilia Case’s Portfolio, https://bu.digication.com/jaccase/Prisoner_on_the_Hell_Planet. Photo by J.A.C. Case...... 35

Figure 10: Johanna Drucker, Testament of Women, 2006, artists’ book with letterpress and linoleum. The Collection of Johanna Drucker. Photo by J. Drucker. Retrieved March 3, 2016 from Artists’ Books Online, http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/tewo/imageindex/1.1.1.15.xml...... 36

Figure 11: Johanna Drucker, Testament of Women, 2006, artists’ book with letterpress and linoleum. The Collection of Johanna Drucker. Photo by J. Drucker. Retrieved March 3, 2016 from Artists’ Books Online, http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/tewo/imageindex/1.1.1.13.xml...... 36

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Figure 12: Eric Drooker, Home, 1986, graphic novel, page 38. The Personal Collection of Johanna Drucker. Photo by unknown. Retrieved March 3, 2016 from Artists’ Books Online, http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/home/imageindex/1.1.1.43.xml ...... 37

Figure 13: Heather O’Hara, The Handbook of Practical Geographies, 2004, Screw post with paper cover with screenprint, woodcut, digital, and letterpress. 28cm x 43cm. Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY. Photo by unknown. Retrieved March 3, 2016 from http://www.wsworkshop.org/collection/the-handbook-of-practical- geographies/……………………………………………………………………………..38

Figure 14: Eric Drooker, Home, 1986, graphic novel, page 38 and page 40. The Personal Collection of Johanna Drucker. Photo by unknown. Retrieved March 3, 2016 from Artists’ Books Online, http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/home/imageindex/1.1.1.43.xml and http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/home/imageindex/1.1.1.45.xml. ……...... 38

Figure 15: Jeffrey W. Morin, 14 Stations, 2008, artists’ book with linoleum prints, 9.75” x 12.25”. sailorBOYpress, Stevens Point, WI. Photo by sailorBOYpress. Retrieved March 3, 2016 from http://www.sailorboypress.com/portfolios/books/fourteen_stations.aspx. ……………..39

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Introduction

Contemporary artists’ books are known for their intense handmade graphics, intense political themes and differing graphic conventions to the modern novel. These three directions have an origin in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with art currents such as Expressionism and the Arts and Craft movement. One of the biggest influences in American art on the modern artists’ book was Lynd Ward.

Lynd Ward, who is considered the "father of the graphic novel"1 and has been hailed for his wordless novels made from groups of woodcuts, has produced a significant impact on American artists’ books. A highly influential American Expressionist artist,

Ward is also renowned for his illustrations for children's books, winning the Caldecott

Award in 1953. Whereas a lot has been written about his graphic novel influence by such authors as Art Spiegelman, noticeably there is a lacuna in the literature about Lynd

Ward’s work and how he was an instrumental influence on contemporary artists’ books.

This paper will examine the ways in which Lynd Ward has helped shape the contemporary artists’ book, moving beyond the graphic novel.

This paper will be adding to the recent research into Ward’s impact on American graphic conventions and furthering the field of artists’ book literature. Research into the impact of Ward’s work has been largely over the last decade and has focused primarily on the graphic novel as an art form exclusively, ignoring the field of artists’ books as a whole. The focus of this paper will be the area of artists’ books that employ labor-

1 Michael Maglaras, "O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward," (USA: 217 Films, 2012).

1 intensive traditional printing methods such as woodcut, hand linocut and letterpress. This paper will also discuss possible reasons for Ward’s absence within the dialogue of artists’ books until now and why his work should be acknowledged as a significant shaping factor to contemporary artists’ books. Included within this discussion will be his production methods and scale of production. There is also possible bias against graphic novels amongst artists’ books.

Ward’s influence on the artists’ book field is more than just graphic novels and their more recent revival as an art form. He hails from a printmaking field (see fig.1), as a book artist, that mostly rejected the faster methods of graphic production favoring woodcuts and engraving, mezzotints and etching, all methodical preferences of book artists who link themselves with the Arts and Craft Movement and the work of William

Morris. This aspect will represent a feature of Ward’s work for comparative examination in the contemporary artists’ book.

Another feature this paper will examine is the graphic conventions of the artists’ book. The dominance of the image as a vehicle for information over the text is derived from his art and others working in early wordless novels, but Ward is counted as the first successful American artist to work in this field and is credited with bringing this style in practice to the United States.

An additional aspect that this paper will examine are the political themes such as social justice, race, and class inequality and how these are also echoed in the thematic works of artists’ books today.

In order to assess Ward’s impact and continuing influence, this paper focuses on the work of four relief printmaking book artists as examples. These books will be

Johanna Drucker’s Testament of Women, Jeffrey Morin’s 14 Stations, Heather O’Hara’s

The Handbook of Practical Geographies, and Eric Drooker’s Home. This paper will investigate these topical, methodological and stylistic areas as aspects of Lynd Ward’s work which feature prominently in many artists’ books by looking at parallel usage in these contemporary artists’ books.

Lynd Ward’s Life And Influences

Ward was born in Chicago in 1905. His father, Harry, was a Methodist minster and a political activist. Best known for his wordless novels, Lynd Ward received his art training in Leipzig at the National Academy of Graphic Art, after studying at Columbia

Teacher’s College in New York.2 It was at Columbia College that Ward met his future wife who would later be a collaborator in many of his works. After graduation they married and left for a tour of Europe where Ward encountered many art works which impressed upon him the importance of subject matter as not just about contemporary issues, but incorporating larger universal issues of social justice. This resonated with

Ward, since as a child he witnessed his father fighting for social justice in a capitalist society. Harry Ward had been one of the founders and first chairpersons for the ACLU.

Ward would take this political activism and use it in his wordless novels.3

Ward had envisioned himself as an artist at an early age. The story that Ward tells is that when he was first learning to read he noticed that his name was the word “draw” backwards. His education as an artist was coupled by his love of books and literature, and

2 George A. Walker, ed. Graphic Witness: Four Graphic Novels by Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Giacomo Patri, and Lawrence Hyde (Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books Ltd., 2007). 27. 3 David A. Berona; introduction by Peter Kuper, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2008). 41.

3 the young man he trained in all three areas of graphic expertise at the time, woodcut, etching and lithography in Germany under the hand of Hans Mueller.

Although Ward worked in multiple mediums from watercolors to woodblock, he was best known for his wordless novels. Ward went on to produce books and illustrate over a hundred novels. He only created six wordless novels, which would influence many people including Art Spiegelman and Allen Ginsberg. Ward won multiple awards for his work, including the Caldecott award.

While Ward studied in Leipzig, he read The Sun by Frans Masereel (see fig.2).

The bold monochromatic images of this wordless novel gave Ward the idea to produce his own wordless novel, but he did not act on this idea for many years until he returned to the United States. Although Ward encountered other imported wordless novels while living in New York that he considered more sophisticated in their graphic communication of storylines, Masereel’s wordless novel was his first contact with this artform and one of his major influences.

The influence of Masereel on Ward cannot be understated. Masereel is considered to have been shaped by a movement, German Expressionism, which swept across Europe and the United States in the early 20th century. Both Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward were influenced by the rise of three factors at this time in history. One was the revival of the woodcut as an artform by the German Expressionists.

Woodcut was enjoyed by the German Expressionists for the bold black and white imagery it produced, which they considered a natural counteractive force against the mechanized modern society. They used woodcut to highlight issues of social wrongdoing in the 1920s. The favored form of woodcut used by the Expressionists was made with the

4 grain, producing an image that showed some texture of the wood. Masereel produced images like this for his novel. Ward, however, chose to cut his wood against the grain as a wood engraving, giving crisper, more detailed images.

The second influence on Ward at that time was silent film. After WWI, cinema started to gain popularity and the Expressionists gained ground in this artform producing works such as Robert Weine’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and The Last Laugh

(1924) by F. W. Murnau, both considered German masterpieces. These films experimented with perspective and use of black and white film, to give contrasts of dark and light in their shots. 4 Ward would carry these ideas across to his imagery in storytelling in a novel format, often imitating exact moments in these films.5

The third influence on Ward was the development of cartoons, as comic strips and political cartoons proliferated in the early 20th century. Although Ward admitted the influence of political cartoons, his consumption of other comics, however, was limited.

Growing up in a Methodist household, Ward was banned from reading Sunday comics on the Sabbath. This practice would continue during his life, although Masereel and other artists that Ward would look at during the 1920s were not limited in their exposure to comics.6 Presenting narrative with little or no words was common enough for this time period. 7

4 Ibid. 41-44. 5 Maglaras, "O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward." 6 Kuper, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels. 10-13. 7 Art Spiegelman, ed. Lynd Ward: Prelude to a Million Years, Song without Words, Vertigo, 2 vols., Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts (New York: Penguin Group, 2010). Xxiii-xxiv.

Wordless Novels

Wordless novels were not a new development. Block books and narrative playing cards had been around for centuries, but the early 20th century was when they gained popularity. Masereel is credited with the rise of the woodcut novel with his books 25

Images of de la Passion d’un Homme (1918), Passionate Journey (1919), and The Sun

(1919), amongst others.8 The Sun, which caught Ward’s attention, was made up of series of sixty-three woodcuts that have no accompanying dialog or written story. Each frame

(see fig.2) is a part of the tale of an artist who, like a modern Icarus, is trying to reach towards the sun. He climbs to the top of a tree, a church steeple, and other tall objects to try to reach but is brought down by social ills such as alcoholism. Finally he reaches the sun through the clouds, is burnt, falls to the ground, and the artist wakes up realizing that he has been dreaming.9

The Sun, published in 1919, was published after the success of Passionate

Journey, which 1929 Literature Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann credited with being a major influence on his life.10 What makes this a wordless novel is not just the absence of words, but rather the sequencing of the narrative, the use of symbols to convey meaning, the materials employed to produce the images, the use of contrast and the social message.

The narrative of a wordless novel requires a detailed reading of pictorial formats.

It involves the reader viewing the frames as a sequence of events, and seeing the frames with adequate speed to maintain the narrative. Repeat readings of wordless novels allow the reader to give further meaning to the narrative.

8 Kuper, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels. 10. 9 Ibid. 30. 10 Ibid. 10.

One of the ways in which the narrative yields easily understood reference points is through the use of symbols. For example, a dove can be associated with peace in a wordless novel. These symbols speed up the narrative for the first-time reader and give added depth to the narrative for subsequent readings.

One of the notable qualities of a wordless novel is its application of materials.

Novelists use linoleum, woodblocks, leadcut and other printing methods to produce an image. This secondary image production slows down the production time of the image and is a deliberate emphasis on the careful creation of a book. It also yields a higher- quality image that is artistically rendered. The images are often black and white and very dramatic in appearance. This contrast helps increase the drama of the facial expressions and the gestures of the characters, which helps to convey the narrative.

Social messages also set wordless novels apart. Novelists explore such themes as political upheaval, social injustice, and other collective themes, as the mainstay of the wordless novel. For example, The Sun is an allegory to life as an artist and the pitfalls of fame. Together with these other elements, such as the use of woodblock, the symbol of the sun, the monochromatic contrast, and the pictorial format, the social theme of The

Sun blends together to form a wordless novel.11

Lynd Ward’s Wordless Novels

Ward wrote six wordless novels between 1929 and 1937. These varied in production from a mass-marketed novel to a small press edition as Ward moved from mass publication to involvement with Equinox Press, a small cooperative press. All six wordless novels were created from woodblocks cut against the grain, or wood

11 Ibid. 10-13.

7 engravings, of variable sizes. These novels, which he called “pictorial narratives,”12 have had a profound effect on many readers, some of whom have rated one or several of

Ward’s wordless novels as being a key influence in their lives.13

God’s Man was Ward’s first wordless novel. Comprised of 139 woodblock images, it tells a Faustian tale of an artist who sells his soul for the use of a magic paintbrush. This book was published by Cape and Smith and sold 20,000 copies in four years, a large success for that time.14

God’s Man (see fig.3) follows the life of an artist who sells his services, via a contract to a mysterious figure, for fame. The artist becomes famous and then is corrupted by that success. He flees society after a fall from grace, and ends up in the woodlands. He then meets a woman who helps him regain his health and he falls in love with her, accepting this new life as a much simpler alternative to the corrupt city life he once had. Then one day the mysterious figure returns and demands the contract be fulfilled and the artist must paint his portrait. As the hood is pulled back from the figure, the artist realizes that he he contracted with Death himself, and falls to his own demise.

The allegory of God’s Man could not have been more timely in production as it was published one week before the crash of 1929. Along with the subsequent Great

Depression, these events provided the socially conscious Ward with much material. His next novel, Madman’s Drum, published in 1930, commented on the evils of slavery, and

12 Ibid. 82. 13 Lynd Ward, Storyteller without Words: The Wood Engravings of Lynd Ward with Text by the Artist (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1974). 12. 14 Ibid. 24.

8 the social consequences of commercial exploitation. He came up with the theme of his novel after the events surrounding a famous murder trial.15

Madman’s Drum (see fig.4) is a more complex narrative than Ward’s first novel.

It follows the story of a drum created in Africa by a native. Unlike God’s Man, this novel is set in the past. The drum is the object of desire of a slave trader who kills the original owner. He then takes the drum home, placing it in his home, but one day he catches his son playing with the drum. The man beats his son, chastising him for not being a scholar instead. The boy then grows up to be a man who rejects religion and is socially irresponsible. He pursues fame and marries a beautiful woman. The story ends with the young man turning mad and his wife and daughters dying tragically.16 The novel addresses issues of race relations and exploitative economics in an interesting manner, where the drum functions as a symbol of the wealth produced from the Third World.

Ward’s third wordless novel, Wild Pilgrimage (see fig.5), was published in 1932.

Created during a time of economic upheavals, this novel thematically conveyed the notion of an escape from society. It is based on the pastoral ideal, seeking a simpler life away from the ills of urban existence. Ward explores social inequality and the possible way to escape it, however unsuccessful by the protagonist.17 The most visible difference between this novel and the previous two is the use of color. Ward employs the use of color to distinguish between the inner thoughts of the lead character (orange and white) and the reality of his life (black and white). The movement between these two narratives allows Ward to avoid words, thought balloons or other such devices to give us an idea of

15 Ibid. 77-78. 16 Kuper, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels. 52. 17 Ward, Storyteller without Words. 125-126.

9 what is going on in the mind of his main character. Again, he creates a more complex tale than the previous one, and increased the image sizes and their variety of size. The book published was 10 x 7 inches.18

Ward made many changes to his wordless novel format in his next novel, Prelude

To A Million Years (see fig.6), in 1933. This novel published was by Equinox

Cooperative Press, a group of mainly New York artists that Ward helped found. Each book was created from the original woodblocks and was part of an edition of only 920 copies that were “… printed directly from woodblocks on a beautiful rag paper in a small edition.”19 Ward wrote that he committed to Equinox because it was “working in printing, publishing, and the book arts…(with people) that wanted to do non-commercial books, just for the love of doing it.” As part of this “…each copy of Prelude was bound by hand…”20

This step towards the book arts was significant for Ward beyond being a small edition. His works with Equinox had limited reach until they were reprinted in a commercial setting. This may be the main reason his influence on the direction of artists’ books is understated, as he produced books in the 1930s long before the next boom of the

1970s and 1980s in Fine Press editions.

This novel is, again, more complex than its predecessor. Ward wrote that he always “thought of Prelude To A Million Years as a kind of footnote to God’s Man, a sort of codicil that would acknowledge that changes had occurred and that these changes

18 Kuper, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels. 58-59. 19 Ward, Storyteller without Words. 178. 20 Ibid.

10 required an amendment to the earlier testament.”21 The narrative of this complex tale is one again in keeping with Ward’s ideals, focusing this time on a sculptor set amidst the years of the Great Depression. The storyline deflates the illusion of the romance of the artist’s life and shows the mean brutality of his times with dramatic scenes of fires and strikes. 22 It is also deep with pictorial symbolism such as the flagpole denoting patriotism. 23

Following Prelude, Song Without Words (1936) (see fig.7) was again produced on a small scale. Song Without Words was published just before the outbreak of the Spanish

Civil War. It was created from twenty-one woodblocks and addressed the issue of

Fascism. The main character, a woman, debates bringing a child into the world when

Fascism is so prevalent. She wrestles with the issues of Fascism and then defiantly births a child at the end of the story. Ward said that he wrote this novel about the need for faith.

He envisioned it as a “if a sequence of images could be called prose, this would be considered a kind a prose poem”24rather than a wordless novel.

This novel would be considered more controversial for its visual exploration of

Fascism and its world of abuse in a time when Fascism was not yet denounced. It also used pictorial symbolism in depth.25

Ward’s last wordless novel was Vertigo in 1937 and it is considered his masterpiece. Ward focuses on three main characters over 230 wood engravings, an elderly man, a girl, and a boy, to examine the effects of the Depression (see fig.8). It

21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 177-178. 23 Kuper, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels. 64. 24 Ward, Storyteller without Words. 192. 25 Kuper, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels. 70.

11 chronicles their life during this time and the troubles they each face and how their paths cross. The interweaving of the stories provides a backdrop for his commentary on the interconnectedness of everyone.26

Ward’s Vertigo characters emerge as a type of “cultural caricature of that era,”27 and he uses this ploy deliberately to avoid creating a novel that would be too difficult to comprehend the “complex mass of experiences”28 of the Depression. He also uses more words in the background in these images, moving more towards the arena of comics. His novels, however, also influenced other art. Berona says that Ward “established the basis for storytelling that is used today by artists of picture books and graphic novels.”29

The Graphic Novel and The Book Artist

Art Spiegelman, author of the award-winning book Maus, calls Ward “the father of the graphic novel,”30 as his landmark graphic novel Maus, demonstrates the direct influence of the wordless novels of Ward and the German Expressionists.31

Art Spiegelman’s Maus helped move comics into mainstream reading in America.

Graphic novels, a subgenre of comics, had not been around for very long when Maus was published in 1986. Largely an underground movement in reading, adult-oriented comics moved into the general population after Maus won the Pulitzer Prize. It even became recommended reading for grade schools. Although Maus was first released as an

26 Maglaras, "O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward." 27 Kuper, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels. 78. 28 Ward, Storyteller without Words. 203. 29 Kuper, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels. 82. 30 Maglaras, "O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward." 31 Stephen Weiner, Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: The Rise of the Graphic Novel (New York: Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine Publishing Inc., 2012). 38.

12 underground comic in the 1970s and then a syndicated comic strip, Spiegelman always intended for its release as a complete book.32

The rise of the graphic novel from comic and political cartoon to the graphic novel in mainstream reading has paralleled the rise of the artists’ book in the 20th century.

Perhaps both represent a change in the reading habits of this country or they represent a change in how different forms of the book and pictorial narratives have become more acceptable. It is not the place of this paper to investigate why both have gained more prominence as artforms in this century, but merely to point out that the rise of both has led to speculation as to their roots and led to more academic writing on the subject.

As scholars have explored the history of the graphic novel, the wordless novels of

Lynd Ward have been rediscovered. Spiegelman has also written introductions and essays on his work and the nature of graphic novels. One of these is Reading Pictures: A Few

Thousand Words on Six Books Without Any, which is the introduction to a compilation of the wordless novels by Lynd Ward, re-released in 2010. In this essay, Spiegelman talks about his encounter with Lynd Ward at a print show in 1970, and how he was led to investigate more of Ward’s work including the book, Storyteller Without Words (1974), afterwards. He explains that this is the direct link to a section of Maus (see fig.9), The

Prisoner on The Hell Planet, where he writes about his Mother’s suicide.33

“It seems natural now to think of Lynd Ward as one of America’s most distinguished and accomplished graphic novelists. He is, in fact, one of only a small handful of artists anywhere who ever made a “graphic novel” until the day before yesterday,” Spiegelman writes. This recognition is significant in the arena of graphic

32 Ibid. 36-38. 33 Spiegelman, Six Novels in Woodcut: Vol2. Xxiv.

13 novels as both a part of their history and as an ongoing influence, however, as

Spiegelman explains further, “Ward’s roots were not in comics, though his works is part of the same large family tree, belonging somewhere amongst the less worm-ridden branches of printmaking and illustration.”34

What Spiegelman is referring to is that Lynd Ward considered himself a printmaker and a book artist. He sums it up in the opening to his essay: “Ward made books. He had an abiding reverence for the book as an object. He understood its anatomy, respected every aspect of its production, and intimately knew its history.”35

Ward also wrote an essay in 1949, in The Horn Book, detailing issues that he saw for the book artist like himself amidst the rise of abstract art. This essay talked about the evolution of the book artist in the previous twenty-five years. In many ways Ward was a book artist before the term came into wider use. He was also a printmaker, a profession that continued through the rest of his life.36

Why Is Lynd Ward Largely Absent from the Artists’ Book Dialogue?

Although Ward is featured so prominently in the dialogue of the graphic novel he is largely absent from the dialogue of the artists’ book. Until recently there has not been much discussion of the history of artists’ books besides some smaller surveys of book types. Part of this reason lies in the emphasis that analyses of artists’ books place the definition or classification of artists’ books. The failure to find (or conclude that there cannot be one) an adequate classification system leads to problems in discussing historically what is or is not an artists’ book since the term only came to prominence in

34 Ibid. xxi-xxiii. 35 Ibid. ix. 36 Ibid. x.

14 the 1970s. With this fact comes the dilemma that only books that have been around since

World War II and after can truly be classified as artists’ books. This, of course, implies that only a book created as an artists’ book could be an artists’ book, to which one could find alternatives; for example, the work of William Blake.

The dialogue of graphic novels and comics history is not the same issue. With a crisper definition of their subgenre and genre within books, this format does not have to grapple with the ideas of structure of the book itself as an issue. They however have had a plethora of writing about the background of comics and the different forms that exist at the moment. Universities teach courses primarily focusing on comics and their history.

Books are written on the subject of the impact of comics and graphic novels. English classes are taught focusing on how to analyze and generate this genre. It is the newness of the development of this field that makes graphic novels considered a little more controversial as an artform. This may have helped create some bias in bringing across

Ward as an influence in graphic novels to artists’ books.

Lynd Ward is already part of the discourse for graphic novels and comics. Several graphic novelists including Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman have championed Ward as one of their influences, and as their work has disseminated and been analyzed, so has the work of Lynd Ward in acknowledgment to artists in that field.

There is also a matter of the timing of Lynd Ward’s work and the development of artists’ books as a field. Ward created his wordless novels in the 1920-30s. His book

Storyteller Without Words, was published in 1974, reproducing images from his wordless novels into an adequate artistic setting, but not a good one to consolidate his position as a book artist. Since then all of his novels have been republished to look like graphic novels,

15 a genre already familiar to mainstream culture. As of now, eighty-plus years have passed since he produced his wordless novels, and the demand to view his more limited editions of his work is high, so his estate has allowed the publishing of his work in this newer format.

Ironically, I came across the work of Lynd Ward in much the same way that Art

Spiegelman did. I saw a portfolio of his prints and assumed that he was a printmaker and nothing beyond. I was delighted to have come across essays by other graphic novelists and discovered the wordless novels of Lynd Ward. It is precisely the writing that is coming via the discourse of graphic novels that is leading some book artists back towards the work of Lynd Ward. That is not to say that Ward was not always part of the discourse, but his work should be re-examined in terms of the scope of its impact. This paper asserts that Lynd Ward helped to shape the discourse of artists’ books.

Another reason that Ward failed to receive recognition as one of historical influences on artists’ books is the limited size of his editions. The books he produced for

Equinox Cooperative Press were made in small editions and were priced moderately with the intention of being circulated for political impact. They were not designed as collectors’ items and they predate the artistic considerations of the democratic multiple.

Shaping The (Then) Future Artists’ Book

The rediscovery of Lynd Ward’s work and how important it may have been in the fields of graphic novels, artists’ books, and printmaking, is a convoluted story. Thanks to the collection of his work at Georgetown University Library Special Collections, and the tireless efforts of many individuals, Lynd Ward’s work is now more accessible. This paper suggests that it is because of his prominence in the field of graphic novels that he is

16 being reassessed in terms of what part he has played in the past century towards these fields.

Unsurprisingly, there is little information about Lynd Ward and artists’ books in historical discussions outside the essays of graphic novelists and those of Lynd Ward himself. One example of this is an essay by Johanna Drucker mentioning artists’ books and Lynd Ward in the same essay.37

This paper now examines how the wordless novels of Lynd Ward has helped shape contemporary artists’ books by a comparison of three factors; political message, graphic narrative, and means of production. Four prominent artists’ books of today will be looked at and the aforementioned factors examined against those in Ward’s wordless novels. This is not done to assess the extent to which these particular authors have been influenced by the wordless novels of Ward, but to give an indication of the scope of which Ward may have helped shape the field of artists’ books.

The Legacy of Lynd Ward and Equinox Press

It is the legacy of Lynd Ward that has helped mold many artists’ books today. But what is this legacy? Ward was a printmaker, an illustrator, a writer, an activist, a book artist, and much more. He was also the founding member of Equinox Cooperative Press, which published small-scale productions of books, poetry chapbooks, and essays between

1932 and 1937. 38

The first level of familiarity of most people with Ward may be with the history of graphic novels or they may happen upon a reprinting of one of his wordless novels, but

37 Johanna Drucker, "What Is Graphic About Graphic Novels?," English Language Notes 46, no.2, no. 2008 (2008). 38 Henry Hart and Lynd Ward, A Relevant Memoir: The Story of the Equinox Cooperative Press (New York: Three Mountains Press, 1977). 97-106.

17 this is not his entire legacy. Ward’s shift in publishing from commercial to small scale press, and then back to commercial was indicative of the trials of many artists of his time.

However, his persistence with Equinox shows how Ward had other concerns beside commercial success. It was a large part of his life during the conception and execution of his wordless novels.39

Johanna Drucker stops just short of calling Lynd Ward’s wordless novels artists’ books in one of her essays on graphic novels. While she contended that a graphic novel such as Maus is not an artists’ books, she failed to list the works of Ward and Masereel the same way, which she talks about two paragraphs prior in the article.40 Perhaps this is because they predate the timeline for artists’ books that she helped establish. Drucker delineates artists’ books from graphic novels by stating “not only the emphasis on communicative efficacy afforded by graphic means, but the fact they were conceived within the sphere of mass production…they follow literary publishing’s strategies, not the protocols of fine art’s limited editions and fetishized originals.”41 Then perhaps we could consider Ward’s wordless novels after Madman’s Drum to be a proto-artists’ book in that dialogue. Prelude To A Million Years, fits especially well, as it was published by Equinox

Cooperative Press with 72 leaves of hand-folded Vidalion Velin paper, a copper foil spine, a typeface of Metropolis Light, enclosing handset wood engravings, in an edition of 920 which were signed by Lynd Ward. This certainly looks, sounds and is impossible to distinguish from the fine press books that Drucker herself classifies as artists’ books

39 Ibid. 40 Drucker, "What Is Graphic About Graphic Novels?." 53. 41 Ibid. 54.

18 except that they were created in the 1930s.42 43 In this way Ward’s wordless novels were already part of the tradition of artists’ books, but had joined the many other small presses of this past century as “a tiny ripple in the literary tides.” 44 That ripple would soon beget books that would create larger waves in the arena of artists’ books, and was exemplary of the aims of much of Lynd Ward’s wordless novels.

Henry Hart, another of the first members of Equinox Cooperative Press, calls the founders of the press “nine valiant romantics”45, where a romantic is “anyone who wants life to be better than it is.”46 Conceived by Lynd Ward during his interactions with the world of big publishing of his first few novels, he collected a group of people who had very different talents to make up the cooperative. Already “the best wood engraver in the

United States”47 at the time, Ward found a photographer, an illustrator, people who had knowledge of publishing, to make up a troop of nine individuals who were dedicated to presenting a certain political central-leftist message when fascism was already beginning to grow around the world.

Hart’s account of the development of Equinox Press was published in 1977, and included not only the history of their development but also the methods in which each book and pamphlet was brought to life. He noted typography, fonts used, binding and cloths used, edition number, and negotiations and involvement of the artists and writers.

This information provides a strong contrast to the world of publishing that Ward was

42 Ward, A Relevant Memoir. 100. 43 Johanna Drucker, The Century of Artists' Books (New York, NY: Holland Cotter and Granary Books, 2004). 44 Ward, A Relevant Memoir. 11. 45 Ibid. 21. 46 Ibid. 47 Ibid. 13.

19 involved with until Madman’s Drum. Hart also discussed the deliberate intentions of

Ward to put the means of production of his books into a handcrafted environment where instead of emphasizing commercial success “in such a milieu he (Ward) wanted to make the milieu better.”48 Outside of the political aims were the artistic aims of making a better and more beautiful item. Hart outlines these objectives of the press, but Ward who created the foreword for this memoir, summarized it, “Our sources of strength were, over the years, to involve us in setting type, folding printed sheets, producing printable images on wood and stone without the dependence on photochemical processes.”49 Equinox also chose carefully whom they published, and tried to uphold this standard throughout the years. Equinox often rejected offers to publish popular materials because it did not fit this mold, and could do so because of their disassociation with commercial success.50

Monetary shortfalls were made up by careful selection of materials and limiting edition sizes to approximate sales, as well as the production of the poetry chapbooks referred to as the Equinox Quarters. Equinox Cooperative Press disbanded and returned funds to the individual members just before World War II in anticipation of a changing world.51

The means of production are highlighted in the back of Hart’s book where he outlines the typefaces, edition number, and other binding and book run data for each book and chapbook created by Equinox Cooperative Press.52 With the political message, the graphic narrative and the means of production, as small press and production in terms of lithography, linocut or woodcut, attention will now be given towards further exploration

48 Ibid. 14. 49 Ibid. 8. 50 Ibid. 27. 51 Ibid. 30-36. 52 Ibid. 97-106.

20 of the influence of Ward by examining four artists’ books in comparison to Ward’s wordless novels; Johanna Drucker’s Testament of Women, Eric Drooker’s Home, Jeffrey

Morin’s 14 Stations, and Heather O’Hara’s The Handbook of Practical Geographies.

The Chosen Comparative Artists’ Books

These four artists’ books were not chosen at random nor because of glaring similarities, but because they represent a wide cross-section of artists’ books, ranging from the graphic novel artists’ book to a Women’s Studio Workshop production. Jeffrey

W. Morin’s 14 Stations was produced in 2008 and is the most recent one that will be examined, whereas Eric Drooker’s Home was created in 1986, and is the earliest artists’ book researched for this paper. The other two artists’ books, Testament To Women by

Johanna Drucker (2006) and The Handbook of Practical Geographies by Heather O’Hara

(2004), are also relatively contemporary, which has been one of the aims of this comparison.

Small Press Production and Printmaking Methods

With the exception of the Eric Drooker’s Home, these artists’ books were made on small presses and in small editions. The Handbook of Practical Geographies (O’Hara) was made in an edition of 100 as part of a program with the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY. It was also published under Coffee House Press, in Minneapolis, MN, a private small press, and funded by both the Women’s Studio Workshop, The New York

State Council on the Arts, and the Minnesota Center For Book Arts.53

Similarly, Testament Of Women was published at the Virginia Arts of the Book

Center from 2005-2006 by Johanna Drucker. An edition of 40 books, it was published

53 wsworkshop.org, "The Handbook of Practical Geographies," (2015).

21 under two publishers, Druckwerk and Granary Books. Druckwerk is the small press of

Johanna Drucker, which originally conceived the project and then handed it over to Steve

Clay of Granary books to finish the production.54

In terms of printmaking methods three of these books show a distinct link to the slow hands-on production methods such as those preferred by Lynd Ward.

14 Stations by Jeffrey W. Morin was issued by SailorBoyPress. This small press created 14 Stations in an edition of 45, enclosed in an elaborate black leather box with a crown of wire and a handmade rosary inside.55 14 Stations is a 56-page book made from

14 reduction linoleum prints. While the appearance of linoleum prints is distinctly different to the wood engravings of Lynd Ward and is inherent to the material, the intent of producing a hand-made illustrative quality to a hand-set type book is still being preserved. 14 Stations alternates each of the two-page spreads of the linoleum reductions in three tones of muted browns and greens and reds, with pages showing anatomical drawings. This book traces the development of AIDS in a young man, Jesus (pronounced

“Hey-Zeus”), as he moves through each stage of the illness. It is deliberately paralleled to the suffering of the religious path of Jesus and his Stations of the Cross. Each page spread of the linoleum cuts features an image of the central figure in a position that is similar to religious drawings of Jesus. The intermittent pages feature the anatomical drawing on the verso side in red, and the story development on the facto side.56

The Handbook Of Practical Geographies features silkscreen work and the use of woodcuts. Each woodcut is centered on a piece of a 1960’s era social studies textbook.

54 artistbooksonline.org, "Testament of Women," (2015). 55 abaa.org, "14 Stations," (2015). 56 Ibid.

The woodcuts have been individually printed onto the papers to make the book, much in the same way that Ward produced some of his books from woodblocks. The distinct use of dramatic black and red in the prints harkens back to the images created by Ward. The strong use of negative space in these images show the influence of his era. Although this book makes use of digital printing, the efforts to depict a certain aesthetic achieved through the use of screenprinting and woodcut is evident in the work. This is a 52-page book covered in these images.57

Testament of Women also makes use of printmaking (see fig.10). The text of the stories is anchored around linoleum cuts of the central figures such as Eve. The imagery has a quality not unlike the woodcut in appearance and is made to resemble updated feminist versions of old religious images. Instead of using male figures, Drucker has used female figures often absent in Christian woodcuts. She describes the images as having a

“neo-expressionist quality”58 in appearance.59

Home by Eric Drooker, was made in an unknown edition size but was bound in saddle stitch. This artists’ book did not make use of the printmaking methods reminiscent of Lynd Ward, but instead were created in scratchboard and then printed in offset.60 The quality of the line work and the comic book style paneling does show his influence from the heritage of graphic novels lineage instead. However, the line and ink work does give

57 wsworkshop.org, "The Handbook of Practical Geographies." 58 artistbooksonline.org, "Testament of Women." 59 Ibid. 60 "Home," (2015).

23 some appearance of a woodcut in ways and shows how Lynd Ward’s wordless novels continue to push as a style through this sphere.61

Political Message and Social Commentary

To Ward, the political message imparted by the narrative and the production of the book had always been a most important aspect of the book. This is what shaped the size of Ward’s edition, the scope of the narrative, the number of plates and other essentials of book production for the wordless novels, even when he had produced them on a larger scale. In Storyteller Without Words, Ward outlined how he developed his stories from a singular idea that outlaid this political message. 62

While one cannot contest that other artists’ book were developed this same way, political messages are certainly central to many of them. One of these books, Testament of Women (2006), which is hand bound with illustrations and writing by Johanna

Drucker, is a series of biblical stories of female figures retold from their perspective, to examine the exclusion of women from religious books. It also has a hand in the humor of feminism, where the tales are given a very human face in their retelling. The central themes of exclusion and female power continue through the stories, and one is given this alterative set of tales as moving through their life events and choices. From the imitation of the layout style of the Goudy typeface to resemble the Bible to the central images themselves, this is a very politically charged artists’ book.

The political message of Testament is outlined on a single page before the discussion of each of the figures from biblical tales that Drucker chooses to examine. The

61 Ibid. 62 Ward, Storyteller without Words.20-22.

24 textblock is shaped as a chalice, a religious symbol in Christianity, often likened to the female form in their history (see fig.11).

Eric Drooker, in contrast to Johanna Drucker, does draw directly upon the graphic devices of the comic book and the graphic novel. Home (1986), is a clear descendant of

Lynd Ward in the American tradition of woodcut interpretive novels from the German

Expressionism movement (see fig.12). His political message is also aligned with that of

Ward’s. In Home, Drooker’s character’s demise from a decent worker into a life of crime and degradation is closely associated with the narrative of several of Ward’s characters, such as the young man in Vertigo. It is the socio-economic climate that creates the mood and actions of the characters. Just like Ward’s victims of the Depression, Drooker’s main character is a victim of a recession and spirals into a life very different from his employed one. The social commentary on the spiral into degradation is echoed in the frame size that gets smaller and closer together in an anxious state of appearance. The decency of a man’s existence is tied to gainful employment, and the absence of this employment leads to a downfall that is separate from a choice of values but is reliant on economics.

Drooker’s character experiences drug addiction, prostitution and a complete collapse of morality after his job loss.63

The Handbook of Practical Geographies is a bluntly political artists’ book that examines the social standing of the United States in the world’s arena through the lens of quotes taken from a child’s social studies textbook from the 1960s. Chapter one in the table of contents is titled Oiling The Machine: The Gulf War while the quote states that

“Good politics is the oil that makes human affairs run smoothly… It is worth working

63 artistbooksonline.org, "Home."

25 for, for it is more precious than gold (sic).” (see fig.13) The sarcasm of this artists’ book in the comparison of the quotes to the titles and the political references to real situations helps convey much of the political content. Topics addressed range from Waco to the

Iran-Contra Affair where the quotes from the 1960’s are recontextualized to reflect this new practical geographical sense. O’Hara highlights the ignorance with which our adoption of many of these political narratives of the 1960s is childlike and does not reflect reality. The contrast between the childlike quotations and the implications of these quotes through sarcasm is a parallel to the contrast between the ignorance of the way in which social studies was approached and the reality of the political situations.

14 Stations similarly relies upon a parallel to make its political message known.

The juxtaposition between the stages of a man’s journey through the progression of AIDS is held against the religious and physical journey of Jesus towards his crucifixion. This book is exploring the dual nature of AIDS in destroying and testing a man’s spirit as well as the destruction of his body. Jesus’s body is being ravaged by AIDS while he plunges into despair further at each stage as he nears death. The human face of suffering as a tragedy is brought to light in this saga, bringing the discussion of AIDS away from the politicization of the epidemic.

Graphic Narrative Styles

Lynd Ward’s wordless novels are very distinct visually. This style was very influential in helping shape artists’ books. The cinematic contrasts of shadow and light translated into woodcuts, the asymmetrical poses of figures, the monochromatic color scheme, and the expression of the characters all contribute to the style created by Ward and has endured. This bold coloring with multiple storylines and an emphasis visually on

26 themes in each frame to give a sense of the scene over the strict narrative, all adds up to images becoming far more than illustrations. The images form a narrative unto themselves, set the scene and create a unity for the books. With a sense of drama more akin to cinema or stage Ward kept his visual style uniform, a unity enhanced by a single printmaking method of wood engravings.

The drama of the set is carried across into The Handbook of Practical

Geographies. Unity is achieved by keeping images in a strict pictorial style and red and black color scheme. There is some variety between the different scale of the images and location of them on the page. Some images are upside down, others seen in the background. The reader follows these images against the frames in the background highlighting the lessons that humanity has obviously not learned. The narratives are broken by chapter and we are led into this style in the table of contents drawn in a circle like a group of stories. It has the feel of a scene itself, adding to the sense of the lessons as a whole instead of just individual stories. They will play together to form a greater lesson of the complexity of history and politics, and how we are fed children’s stories that cannot encapsulate the reality of the situations. Familiar imagery is used from news stories as icons of history and politics are paraded across each chapter. Just as Ward’s cinematic style combined to form a greater theme, O’Hara’s chapters can be visually read like a stage of characters that set a greater theme.

Again, staging is used in the visual portion of Testament of Women. Each of the characters is like portraits of the characters, or soliloquys. They are presented by chapters featuring each of their stories told from their feminist viewpoints, as again, asymmetrical images create a type of rhythm in the book. The monochromatic linocuts give a theatrical

27 quality to the images like Ward’s staging of his frames. The reader links together the stories and the contemporary-set images to form a scene more complex than just an illustration, again, a scene for the political themes of the book.

Home, a more distinct link to the graphic novel descendants of Ward’s is dominated by the change in panel size throughout the narrative. Each of these panels read like a storyboard for a cinematic shoot. The panels decrease in size (see fig.14) as the action speeds in the narrative and the situation crumbles for the lead character. As a consequence, the number of panels per page increases “contributing to a sense of diffusion, dissolution, and confusion.”64The figure goes from theatrically defined features like Ward’s through a decrease in size to becoming a mere stick figure. The complexity of the character devolves in size as he does in society. He has faded in character until he becomes barely worth our notice. The final red splat in the frame gives one last breathe of humanity to the character and is the only color to break the monochromatic scheme.

14 Stations is laid out in sets of four pages (see fig. 15). This sequence is repeated throughout the book as a rhythm. The first two pages are the reduced linocut across the spread. Next is the monochromatic anatomical diagram in the bottom left corner, highlighting the part of the body that is being attacked by the AIDS virus. The facing page has the narrative of Jesus as he passes through each of the stages of the virus. The visual side of the narrative is kept closely aligned to images of Christ carrying the cross through each of the 14 stations in Jerusalem. Again, there is this dual narrative of the theme versus the personal story with the characters to help further the political message.

64 Ibid.

These four contemporary artists’ books offer insight into the influence of Lynd

Ward in a variety of ways. The narrative development through imagery, the exploration of political themes, and the methods of production all echo the work of Lynd Ward in his wordless novels. These precursors to the modern artists’ book were profound and long- lasting.

Conclusion

Lynd Ward has been a significant influence on contemporary artists’ books, helping shape the use of political message and social commentary, the production methods of books, and in redefining graphic conventions. This paper has shown the reader some ways in which Ward was indeed a book artist himself in its earliest days, and how he helped lay the groundwork in the field of small press productions and printmaking for graphics. His press, Equinox Cooperative Press bore artists’ books in the

1930s during the Great Depression, and some of Lynd Ward’s wordless novels are products of this environment. This paper has also discussed the place for Lynd Ward in the dialogue of artists’ books, and some reasons why he may have been either in the quiet background or absent from this dialogue until recently. Four contemporary artists’ books,

Testament of Women by Johanna Drucker, 14 Stations by Jeffrey Morin, Home by Eric

Drooker, and The Handbook of Practical Geographies, by Heather O’Hara, were examined in this paper and found to have commonalities with Lynd Ward’s wordless novels. These commonalities are evidence of how Lynd Ward has helped shape contemporary artists’ books. Further investigation into his insight to dark and light forms and how they interrelate in printmaking, storytelling method of political message, and pictorial narrative can offer book artists more breadth in their works, while also

29 reinforcing some historical fundamentals behind the field. As Lynd Ward may continue to be examined productively in the future, there may be more cause for the wordless novels to have a more significant impact on the artists’ book, and we may look forward to a day when he is fully recognized as one of the fathers of the artists’ book, and not just the graphic novel.

Figures

Figure 1: untitled [photograph of Lynd Ward] retrieved March 3, 2016 from www.ojsserv.dom.edu. Photo by unknown.

Figure 3: Lynd Ward, 2010, God’s Man. A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1929). Photo by author.

Figure 4: Lynd Ward, 2010, Madman’s Drum, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1930). Photo by author.

Figure 5: Lynd Ward, 2010, Wild Pilgrimage, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1932). Photo by author.

Figure 6: Lynd Ward, 2010, Prelude To A Million Years, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1933). Photo by author.

Figure 7: Lynd Ward, 2010, Song Without Words, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1936). Photo by author.

Figure 8: Lynd Ward, 2010, Vertigo, A. Spiegelman (ed.), Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. New York: The Library of America. (Original work published 1937). Photo by author.

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