Walter Hamady Merit Badge
July 25 - August 23, 2014
Main Gallery
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Walter Hamady
detail of Merit Badge
1968
graphite, gouache, collage, and cut matboard
13 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches
Walter Hamady
post-bastille series no. 14 French eye/ing bald blue Scot2010/11/13
Cohiba cigar box flocked; unknown antique cigar box sectioned; cedar fillet holding mortised cloak-room board by Paul Douglas; recycled collage fragment; brass strip from antqiue Edwin Amies papermaking mould (from J. Barcham Green); red-rusted metal strip as per P.B.S. No. 13; slide of Beloit Corp. Foundry mould; red-felt-ended piece from famous (by Now) Story Organ; all sitting atop of a narrow drawer from antique lap-desk; scarifications in and un intentioned.
9 x 10 x 2 inches
signed and dated (2010-11) in graphite lower left
Walter Hamady
Travelling / Gabberjabb No. 71991-96
handmade, hand-printed book
10 1/4 x 7 1/4 x 3/4 inches
Perishable Press 122/1991–1996; 154 pages; ed. number 28 of 125
Walter Hamady
post-bastille series no. 1, self portrait of the artist as a red-nosed cat disguised as the lone ranger in Arabic2012
Carabana Commodoze antique cigar box; small box from Keystone Type Foundry from Kent Kasuboske; clarinet clamp from Eric Rude; red light lens; printer’s furniture and reglet; drafting set stainless lead container (top only); slice of foundry wood from defunct Beloit Corp; marble fragments from printer’s composing stone; copper “pulls” for ears.
9 x 7 x 2 inches (box); 17 1/2 x 14 3/4 x 4 inches (frame)
Walter Hamady
post-bastille series no. 2, first caroplastic embedment of page from the quartz crystal history of Perry Township, handset by the artist, 1979)2012
Unidentified antique cigar box, set into lid of oak index card file from old State Bank from Anna Krohn Hamady; small box from Keystone Type Foundry from Kent Kasuboske; embedment done by John Mahon; printer’s furniture; 6 1/2 A arch from shoe last; piece of mould from Beloit Foundry; typewriter scale unable to be used in book ‘Nullity;’ camera back springs.
9 x 7 1/2 x 2 inches (box); 17 1/4 x 15 x 4 inches (frame)
Walter Hamady
post-bastille series no. 6, Walter’s spice ball at the opera2012
Diverse cigar boxes, sectioned; stencils cloakroom board (thinned by Arvid Berge at Workbench Tool, $1.25 per minute) mortised, etc. by Paul Douglas; glass lantern slide; pre-WWI postcard; postage stamp country unknown; steel-engraved eyes and hairdo (not related); Plexiglas cut and small cedar fillet by Paul Douglas; unobtrusive black hinge from Speedo/Graphic camera; flocking by the artist; spice ball from artist’s kitchen broke when boiling fresh jumbo shrimp; prosthetic eye from Dale Beeks’ antique circuit breaker; carrying case snap; antique corner brace; and small ‘real’ screws.
7 x 11 1/2 x 1 inches (box); 15 1/4 x 19 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches (frame)
Walter Hamady
post-bastille series no. 7, e-man visiting ruins with fuzzing lens attachment2012
Sectioned cigar box flocked by the artist; printer’s reglet as evening shim; brass camera attachment from Chuck Izui’s sister-in-law; half of storage box clamp; Eleanor’s cloakroom board (thinned by Arvid Berge at Workbench Tool, $1.25 per minute) mortised, etc; small cedar fillet generously supplied by Paul Douglas; glass lantern slide over pre-WWI postcard of Pompeii; steel-engraved eyes and hairdo, unrelated; another E from Mary Snyder; metal strip as roof cap; small ‘real’ screws made in Massachusetts.
6 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches (box); 14 3/4 x 20 3/4 x 4 inches (frame)
Walter Hamady
post-bastille series no. 17, ubiquitous Walter, again2013
Former instrument box, one-half sectioned, original hinges, another piece of “memo” camera described in P-B Series No. 13 (this small camera was “sliced by John Mahon”); viewfinder from same; Japanese ink stick (grade unknown) from Chuck Izui; copper weather stripping; brass police button; sliding lid from small cigar box; ubiquitous cutting die of artist’s profile from pre-WWI postcard; playing card from Walter Schatzki, dial from old light meter (analog); steel engraved eye; brass gear from antique camera, tarnished metal strip from English hand-paper making; mould, bi-focal lens from artist’s spectacles; red gasket from Story pump organ; brass spring clip; small screws; on-purpose “chuck burns” from drill press.
7 x 9 x 1 1/4 inches (box); 14 3/4 x 16 3/4 x 2 1/2 inches (frame)
signed on ink stick
Walter Hamady
post-bastille day series no. 15 be prepared2013
Two disparate cigar boxes, one sectioned; battery gauge lense from Depression Era American truck; Italian ex voto of women’s breasts from Joe Wilfer; Boy Scout pin admonishing youth (male) to ‘Be Prepared’ for women’s breasts; engraved eyes; geologic map detail configuring artist’s mechanic genius friend Harry the renowned Phoenix; old camera innard; brass hinge of no particular provenance; printer’s reglet; small screws from Hazlet; German Bezirk ticket (?); slim red remnant from Beloit Corp. Foundry; disparate cigar box lids modified.
7 1/2 x 10 x 1 3/4 inches
signed and dated in graphite lower left
Walter Hamady
extrapolation 128/12 ... nothing is an artwork without an interpretation...2008
Perdomo cigar box; recycled Hamady collage fragment c. 1980s; camera innards; cutting die of artist’s portrait (profile), (unused, reversed); lid from Railway Express Agency Fresh Eggs crate with original ‘perishable’ label; shaft from Story pump organ from R. Runser; brass piano hinge; slices oak wood felled on this farm.
9 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches
signed and dated in graphite lower right
Walter Hamady
extrapolation 128/11 ...a parochial consideration into a universal condition...2008
Furnkle Creek Ranch dates box (bottom modified) Death Valley, California; steel hinge from small parts; revealed collage fragment, c.1980s; marbled paper by Norma Rubovits; USDA tag; pre-WWI postcard; steel-engraved eye; backside of cutting die; wine crate wood ripped for fillet; small wood screws; drill chuck burns.
10 x 11 3/4 x 1 3/4 inches
signed and dated in graphite on lower right
hand-written tag also reads: “Titled WSHH January 2008 Obama #44”
Walter Hamady
Post-Bastille Series No. 82013
Antique 5 x 7 sheet film carriers; crate wood (thinned by Arvid Berge at Workbench Tool, $1.25 per minute); small cedar frame confected by Paul Douglas; glass lantern slide; portrait game card; Gray’s Anatomy and steel-engraved eye from a forgotten luminary; Japanese paper tape archivally unstable; printer’s reglet as shim; felt-ended organ-part; Japanese WWII camera back with original decal of appropriate film from David McClimans (traded); black zodiac wolf from the ‘Metal People’ (purchased); hold down roller from business machine; number shadower from old Burroughs adding machine from Lane Hall; ordinary brass hinge.
9 x 12 1/2 x 1 inches
signed and dated on right side, titled on reverse
Walter Hamady
Post-Bastille Series No. 10 irrational crisis of frog and ball2013
Sectioned cigar box with four old hinges out of the Story pump organ from Robert Runser; rough-sawn backing board from 19th c. picture frames; flower vase frog; spice ball from artist’s kitchen; collaged steel-engraved eyes; cedar fillet by Paul Douglas; manufacturer’s plate from lantern-slide projector; weathered painted metal from back of advertising thermometer, c. early 1930s; flocking by artist; small screws American made.
8 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches
signed and dated in graphite lower right, titled on reverse
Walter Hamady
post-bastille series no. 12 the focus of solipsistic desire, Walter and his ubiquitous cutting die2013
Disparate cigar boxes, one sectioned and flocked; some sort of printer’s compartmentalized box (use unknown); doll house folding chair seat from Paul Douglas; pre-WWI postcards die-cut with artist’s profile (ubiquitous); Austrian playing card from 19th c. (bought off Walter Schatzki on 57th Street in 1960); light meter scale; steel-engraved eye; foundry mould piece from Beloit Corp.; inverted heart from (Traité, d’Anatomie Humaine, 1889) recycled from ‘Prototype for the Diptychial Romance Series’ pre-2005; grooved crate wood; small screws and painted washers; brass hinges, fairly old.
9 x 11 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches
signed and dated in graphite lower center
Walter Hamady
Seeds & Chairs, Selected Poems (with drawings by Jack Beal)1979
hand-made book
7 x 5 inches
#125 in an edition of 200
Walter Hamady
Seeds & Chairs, Selected Poems (with drawings by Jack Beal) (Detail)1979
hand-made book
7 x 5 inches
#125 in an edition of 200
Walter Hamady
Whitman Sampler, by Jim Wiley1999
hand-made book
9 3/4 x 7 inches
#108 in an edition of 121
Walter Hamady
Whitman Sampler, by Jim Wiley (Detail)1999
hand-made book
9 3/4 x 7 inches
#108 in an edition of 121
Walter Hamady
Since Man Began to Eat Himself1986
hand-made book
11 x 7 1/2 inches
Edition of 120
Walter Hamady
Since Man Began to Eat Himself (Detail)1986
hand-made book
11 x 7 1/2 inches
Edition of 120
Walter Hamady
Flora (by Anne McGarrell & Jack Beal)1990
hand-made book
11 1/2 x 14 x 1 inches
Walter Hamady
Flora (by Anne McGarrell & Jack Beal) (Detail)1990
hand-made book
11 1/2 x 14 x 1 inches
Walter Hamady
Reflections on a Cardboard Box (Paul Auster, Illustrated by Henrik Drescher)2004
handmade, hand-printed book
9 3/4 x 7 x 1/4 inches
signed by the author
Perishable Press 129/2004; 32 pages; ed. 96/100
Walter Hamady
Hunkering, the last Gabberjabb (augmented by Henrik Drescher, Patrick JB Flynn, David McLimans, Peter Sis, William Stafford and John Wilde)2006
handmade, hand-printed book
10 1/4 x 7 1/8 inches
signed and dated
Perishable Press 130/2006; 160 pages; ed. 26/108
Walter Hamady
A Timeline of Sorts (First Segment 1963–72)2007-11
handmade, hand-printed book, with twenty illustrations by seven artists
10 7/16 x 7 1/8 x 5/8 inches
Perishable Press 131/2007-2011; 80 pages; ed. 42/80
Walter Hamady
Nullity (Kenneth Bernard, illustrated by diagrams and admission of structure)2000
handmade, hand-printed book
11 x 7 x 1/4 inches
signed by the author and by the printer/publisher
Perishable Press 126/2000; 52 pages; ed. 36/100
Walter Hamady
Parking Lots (Clarence Major, illustrated by Laura Dronzek)1992
handmade, hand-printed book
9 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches
signed by the author
Perishable Press 118/1992; 52 pages; ed. 80/130
Walter Hamady
The Pool (Toby Olson, illustrated with one embellished lithograph and two collage-drawings by Lane Hall)1991
handmade, hand-printed book
10 1/4 x 7 inches
signed by the author
Perishable Press 116/1991; 44 pages; ed. 96/107
Walter Hamady
post-bastille series no. 20, reincarnation of lester’s blue snot2013
Two old junky beat-up boxes sectioned and nested; profile looking left, collaged from tax roll handwriting; steel engraved eye and ear, adorned by another hat; the crown from other end of door-number 6 from Odd Fellow Hall and the brim a strip of printed metal (Folger’s Coffee cans out of register used for ‘siding’ on a shack in Alabama); the frame is remains of hand-colored print of unknown subject or origin; a glimpse of Brazilian paper currency; phosphor bronze edging from antique English paper-making mould; the whole bottomed with spiral-turned decorative from old Story organ.
9 x 8 x 2 inches (box); 17 1/4 x 16 x 4 inches (frame)
signed on wood lower right
Walter Hamady
Lion Lady1971
graphite and cut matboard
13 x 14 inches (image); 22 x 22 1/2 inches (frame)
Walter Hamady
Jackie and Feathers1966
paper collage, feathers, and cut matboard
20 x 16 inches (image); 20 1/2 x 16 3/4 inches (frame)
Walter Hamady
The Equivocal Kiss1967
graphite, collage, and cut matboard
9 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches (image); 20 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches (frame)
Walter Hamady
Merit Badge1968
graphite, gouache, collage, and cut matboard
13 1/4 x 10 3/4 (image); 20 x 16 inches (frame)
Walter Hamady
Merit Badge for Double Modesty1968
graphite, gouache, collage and cut matboard
9 x 8 1/2 inches (image); 18 x 17 inches (frame)
Walter Hamady
New Series No. 3, mere things are unentitled to titles2002
Microscope glass slide box; cigar box; studio camera lens shade, from Cy Burns; printer’s letterpress furniture; battery gauge innards; crate wood; British militaria hat pin; 11-point magnesium printing plate; small wooden microscope slide box from Lane Hall; small screws and washers.
11 1/4 x 15 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches
Walter Hamady
(Extrapolation) 09/2 external to rather than embodied in2009
Hecho a mano cigar box; lithographed coffee tin; die cut pre-WWI postcards of artist’s profile; luggage transfer tag DTW; Portuguese enameled number; camera innards; militaria cap badge; scrap 1/2 moon sheet metal; clarinet screw parts; spiral dowel from Story organ; staples; stock certificate coupons; USDA oval tag.
10 x 14 x 1 3/4 inches
Walter Hamady
NS 02 No. 23, the confidence that the conventions are understood2009
S.E. No. 300 cigar box; almost mini piano hinge; Story & Clark Pump organ keys & stop board; Russian stamp, typewriter margin rule; transparent vellum; marbled paper from Peggy Skycraft; small screws.
10 3/4 x 12 x 1 1/2 inches
Walter Hamady
New Series No. 7, not being itself an imitation of anything2002
Robert’s Diplomats cigar box from Virginia Terrace; Plexiglas; stop knob from Story organ and stop board with felt; Cutty Sark whiskey crate detail; small red ocean liner; German foundry type 36-point Sabon Antiqua; Argentinian currency; workbox corner; Small Parts hinge; hand-cut number seven stencil.
9 x 11 x 3 inches
Walter Hamady
Box No. 101, it is nothing more than it pretends to be1990
Italian ex-voto (abdomen); can lid; small camera parts in plastic bag; watch crystal; guillotined book covers; wooden printer’s furniture; hole plug; letters from 1950s auto dealership; pre-civil war military cap badge (USA-EXCELSIOR); Anco Bilt easel bar with hinges; escutcheon pins; scratched Plexiglas; printer’s composing stone (fragment).
18 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches
signed, titled, and dated on reverse
Walter Hamady
box mask #172, a transfiguration of the portrait, Walter’s second homage to Edward Gulesserianc.1995
Cigar box, found metal, bone fragment, found wood
11 x 9 x 5 1/2 inches (box); 18 1/2 x 16 x 5 inches (frame)
signed and dated lower right
Walter Hamady
Travelling / Gabberjabb no. 71991-1996
hand-printed book pages
29 x 36 inches (framed)
loose sheets from a book edition of 125
Walter Hamady
Hunkering, the Last Gabberjabb2006
hand-printed book pages
29 x 36 inches (framed); 10 1/4 x 7 1/8 inches (book)
loose sheets from a book edition of 108
The Perishable Press Limited and The Shadwell Papermill Estd. 1964
c.1973
hand-painted sign
13 1/2 x 78 x 2 inches
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Press Release
Opening reception: Saturday, July 26, 2014, from 3:00-6:00pm.
For its mid-summer exhibition, Corbett vs. Dempsey is very pleased to announce Merit Badge, an exhibition of work by Walter Hamady.
An heroic figure to adventurous book designers, Hamady has been at the forefront of innovative book arts for 50 years. He baptized his imprint, The Perishable Press Limited, in 1964, publishing books of poetry by a range of writers including Paul Auster, Paul Blackburn, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, and Diane Wakoski. Among his major achievements is the introduction of the Gabberjabb, a series of meta-books, miraculously designed, often centered on text by Hamady himself. Hamady’s bookworks are each conceived and executed with extreme attention to detail, and they are as varied as the words they bear, some involving collaborations with visual artists such as Ellen Lanyon, Jack Beal, and Warrington Colescott. Hamady brought his own artistic vision to his book design, having already established a studio practice in the 1950s, making intricate collages and assemblages. Merit Badge surveys five decades of Hamady, featuring a selection of Perishable books, old and new box assemblages, and a group of stunning, lascivious, late-’60s cut matboard collages that give the show its title.
Accompanying the exhibition is a 64-page catalog, full color, with vintage photos and a short essay by John Corbett, featuring six never-published excerpts from Hamady’s lifelong journal, dipping into the multi-thousand-page tome at ten-year intervals