by its cover

"It's a piece of art that's in service to another piece of art."
-- Chip Kidd, Skillshare video on designing book covers

For me, I've bought so many books because of the cover. The horse skeleton. The one with the squid. Other reasons too, like which press it comes from, who blurbed it, who recommended it to me and why. For now, all I can do is make a book someone will want to touch.

I spent today playing around with the art of Louise LeBourgeois who has sold us the rights to use one of her paintings on Kelly's book. We just might have a cover both author and publisher love, which is one step towards book-as-physical-object. My biggest hope is that people, readers, will see the cover and want to pick it up. And even more immediate, see the cover, read a few of the poems, and want to donate to help get this press in flight. I cannot wait to see the view.