GAWAIN. A Response to the Opera by Harrison Birtwistle Using Words from the Libretto by David Harsent.

Second edition. Softcover. Signed by the author. Original green handmade Khadi paper covered boards, with a dark green woodcut print of the Green Knight to the upper board and another of Sir Gawain with tree-like hair to the lower board. Housed in a bespoke dark green felt-lined buckram solander box, onlaid with with light brown morocco titles to the backstrip, and a sword illustration to the upper panel. Deckled top, bottom and fore- edges. Concertina bound handmade Khadi paper, with 20 colour woodcuts hand-printed with a spoon accompanied by computer-generated text printed in black on cream paper mounted to each page, with tissue-guards variously loosely laid in. A superb fine copy, the binding square and firm, bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout, and without previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. The solander box has just a couple of light marks to the bottom edge. A beautiful production.

Signed by the author, artist, and publisher Carolyn Trant in pencil on the rear pastedown. First published in a limited edition of just 20 copies in 1997, in a calf-bound and handsewn large format. It was Trant's first artists book, and featured hand-cut text. Winner of the inaugural 'Complete Book' award in the Society of Bookbinders International Binding Competition. In a 2007 blog post, Trant describes being inspired to create her striking woodcuts upon seeing the opera of the same name by Sir Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto by English poet David Harsent, "wonderful words, which inspired images which were rarely related to what was going on on stage visually; but close I hope to the spirit of both the opera as a whole and the medieval story of Gawain and the Green Knight. In fact I came to feel totally consumed by this spirit as I set myself the task of completing the book, like Gawain's task, in one year and a day" (Carolyn Trant and Parvenu Press, 2007).