Handmade Books from the Press
The Canon of Aphrodisia in Four Volumes
Images of The Canon of Aphrodisia
Illustrations by Laurelin Gilmore for The Canon of Aphrodisia.
A four volume collection of short stories written by Miranda Culp and Jef Delman and illustrated by Laurelin Gilmore. Limited to 100 copies:
The price is $800 for the limited edition and includes the four volumes bound in cloth with stamping on the spine, housed in a slipcase.
Limited to 25 copies:
The price for the Deluxe is $2100 and includes the four volumes each with a hand painted frontispiece, leather spine, leather headbands, and decorative stamping and titling. The collection is housed in a telescoping box with an acrylic window to show the spines. Details include handmarbled endsheets and a portfolio of hand printed erotic illustrations not included in the limited edition.
Typefaces used are Eric Gill’s Joanna and Perpetua. The books are printed on Arches Rives Lightweight Paper using Hanco Raven Black Ink on a Vandercook Universal III. Limited and deluxe bindings by Amy Borezo.
Synopsis: The Canon of Aphrodisia is a collection of 12 short stories contained in four volumes. The authors explore a variety of classic tales from a more feminine and modern perspective. From the Authors’ Note: “Unlike much erotica or fan fiction that concludes with happily ever after, in these stories we let classic horror, fantasy, noir, fable, tragedy, sci-fi, fairy tales, and Americana maintain their organic integrity. We used sex as a fresh way to explore familiar character arcs and thematic elements, taking great care to present each tale in the idiom and voice of the original author when possible, so that each story might work on its own terms….It isn’t particularly novel to blend eros with classic stories. Erotic fan fiction abounds, after all, though much of it focuses on the prurient. Our approach was to ask, how would these beloved characters express that secret part of themselves? How would they attempt to transcend? Therein lies the g-spot between the smart and the sensual.”
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About the Authors and Illustrator
MIRANDA CULP grew up in Los Angeles among artists, booksellers, actors, and teachers. She got her B.A. in radical thought from Goddard College in Vermont and enjoyed her salad days in the Bay Area working at bookstores by day and singing in dive bars by night. She authored a short story collection entitled, The Brunt, and a local history book called, Becoming the City of Citrus Heights. Miranda co-owns Amatoria Fine Art Books in Sacramento, CA, and she'd like to thank you for not shopping at Amazon.
JEF DELMAN is a writer, filmmaker, and lyricist based in Los Angeles. Some of his writing credits include Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Showtime originals, in addition to several film scripts (a few of which were actually produced and made it to the screen.) His song lyrics have been heard in commercials, movies, and on the Walt Disney Records label. Jef’s first film, the unhinged horror-comedy Deadtime Stories, is now considered a cult classic, which is what they call a movie that barely did okay upon its initial release but has since developed an enthusiastic following.
LAURELIN GILMORE is an award-winning painter, writer, and mixed-media artist, best known for her fantasy oil paintings. Ms. Gilmore holds minor degrees in Fine Art and Library Science, and is co-owner of Sacramento's only art book bookstore, Amatoria Fine Art Books. She has been featured in many print publications and has shown her art across the United States, including on Showtime's 'The L Word: Generation Q', at the Crocker Museum for the 2022 Black Artists on Art exhibit, and on the cover of the Sacramento Open Studios guide. She is represented by Artize Gallery in Palm Springs, California, and she keeps a working studio at Sacramento’s Verge Center for the Arts.
Illustrations from Victoria: A Bedside Table Tale
Victoria: A Bedside Table Tale
Written by Tiffany Reisz
Illustrated with wood engravings by Keith Cranmer
Limited Edition Binding by John DeMerit
Synopsis: This is the story of a woman who has the opportunity to embark on a mid-life journey of exploration - a rare chance to experience other worlds and time periods that go beyond what she has only read about in the books that sit on her bedside table. An unexpected dark turn to her planned vacation leads her on a deeply personal exploration of who she was as a young woman and the woman she wants to become in the second half of her life.
Detailed wood engravings illustrate her erotic exploration and ultimately, her empowered awakening and fulfillment. USA Today Bestselling Author, and NPR book of the year, award winning writer of erotica, Tiffany Reisz, spins a tale that invites the reader to fantasize and escape with its heroine across fantasies that push the boundaries of personal discovery. How far will she be willing to go to discover who she could become?
About the Author and Illustrator
TIFFANY REISZ is the USA Today-bestselling author of the Romance Writers of America RITA®-winning Original Sinners series from Harlequin's Mira Books. After leaving seminary to focus on her fiction, she wrote The Siren, which has sold more than half a million copies worldwide. Tiffany also writes mainstream women's suspense fiction, including The Bourbon Thief (winner of the RT Book Review's Seal of Excellence Award) and the RITA®-nominated The Night Mark. Her erotic fantasy The Red was named an NPR Best Book of the Year and a Goodreads Best Romance of the Month. It also received a coveted starred review from Library Journal.
KEITH CRANMER is a Berkeley based artist who works on paper with drawing, gouache, ink, and painting. He prints from metal & wood engravings, etchings, and intaglio printmaking. His main interest is representational figurative drawing with, at times, a surreal edge. He is a member of the Society of Wood Engravers.
Banned Books Written By Women on the Subject of Love & Desire
These are photos from the Banned Book Project.
From Izumi Shikibu’s Love Poems written in China around 1007 to Salwa Al Neimi’s The Proof of the Honey written in 2008.
This limited edition book and deck of fifty-two cards features women whose writing about romance, love, or sexuality has been banned, censored, or challenged either in their lifetime or posthumously, in their homeland or abroad.
Each card features either an illustration or a quote representative of the book. Original cover art or book illustrations were used if they were adaptable to fine press printing. The cards were designed with artwork that was from, or representational of, the time of publication. For the verso, the cards feature four illustrations adapted from cover designs by Sarah Wyman Whitman, an influential mid-nineteenth century American artist and book designer.
Several of these banned books may be unfamiliar to today’s readers. This presentation of authors spans countries, cultures, and centuries to provide a broad examination of women’s perspectives on romance, love, and sexuality. While the definitions and vocabulary have changed over the years, recurring themes and commonalities emerge from the voices presented here.
The book includes a bibliography for further research, a chronology of the featured women and their books, and contains a tipped in, folded letter from George Sand to her critics.
