Catherine Ruggie Saunders – Lullaby | Three Times

Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College’s 112th Annual Exhibition
Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women

Catherine Ruggie Saunders, Lullaby, The Hosanna Press: 1987, hand-set letterpress artist’s book in Companion Old Style, Frankfurt White & Skycraft marbled papers; cherry, oak, walnut “cradle boats” handcrafted by Mark Ruggie, 7 x 3 in. Courtesy of the artist

Catherine Ruggie Saunders’ Lullaby contains a beautiful poem in an evocative wooden boat. The printed words seem to murmur, singing under the covers, where “a poem is sleeping with you, syllables drift out.”

The crescent cradle boats holding Lullaby were hand-crafted in cherry, oak & walnut by Mark Ruggie. Waves of Frankfurt White were anchored with silk thread to Skycraft Marbled papers for a concertina spine. The poem, set in Companion Old Style, was composed by the artist during a singular night adrift, rocking back & forth in silence. The edition was made possible through an Artist’s Fellowship Award from the Illinois Arts Council.

Catherine Ruggie Saunders, three times, The Hosanna Press: 2019, hand-set letterpress artist’s book in Baskerville; Rives lightweight & Rives BFK, black silk cincture, 3 ¾ x 8 ¼ in. Courtesy of the artist

Colophon for three times

written over the weeks
following Father Steven Bauer’s
announcement
he would be leaving St. Luke’s
to become Pastor at St. Alphonsus.

I knew it had to be
tall and lean,
black and white.

set in Baskerville
printed on Rives Lightweight
wrapped within black Rives BFK
bound during
embraced with a black silk cincture
edition of

given to him
at his installation 8.8.2019

BIOGRAPHY

Cathie Ruggie Saunders teaches courses in printmaking, drawing, artists’ books, children’s book illustration and the capstone Art and Design Senior Seminar thesis course. She is the director of the SXU Gallery and the Visual Arts Center (VAC) student gallery. Her own artistic practice focuses upon the production of hand-printed, illustrated and bound limited edition artists’ books under the imprint of The Hosanna Press. In 2013, she co-authored “For the Love of Letterpress, A Printing Handbook for Instructors and Students,” published by Bloomsbury of London and selected as a text in several letterpress curriculum across the country. A revised and expanded second edition was released in August 2019.