Choice. Peter and Donna Thomas, William Shakespeare. Santa Cruz, California, Peter and Donna Thomas (2024). 5.25 x 7.25 x 1.5 inches. 2 scrolling pages (4 x 21.5 inches) with tri-fold pamphlet. 10 copies. $675.00

This book is about the consequences of choices that are being made around us. When asked to choose war or peace, when required to make a decision pitting profit against the health of the planet, when faced with the question “To be or not to be?” which option will we choose?

Binding: Scroll; quarter bound, black Moroccan leather spine, Peter’s handmade paper over boards, brown, letterpress printed with wood type in brown and greens. Title on label on cover. Inside cover paper, Peter’s handmade in brown. Text block: Scroll wound over wooden dowel that passes through holes drilled in a wooden framework that is attached to the back cover of the binding. Wooden knobs affixed to dowel to assist in turning scroll. Paper: White, handmade by Peter. Printing: Letterpress. Typography: Various wood type fonts, over printed, split fountain, ATF Futura Bold. Notes: A tri-fold pamphlet printed with the title and text is affixed under the scroll, inside of the back cover, hidden by the scroll. Both scroll and pamphlet have wood strips glued to them to protect, and assist holding the paper.

Notes: A close inspection of the book reveals the skills, tools and material sourcing need to create it: making the paper strong enough to withstand use as a scroll, letterpress printing long strips of paper with multiple runs, sawing wood to create the small pieces required to make the scoll's framework and the protective strips, creating the knobs, sourcing small screws to affix them to the dowels, gluing and clamping the framework, sanding and finishing the wood, case binding with leather and paper to name a few.

An artists' statement follows the photographs:

This book was made to submit to the10th International “Artist's Book Triennial Vilnius” competition in Lithuania (December 2023). The challenge was to create a book based on the theme “TO BE”. I thought a long time about what book I might create in response to this theme. But did not come up with any unique ideas, until I was talking with a friend who shared a story about his friend committing suicide, and I thought about making that choice, and I thought about how the world is making that same choice by not addressing climate change and I had the beginnings of an idea for the book. To be, or not to be, that is the question.

I decided to make it a scrolling book, because they are complex structures, difficult to make and difficult for the viewer to work with, just as addressing the issues involved in climate change and species extinction are incredibly complex and difficult. I use the two sides of the scroll to juxtapose the positive and the negative: finding hope for the future or having no hope for the future. Just as in Pandora’s box, the little bit of hope to be found is the last bit of text the viewer will find, under everything else, hidden at the very bottom of the structure.

To make this book we had to employ all of the skills we have gained in our over 40 years of making books. The wood we used was all sustainably grown and harvested hardwoods, the paper was made from recycled rags, and the type in our shop has been reused for years and years; a series of sustainable choices. I made a paper strong enough to use as a scroll and for the cover of the book, we printed using both metal and wood type with multiple layers of color, and employed our woodworking skills to cut the many tiny pieces required to build the framework and hold the scroll.

The story of making this book has a twist ending. We printed 11 sets of scrolling pages in November of 2023, bound one book and sent it off to Lithuania. It was held up, processing through the Lithuanian post until after the competition deadline, and then returned to sender before the organizers could pick it up. On its way back to Santa Cruz it was again held up, looping between post offices, finally arriving in Santa Cruz three months after being first mailed. So, in fact, it was never even submitted to the exhibition we made it for. But we are still grateful, as without the impetus of that show we never would have made it, and now complete, we find it fills a very important place in our recent body of work about hope for the future. So thank you Artists Books Vilnius for the inspiration!