leonardcohenforum.com

Created: 2014
Medium: 80 wood engravings hand printed on 250 gm Rising Stonehenge 100% rag archival paper and comes fully bound in cloth with a clamshell protective box.
Book size: 6¼" X 8" X 2½" (232 pages printed recto)
Edition size: 80 copies signed and numbered
(Leonard Cohen will be 80 years old on September 21, 2014)
Price: $880.00 USD

The book is housed in a clam shell box made from the finest quality materials. Written in a xylography of pictures the book is accessible to readers of many languages.

In his latest wordless biography, master engraver George A. Walker presents a series of 80 wood engravings celebrating the 80th birthday of one of Canada’s most beloved cultural icons. The Wordless Leonard Cohen Songbook commemorates Cohen’s artistic accomplishments and explores the ways in which the image of Leonard Cohen has appeared in popular culture for a career spanning over six decades.

Arranged chronologically, the engravings depict scenes from Cohen’s many and varied creative endeavours, including poetry, novels, singing and songwriting. The book also presents portraits of some of the many famous characters who shared Cohen’s life and friendship, from poets Irving Layton and Allan Ginsberg, to musicians Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin, to celebrated artist Andy Warhol. Readers are invited to bring their own associations to bear in interpreting the the significance of the scenes and the people depicted therein.

The Wordless Leonard Cohen Songbook takes as its inspiration not only Cohen’s own poems, novels and songs, but also other sources, from biographies about the Canadian icon to short anecdotes relayed at a concert. In his images, Walker strives to communicate the importance of Cohen’s Zen Buddhist philosophy and plays with numerology, particularly the symbolism behind the number 8. Readers are encouraged to seek relationships between engraving numbers, sequences, and visual elements.

The Wordless Leonard Cohen Songbook originated as a limited edition of 80 copies hand printed in Walker’s studio in Leslieville, Toronto.

Please let everybody who asks about the book know that after May 1, 2014 we will put the price for new orders up to $1880.00. Anyone who orders before May 1 will get the wholesale price of $880.00.

Mabeanie1 wrote:$880 or $1,880 - doesn't make a lot of difference to me. If I wanted (and could) spend that sort of money, I would be looking to buy one of Leonard's lithos.

Like Lizzy I think I'll wait for the "everyman's" edition.

Wendy

joyezekiel wrote:But we don't blink an eye at spending that on flights and tickets!

Joy

lizzytysh wrote: the woodcuts look beautiful!

In Leonard Cohen, master engraver George A. Walker offers new perspectives on the life and artistic accomplishments of a poet and musician who has captivated generations for six decades and whose influence circles the globe still.

Arranged chronologically, the engravings depict scenes from Cohen's many and varied creative endeavors, including poetry, novels, singing and songwriting. The book also presents portraits of some of the many famous characters who shared Cohen's life and friendship, from poets Irving Layton and Allan Ginsberg, to musicians Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and celebrated artist Andy Warhol.

Best read to music, Leonard Cohen presents images of Cohen's iconic public persona alongside vivid interpretations of his ever-evolving work. The engravings compose a biographical mosaic that invites readers to contemplate the public perception of Cohen's critical and commercial acclaim. Some scenes are drawn from history, others from Walker's imagination. The images encourage us to search beyond the visual elements and to see in them a poem, a song, a meaningful turn of phrase. They urge us to consider Cohen's life and work through the lens of our own experience.

Leonard Cohen was conceived as a celebration of Cohen's eightieth birthday and was first published as a limited edition of eighty copies hand printed at Walker's studio in Toronto. This revised edition has 2 additional engravings.