Wild Parrots and the King of La Brea. A journal-like account of deleterious obsession, the book was fashioned after a mid-century Art brut artifact. It opens with a description of an ogbanje, “a demon of unknown origin who inhabits the bodies of humans one after the other, completely displacing the mind and soul of its victim . . . .”
Wild Parrots and the King of La Brea is very legitimate, erotic and haunting. . . a very fine rendering of the dislocation and pointlessness that follows [obsession]. —Lindsay Hill
The book was conceived, designed, and printed by Gerald Lange and illustrated by artist Robert Dansby (Jiggs). The three dozen sketch drawings reflect the thoughts and memories of the narrator, reinforcing the intimacy of the story telling. Each text page was further exhaustively hand illuminated by Dansby with alcohol-based staining developed specifically for the project at the Press. The text was digitally set in a modified version of Panache Typography’s Lettrés Eclateés with full sequential use of the complete set of lowercase Alternates. The book was letterpress printed on dampened Usuzumi, a pale green Japanese paper, and bound Ethiopian coptic-stitch style, corded to hand variegated covers of ink-stained Honduras Mahogany quarter-inch plank.
7-1/2 by 10 inches. 57 pages. Marina del Rey, 1998. The edition was limited to 135 numbered copies signed by “Jiggs” and “the King.” [Only 65 copies were completed in binding state]. $600 (unbound sheets available).
