Playing Haydn for the Angel of Death (1997 Winter Book)

For MCBA’s ninth winter publication, Bill Holm contributed a multi-section poem entitled “Playing Haydn for the Angel of Death,” a lyrical reflection on life suffused with musicality and lessons learned from Franz Josef Haydn.

Holm’s “Haydn” provides the conceptual basis for a collaborative portfolio of visual interpretations executed by fifteen national book artists recognized for their innovative approaches to commingling idea and image. Each invited participant, in diverse and inimitable graphic style, provides an editioned page featuring one stanza. Conveying the text in its entirety, an accompanying chapbook designed by Michael Lizama under the direction of Mary Jo Pauly is letterpress printed on Mohawk vellum from hand-set Centaur and Arrighi types under the supervision of MCBA Printing Artist-in-Residence Paulette Myers-Rich.

The Standard Edition (numbered 1 through 171) includes prints and chapbook housed in a drop-spine box measuring 7-1/2″ x 11″ x 1″ constructed by Wilber Schilling.

Text by Bill Holm
Designed by Michael Lizama under the direction of Mary Jo Pauly
Printed and bound under the direction of Paulette Myers-Rich
Standard edition designed and bound by Wilber Schilling
Deluxe edition designed and bound by Dennis Ruud
Handmade papers by Amanda Degener and Erica Spitzer Rasmussen