Russell Maret is a New York letterpress printer who trained in California before setting up his own business. His recent books have been extraordinary, but his newest one, Aethelwold, Etc. (2009) goes beyond extraordinary to magnificent. At heart an alphabet book, it is gorgeously swamped in color and highly imaginative renderings of the 26 letters, every aspect printed letterpress.

The Clark copy is one of only nine with a second suite of the prints and a log of Maret’s use of color.

Russell Maret won the 2009 Rome Prize for Design, and is currently living in Rome and studying the letterforms of the inscriptions in the Roman catacombs. The Clark also owns his versions of Prometheus Bound and the Pervigilium Veneris, as well as some more modest books.

Bruce Whiteman