Artifex

Many people have been incredibly generous with their time and collections. First and foremost, I would like to thank Lisa Unger Baskin, whose loan of working materials, wood block and books has enriched this exhibition immeasurably. Her generous gifts to the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections have included many artist's proofs and the incomparable copy of Diptera that is a main feature of this exhibition. I (and others at the Cornell Library) am most grateful for her warmth and hospitality, which are legendary and matched only by her bibliophilic enthusiasm.

Ben Primer, Director, and Rebecca Davidson, Curator of Graphic Arts, of the Rare Books and Special Collections Department, Princeton University Library, very kindly lent Baskin's first Icones librorum artifices, an important part of the artist's Artifex story. Likewise, I would like to thank Randy Cates, Librarian of Hamilton College, who generously lent Jewish Artists of the Early & Late Renaissance, a rare and delightful Gehenna Press imprint. I deeply appreciate Jim Tyler's selfless loan of his antique Chandler & Price treadle press, his primary press. Professor Michael Kammen lent his delightful Baskin watercolor, "…of the making of books," a perfect addition to this exhibition. Finally, I'd like to thank Andy Weislogel of Cornell's Johnson Museum of Art, who has been a model scholar and liberal colleague; it has been a real pleasure working with him to produce the first pair of library and museum exhibitions at Cornell.

--S.N.