In late April 2020, as we were locked down and the Covid-19 pandemic was quickly growing in scale and consequence, I received a suite of poems from Eleanor Hooker which were penned under those strange and terrifying circumstances. The suite was named Traces, but Eleanor referred to them as her 'Plague Poems'. I really liked the idea of making a Plague Poems project as I had been thinking about something to do to mark the self-isolation that my own family was going through (I had been thinking about a series of domestic images that I wanted to call 'Plague Photos', so fate seems to have played a small part). I decided to work with these poems and had been back in touch with Eleanor. A few days later Gerry Smyth sent along another suite, again penned under those same circumstances. And that got me thinking; perhaps there's other poets who can't resist being influenced by the way things had developed, and perhaps it could become some sort of an anthology of new writing marking this important moment.
I spoke with Jessica Traynor about the idea, as I often do, and she suggested some potential names, and quickly the project grew to become ten poets and a book-maker. Incredible texts began to appear, followed by revisions and new thoughts and expressions. At this point I had intended to make a single book containing all the work. When designing the book it became very clear that it had grown into quite an undertaking and deserved to be given more consideration than I had so far allowed myself to give it, which meant it had to be put further down the queue a little until I could afford the time and, necessarily, the resources to see it through.
Fast forward five years, a worldwide plague event, a pretty intense period of hiatus (Haiku na Feirme, Grief's Broken Brow, Memento Civitatem, (S)worn State(s), Carbon), and we were ready to take the texts to print. In the years that had passed we unfortunately lost three voices from the project, for a variety of reasons, and so seven remained; Annemarie Ni Churreáin (Town, (S)worn State(s)), John FitzGerald (Darklight, Haiku na Fierme), Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal, Elaine Feeney, Eleanor Hooker, Gerard Smyth (We Like it Here Beside The River, After Easter) and Jessica Traynor (Liffey Swim, A Modest Proposal, Carbon).
By now I had reverted back to designing individual books for each poet, all housed together in an enclosure of some description. Inspired by the pulp paperback, I decided to bind the books in a hot glue binding, each of the pages in the books French folding at the fore edge to meet back together at the spine. Each folded leaf bolstered by an inserted sheet that not just adds a pop of colour to the splayed book, but also leaves the page edge soft and full to the touch.
I had also changed the direction of the visual accompaniment away from domestic photographic images. It was now my intention to work with the woodcuts found in Hans Holbein the Younger's The Danse Macabre (1523-1525). These woodcuts represent the very idea of death and how, without prejudice, it may visit us at any time. Due to their beauty, their emotive relevance, their quincentennial engraving date and their universal theme, I began to study these images and to plan how they might become the major illustrative element of the project. Details from seven Holbein woodcuts were chosen to wrap the poetry by becoming seven dust jackets. My initial plan was to focus on details from the images (original size roughly 6.5 x 4.9 cm), enlarge those by 20000% (to 720cm across) and to cut them by hand. After some time and some testing, I decided to laser engrave the images into pine boards. Are they still woodcuts? Are they now my engravings? I decided to call them my woodcuts.
Designed and letterpress printed by Jamie Murphy, assisted in the studio by Ellen Martin-Friel. The Magister types were designed by Aldo Novarese (released 1966), cast here by Rainer Gerstenberg in Frankfurt. The woodcuts are enlarged details from The Danse Macabre designed by Hans Holbein the Younger, first cut in wood by Hans Lützelburger c.1523-1525. The text paper is Fedrigoni Arena, the inserts, covers and dust jacket are Fedrigoni Materica. Seven books printed in an edition of 125 sets. Enclosures executed by Elize de Beer in Cork.
We spent the summer of 2025 printing and binding the texts and are now concentrating on achieving the dust jackets and the enclosures. More on that soon. Plague Poems will launch this year, quite possibly early summer. The pre-publication price is €779, the book will launch at €979. Please get in touch to reserve your copy at the early discounted price.
