CULLOM GALLERY | JAPANESE PRINTS - UKIYO-E, SOSAKU HANGA, MOKU HANGA | SEATTLE | BETH CULLOM 

Moku Hanga: Annie Bissett

The First Book.

by Annie Bissett (b. 1955)
Self-carved and self-printed moku hanga (Japanese woodblock print)
Signed, dated, titled, and numbered in pencil
Date: 2010
Edition: 11
Printed with 5 carved blocks and 5 hand-rubbed color layers plus tea stain wash
Image size: 19 x 14.5 inches (48 x 37 cm)
X101217
$500.

"Puritan missionary John Eliot's 1663 Indian Bible, a Wampanoag Algonquin language translation, was the first Bible printed in America. The Bible, which took 10 years to translate, was used by the tribe for nearly 200 years until about 150 years ago when the language died out. In 1993-94, six generations after the last native speaker of Wampanoag had passed, a Mashpee linguist named Jessie Littledoe Baird co-founded the Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project. The John Eliot Bible is playing a major role in this project as one of the primary texts that has preserved Algonquin grammar and vocabulary.

The text in this print is entirely hand-carved (it took me about a month), printed on top of a wash of English tea with illustrations added. "