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When a Windsor Terrace-based designer and art director duo explore their passion for things literary, they think about everything 21st century media is not supposed to be about

by Catherine Gigante-Brown

A Strike Three Press creation is a visual and a visceral treat. The bookmaker’s oversized, hand-bound volumes are lovingly made, their creamy paper filled with vivid images that look for all the world to be individually drawn. Each is a piece of fine art as well as literature. A keepsake, a treasure.

Owned and operated by Daniel Smith, art director at The Wall Street Journal, and Virginia Cahill, a freelance graphic artist who’s lent her talents to The New York Times and The Associated Press, Strike Three Press is an endeavor of passion, not profit (at least for the moment). “We produce limited-edition books which are letterpress printed on giant printing presses,” explained Smith. “It’s a lost art.”

“We’ve always had a passion for books that went beyond reading,” Cahill added. “Dan has collected fine press books and started making his own in 2006.” The work began by Smith making custom clamshell boxes to protect his book collection, and blossomed from there.

Their first volume, A Metaphysical ABC, is a creation of 26 lettered copies by Edward P. Winslow, including visual metaphors and ephemera like Brooklyn Dodger’s cards, Post-Its, and scratch-off lottery tickets. The reader is encouraged to personalize each copy by drawing, cutting, and removing certain items. The edition quickly sold out.

“At the Journal, I’ve worked with many talented illustrators over the years,” said Smith. “They are really storytellers, but not all of their stories find an outlet. Strike Three Press gives them the opportunity.”

The Life and Death of Mocha Dick was inspired by a chat with Randall Enos at the Society of Illustrators. “Randy grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and embraced local whaling history,” Smith recalled. “He told Ginny and me about Mocha Dick, a huge, feared whale that attacked ships in the South Seas.”

Northwell B22 SPREAD

“Those were the same stories Herman Melville heard in the South Pacific in 1841,” Cahill added. “They inspired his novel Moby Dick. As soon as Randy shared this story, we knew we had a book.”

With an edition of 32, Mocha Dick’s exquisite, primitive, tribal-style art was hewn from a suite of linoleum cuts, numbered and signed by the artist (Enos). Priced at $450, it’s almost sold out.

The next work, Black White & Blues ($300) garnered the Communication Arts 2012 Award of Excellence for a Book Series. Illustrated by Joe Ciardiello (whose work often accompanies New York Times book reviews)—a limited-edition tome of vivid pen and ink portraits of legendary blues musicians like guitarist Buddy Guy and singer Koko Taylor that seem to leap from the page.

Cahill and Smith’s most recent effort, Brooklyn’s Rescued Bestiary, pays homage to Sean Casey Animal Rescue, a no-kill shelter in Windsor Terrace. “Since we have three rescued cats, Dan and I were fascinated when we learned about Sean and his mission from a flyer in the neighborhood. The book is a compassionate portrait of the borough,” she said. “Not only is Sean’s place here, but most of the rescues were found and adopted in Brooklyn, and the illustrator is from here, too.”

Artist David G. Klein provided the vinyl block engravings, while Cahill wrote the animal profiles, chronicling them from rescue to adoption. “They range from an iguana, a baby pigeon, and a two-headed turtle to the infamous ‘Ghost Dog of Prospect Park,’” she added. “Every page is an original piece of art.” Proceeds from the book ($250) go to Sean Casey Animal Rescue.

“Strike Three Press isn’t known for speed,” Smith joked. “Each book can take a year or two to produce.”

In addition to specialty collectors, most small fine press books in the United States are sold to university libraries and public collections. “In Europe, there’s a broader appeal for books like ours,” Cahill explained. “In the U.S., a person might spend a few hundred dollars on something to hang on the wall, but in Europe, that same person will consider a fine book for an art purchase.”

The business’s efforts grace libraries across the country, from the University of California at Santa Cruz’s McHenry Library to the Butler Library at Columbia University.

Brooklyn’s Rescued Bestiary was on display at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central branch in 2014, showcasing stories and etchings, as well as highlighting the bookmaking process. “We would very much like Rescued Bestiary to find a home here in Brooklyn,” Smith ventured. “Perhaps even with The Brooklyn Historical Society. It’s one piece of Brooklyn history that helps makes this borough so unique.”

Strike Three Press
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