ETC Press ~ Georgia / Germany
(Cynthia Lollis & Daniela Deeg)

CBAA: " ETC Press is an international collaboration between two women: a German and an American. Daniela Deeg works as an independent printmaker and book artist, as well as an art director in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Cynthia Delaney Lollis is a professor of printmaking and book arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, GA.

" Not only are the differences between their two languages addressed in all of their collaborative work, but also the differences and similarities of their cultural touchstones.

" They often travel together while working on books, to gather images and absorb the character of countries other than their own: where they are outsiders together."

Sammlungen / Collections
By Daniela Deeg and Cynthia Lollis
Belgium: etc Press, 2022. Edition of 13.

12.5 x 16.25” chipboard box with title in silver on cover. Box contents: pamphlet and nine prints. Text: English and German. Papers: Romerturm Cristalla. Typefaces: Andale Mono and Trade Gothic. Printing: screenprints, Risograph, laser prints. Photographs taken by the artists in Vienna, Austria. Pamphlet: 5.5 x 7.75”; 24 pages including covers. Prints: 12 x 16” double sided; each laid in a translucent folder.

Cynthia Lollis: "The artists traveled to Vienna, Austria to see what they could learn about the female patients of Sigmund Freud. While they were there, they were struck by the many obsessive collections that presented themselves across the city.

“A mirror of these collections, ‘Sammlungen/Collections’ is comprised of nine prints enclosed by translucent folders. Peeking through are wallpapers designed by the artists based on objects on display at Vienna's natural history museum. On top of these patterns are silhouettes of household objects found at the Imperial Furniture Collection. And, inside the forms are screenprinted photographs of places and things they saw in the city, including Freud's home and office.

“Each folder contains a collection of images and fragmented text that hints of stories representing Freud's patients. ‘Sammlungen/Collections’ comes complete with a ‘collections manual’ to help decipher the accession numbers handwritten onto each of the nine prints in this variable edition."
$1,500

Riflettere
By Cynthia Lollis and Daniela Deeg
Stuttgart/Atlanta: etc Press, 2017. Edition of 13.

11.75 x 15.75"; 18 pages. Jenson font. Printed on Romerturni Cristalla paper. Pigment ink Venetian Red from Kremer Pigmente. Photographs taken in Venice in June 2017. Printed in Germany at the Kunstelerhaus Suttgart and in the USA at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. Three metal-post binding. Wrapper of sheer cloth with title in white. Laid in chipboard lidded box. Title printed on top cover with colophon printed on exterior of bottom. Signed by both artists. Numbered.

Colophon: "'Rifleteres' was written by Joseph Brodsky in 1989. It was published in English as 'Watermark' by Joseph Brodsky (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. New York, 1992) in German as 'Ufer der Verlorenen' by Joseph Broadsky (Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2002) and in Italian as 'Fondaimenta delgli Incurablili' by Josef Broadskij (Adelphi Edizioni S.P.A., Milano. 1991).

"Riflettere recalls the artists' previous book Nebbia (etc Press, 2004). The text for this newer book is distilled from a broader selection they made earlier to reflect the artists' gaining respect for the passage of time."

Cynthia Lollis: "Nebbia (Italian for fog) is a visual homage to the late US Poet Laureate Joseph Brodsky's wintertime Venice. The 24 pages of this artists' book depict a 24-hour Venetian day in January 2004. Nebbia is composed of photographs and text screenprinted backwards on the inner surfaces of transparent paper. Through the folios of the stab-binding, words right themselves and emerge through the images of water. The text, in Italian, English, and German, sits at each hour's tidemark. Brodsky's literary reverie of Venice's surfaces, reflections, and light is transformed by Nebbia, a portrait of two women amidst urban holiday activity, bitter cold, and Venice's varying faces: real and fantastic."
$1,000

Luftperspektive
Aerial View
By Cynthia Lollis and Daniela Deeg
Text by Rainer Maria Rilke
Stuttgart/Atlanta: etc Press, 2012. Edition of 40.

29.5 x 29.5 x 2 cm; 20 pages. Double-sided accordion. Munken Polar paper. Offset lithography. Flexible 3D plastic covers. Housed in lidded gray board box. Bi-lingual text – German and English. Signed by both artists.

CBAA: "Luftperspektive / Aerial View is a collaborative book made by two women: a German and an American. Photographs in this double-sided accordion book afford 360º panoramic views of the two artists’ cities: Stuttgart from the Television Tower (Fernsehturm Stuttgart) on one side, and Atlanta from the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel on the other. A poem by Rainer Maria Rilke is handwritten into the silhouettes of native birds circling above the landscapes. This artists’ book, about varying and shifting perspectives, is as light as air in one’s hands."
$500

Ein Würfelwurf kann den Zufall nicht abschaffen
A Throw of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance
By Daniela Deeg and Cynthia Lollis
Belgium: etc Press, 2011. Edition of 18.

13.75 x 9.25 x 1"; 40 pages. Screenprinted. Post and screw binding. Cristalla Transparent paper from Römertum Feinpapiere. Typeface is Sabon. Printed at the Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium, in 2011. Housed in gray-board box with title stamped on lid

Cynthia Lollis: "This book began with a word list they started in 2001. For this book the list was revisited, and each artist contributed new words to it offering a new perspective. The photographs were taken by the artists while working together over ten years."

etc Press: "The artists quote in their book the 1897 by Stéphane Mallarmé, Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard as reinterpreted by the Belgian artist, Marcel Broodthaers in 1969."

Broodthaers artists' book reproduces Mallarmé's poem but with black stripes instead of words replicating Mallarmé's zealously stipulated layout. In Johanna Drucker's words: {Broodthaers'} elevates the structure of the work to a concept worthy of study in its own right, thus acknowledging Mallarmé's own fetishistic attention to this aspect of his work."

In the etc Press production, pairs of Dutch, French, German, and/or English words are printed on translucent paper illustrated with flat screenprinted simplified versions of photographs taken by Deeg and Lollis. The pairs of words are synonyms, but are they the same? Given the connotations that language is laden with, are synonyms – direct translation of experience – possible?

Won't a change in language almost certainly present a different reality? This stylish object plays stylistically with the question.

ETC Press Mallarme book is included in “Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira le Hasard (1897): Celebrating the 125th Anniversary of Mallarmé's Poem” Excerpt: “Daniela Deeg in Germany and Cynthia Lollis in the US use pairs of Dutch, French, German, and/or English words printed on translucent paper illustrated with flat screenprinted simplified versions of photographs to address a core challenge that Mallarmé faces in his poem: in the presence of chance, how is language — the essential act of creativity — possible?”

ETC Press Mallarme book is included (Plate 14 with comments) in essay by David Annwn “Solid Light: Ways through Transparent books” Excerpt: “ Ein Würfelwurf is an exuberant and sensuous exploration of layered space and relativistic time which also probes the ways in which the nuances of language present changes in lived realities. Its diaphanous large pages of Cristalla Transparent are pleasant to turn and handle … encourage a coming to terms with and a meditation on spaces and on language and its insufficiencies. … the meditation is simultaneously aesthetic and dialectical, … sequential and complete at any point of viewing.”
$900

Enten/Eller
By Cynthia Lollis and Daniela Deeg
Belgium: etc Press, 2009. Edition of 16.

12 x 11.75"; 32 pages including covers. Screenprinted on Glama Natural translucent paper. Bound in a custom printed tarpaulin wrap with stab binding using book screws. Housed in greyboard box with title stamped on lid. Text in English, German, and Danish.

Cynthia Lollis: "This book that can be read three ways by reordering the pages according to the code printed on each page's left margin.

"A [and] B orders each represent a fictional character in Kierkegaard's work Enten/Eller (1843) [in English, Either/Or]. It's a book of 'found' letters between Mr. B (the ethical voice), and Mr. A (the aesthetic voice). We hoped to visually represent their positions, first via the easy to follow numeric ordered (plus English than German pattern) that speaks Mr. B's argument for an ethical life, in contrast with Mr. A's position that can only be read ... [after the pages have been] reshuffled into A-order and only when the beginning of a thought is completed on the following page (first only in German, then only in English) ....

"For CD order (Cynthia and Daniela's), we chose seven Either/Or phrases in each of our three languages (Dani's, mine, and Kierkegaard's). Other than A or B, and X or Y, here are our selections with translations:

Danish:
     Dag eller nat (Day or night)
     At blive eller ikke at blive (To be or not to be)
     Strålende eller grumset (Sunny or cloudy)
     Legeme eller appel (Body or spirit)
     Heldig eller bedrøvelig (Happy or sad)
     Snarlig eller sent (Early or late)
     Oppe eller nede (Up or down)

English:
     Security or Adventure
     One or more
     Speak up or be silent
     Now or later
     Presence or Absence
     Together or apart
     For here or to go

German:
     Karriere oder Kinder (Career or motherhood)
     Rock oder Hosen (Skirt or pants)
     Original oder Kopie (Original or copy)
     Weich oder hart (Soft or hard)
     Alles oder nichts (Something or nothing)
     Jetzt oder nie (Now or later)
     Bleiben oder gehen (Stay or go)

"The photographs were taken by the artists during a December 2007 visit to Copenhagen, Denmark."
$1,300 (Last 5 copies)

tapetenwechsel / change of scenery
By Cynthia Lollis and Daniela Deeg
Belgium: etc Press, 2008. Edition of 12.

11.25 x 8.5"; 9 folded prints. Prints: 28 x 40 cm (11 x 15.75"). Box: 28.5 x 21 x 2.3 cm (11.25 x 8.5 x 1.2"). Screenprint on Simili Japon. Color laser prints on Zanders Gohrsmühle. Housed in greyboard box with one drop down side for ease of lifting prints.

etc Press: "'change of scenery' is a suite of nine folded prints presented together as a loose-leaf book. The drawings and photographs were made by the artists, Daniela Deeg and Cynthia Lollis, while traveling together abroad. The imagery deals with the surprising cultural differences of idiom usage in the artists’ native languages: German and English respectively. For example, Kalter Kaffee (cold coffee) = old hat (alter Hut). These double-sided serigraphs, plus tipped-in color laser prints, were printed at the Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium, in 2008."

Titles of prints:

kalter kaffee [cold coffee] / old hat
kinderleicht [child simple] / piece of cake
in die nesseln setzen [to sit in nettles] / in hot water
weisse mäuse sehen [to see white mice] / seeing pink elephants
in den sauren apfel beissen [to bite a sour apple] / bite the bullet
ein loch in den bauch redden [to talk a hole in one’s stomach] / talking one’s head off
ein katzensprung [a cat’s leap] / a stone’s throw away
zwei fliegen mit einer klappe schlagen [to kill two flies with one swatter] / killing two birds with one stone
dasselbe in grün [same thing in green] / six of one, half dozen of the other

$1000 (Last 4 copies)

Viel Glück
By Cynthia Lollis and Daniela Deeg
Belgium: etc Press, 2007. Edition of 56.

4 x 5.5"; 84 pages. Coptic bound. Fonts: Weiss and Weiss Rundgotisch. Papers: Gmund Reaction, Curious Translucents, and Zanders Gobrsmuble. Printed in Belgium at the Frans Masereel Centrum. Text: English and German. Photographs over-painted with text and line drawings in gold pen. Housed in lidded grey cardboard box. Photographs, design and screen printing by Cynthia Lollis and Daniela Deeg.

Cynthia Lollis: "Viel Glück is a Coptic-bound book based on a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs. Inside, three questions from the tale form the book’s structure. Between three signatures of questions and text, are four more of screenprinted photographs. These images were taken by the artists, Cynthia Lollis and Daniela Deeg, in Germany throughout the Northern Black Forest. Here, spring versus summer is superimposed on translucent paper. Printed on the surface are drawings of the fairy tale, the Black Forest, and good luck symbols."
$450

12:38 - 14:16
By Cynthia Lollis & Daniela Deeg
Belgium: etc press, 2006. Edition of 36.

5.875 x 7.875 x 1.375". A screenprinted star accordion book with plexiglass covers in grayboard box. Signed by both artists.

A collaboration between Daniela Deeg and Cynthia Lollis of photographs taken in New York city in May 2006. It represents a journey beginning at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue at 41st Street and ending at the southern edge of Manhattan in Battery Park. The artists stopped every seven minutes to photograph down the middle of the street. Inside this, one sees a collapsed version of the trip via these seven views.
$700

Relinquo
By Daniela Deeg and Cynthia Lollis
Belgium: etc press, 2005. Edition of 32.

6.25 x 8.75” double-sided accordion. Housed in 7.375 x 0.5 x 1” box.

Relinquo (to abandon) pairs Ovid’s version of Ariadne’s abandonment by Theseus with the story of Ovid’s banishment.

The Latin text of the book was written by Publius Ovidus Naso (43 BC – AD 17). Translations into English and German are tucked within the Ariadne side. Ovid was expelled from Rome by Emperor Augustus in AD 8 to the edge of his Empire for two crimes: “a poem and a blunder” [carment et error]. Twelve years before Ovid´s exile, he wrote the Heroides, a collection of letters by fictional women to their lovers. In letter X, Ariadne addresses Theseus after he sneaks away the morning after she helped him escape the labyrinth of her half-brother, the Minotaur.
$500 (Last 4 copies)

5.Juni 1999/July 27, 1999:
Love Letter to Gutenberg
By Daniela Deeg and Cynthia Lollis
2000. Edition of 500.

40 x 27.5 cm letterpress and offset concertina book. Housed in a letterfold paper case.

Love Letter to Gutenberg is a photographic travelogue in the form of a large format concertina. A collaboration of a German, Daniela Deeg and an American, Cynthia Lollis. One travels to the Gutenberg bible in Mainz, Germany and the other to the Gutenberg bible in Washington, DC. On each side of the concertina the story of each journey is told with photographs. Both sides are of the same importance - there is no beginning nor end, no front nor back. Accordingly, the book has two titles and an English colophon, as well as a German one. Postcards that hint at missed appointments and written by the authors from their sites are tucked in with the colophons.

In celebration of Gutenberg’s 600th birthday in Mainz, this was one of three books selected for publication.
$60