The Brother In Elysium is pleased to announce the new publication Ship of State, a collaboration between Peter Gizzi and Jon Beacham.
Ship of State was written in 2018. It is a poem about grief, public and private. The poem tries to understand and accept the condition of death in life and life in the midst of death, both one’s own and that of others. It is an ecstatic meditation on empathy, frailty, and survival. The title refers both to the dark political reality of our present as well as the private relationship one has with confronting a body lying in state. The poem is accompanied by original artwork throughout by Jon Beacham. This work bears unflinching witness to silence and space, with the only trace of the human world being that of the house which, in this context, could represent the house of the dead. Among these houses are landscapes in all seasons, in their bareness and bounty, interspersed within this harrowing and original poem. This work brings the relationship of collaboration between Gizzi and Beacham to a distilled vision of frailty, of life, and what remains.
Published in an edition of 12 copies, each containing six original collages by Jon Beacham that are unique to each edition. The book is hand set and printed letterpress in Univers Light, cast by The Bixler Letterfoundry. The binding is by Amy Borezo at ShelterBookworks. Typesetting, letterpress printing and book design by Jon Beacham, The Brother In Elysium. Produced in Kingston, New York, in the Winter of 2020.