Soberscove Press/ Henry at Home

“Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don’t abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.”- Patti Smith (upon receiving the National Book Award for her memoir, Just Kids).

All images from Henry at Home, Soberscove Press, 2010.

My other shopping excursion that I made while in New York: a visit to Printed Matter (which happened to be right across the street from our hotel).
I lived in NYC briefly in 1994, and I remember when Printed Matter was still in Soho. Now located in Chelsea, it's a bit overwhelming to enter the shop- every bit of available space is crammed with books, zines, posters. It's a beautiful thing.

Henry at Home is one of the books I purchased. It's probably my favorite book out of the pile of texts I went home with.

The book is about the lives of and layers of meaning behind objects:

"Henry at Home presents photographs of objects from Henry—a shop in Hudson, NY, run by Nancy Shaver-—as they appear in the homes of the people who purchased them. In addition to these photographs, Henry at Home includes artwork by Nancy Shaver, an introduction by Lucy Raven, and an interview between Shaver and Steel Stillman."
-Soberscove Press website.

Soberscove Press, is a small independent press in Chicago run & founded by Julia Klein.
Julia, as it happens, purchased an ERMIE dress from me last year! A bit of serendipity: I purchased Henry at Home and one of Soberscove's other publications- a gift for my husband- Artists' Sessions at Studio 35 , without realizing at first they were from Julia's press (I must say I have the coolest customers)!

I love the photos in this book, I love the essays. It's a small text- but packed with visual stimuli. It's made me think about the objects I surround myself with, that I'm drawn to, that I create. It also had me considering applying to Bard's MFA program in order to study with Nancy Shaver (!) , and tapped into my maybe not so far-fetched fantasy of one day opening a store. It also made me consider & embrace why I'm drawn to object-laden blogs such as R4TH.

Obviously, I highly recommend reading Henry at Home, if you are an artist, maker, enthusiast or collector of objects.
Amazing things, books. You never know where they will lead you...

Thanks, Julia, for creating and sharing your wonderful publications with the world!