DANCE MACABRE 2009 by Owen Legg

DANCE MACABRE 2009

At last, after ten months of printing I have finished my book about the Danse Macabre. There were of course twelve months before that of preparation, getting the linocuts prepared and proofed. But the printing of hose linocuts and the text took considerable effort.

Today, a week later, the first four copies have gone to the binder, Mike Fitzgerald, of Cox Heath.

The book consists of a 15th Century French poem with a modern English translation by Giles de la Bedoyere. At the top of each page is a copy of the 16TH century mural which adorns a church in Brittany while at the bottom of the page footballers dance with skeletons. There are two full page illustrations of a player competing with a skeleton.

The whole poem is a reminder of the shortness of life and the vanity of riches. This is why I have contrasted the ethos of commercial football with the certainty of death. Giles is a poet who comes from Tunbridge Wells and by coincidence has an ancestral connection with the church of Kermaria where this mural exists.

The price will be £300 cloth edition and £450 embossed calf leather binding.