To Those Who See

Title: To Those Who See

Author: Frostic, Gwen

Publication: Benzonia, Michigan: Presscraft Papers, 1965.

Description: An artist's book by Gwen Frostic (1906-2001), Michigan poet, printmaker, and naturalist, containing verse by Frostic about winter and the approaching spring and illustrated with her nature-themed Linocut block prints. Letterpress-printed at Presscraft Papers, Frostic's artist's studio, on Original Heidelberg Platen Presses. Printed in color on a variety of handmade, deckle-edged papers. One leaf of the book contains an actual pressed butterfly, while another contains a pressed fern leaf. Bound in quarter cloth with decorated paper over the front board, with the cloth extending to fully cover the rear board. 9.5 x 6.5 inches; 64 unnumbered pages.

A pencil marking on the turn-in of the front pastedown, else in As New condition. It has been stored in a box and is crisp and clean. A highly collectible copy of a beautifully-produced book by a disabled woman book artist, "one of America's foremost nature inspired artists," according to the National Park Service. Frostic was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1986, and her artist's studio was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. The studio has operated continuously in Benzonia, Michigan since 1964 when it first opened, and "To Those Who See" is the first book that Frostic published at that location. Frostic began as an artist working with metals in the 1920s and transitioned to printmaking during World War Two due to shortages in metal supplies.

References:

Sikarskie, Amanda Grace. "These Things Are Ours: The Art and Words of Gwen Frostic." Accessed February 19, 2023. 

U.S. Department of the Interior. "Gwen Frostic Studio." National Parks Service. Accessed February 19, 2023.