“From Nazareth we crossed the Jezreel Valley into another kind of country altogether: northern Samaria, a region synonymous with bloodshed since the beginning of history. Here the Israelites fell to the Philistines and Jezebel was thrown out a window and eaten by dogs. Armageddon is just down the road.”
Signs & Wonders
is a limited-edition-of-twelve artist book retracing Mark Twain’s 1867 expedition to the Holy Land. A collaboration between American Jacques Menasche and Australian Stephen Dupont, it includes photographs printed on hand-painted emulsion, texts hand-typed on translucent kozo paper, and maps constructed from pages of an 1870 first-edition of Twain’s “The Innocents Abroad.” Hand-stamped with drop-cap wooden letterpress letters, with a leather cover hand-tooled in gold leaf, it comes in a clamshell box and has the dimensions of a family bible.