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Minor to Major Defect/Blemish Copies: Some books may present various physical imperfections or irregularities, scratches or blemishes on the cover, corner bumps, glue spots, etc. Some/Few pages may be bent or slightly ripped, and tooling defects such as faulty foil stamping or debossing may have occured.
6.5 x 9.5 inches. 240 pages. (Same overall size as the IAO Hardcover but thicker.) Hardbound 100pts. Cover Material: Napura Sangha [Dark Brown] highly textured material. Gold foil blocking and Blind Deboss details on the cover and back-cover. Full Colour interior. RainbowCo. "Spruce" (Dark Teal colour) textured Endpapers. Black Headbands. Illustrated throughout by JosΓ© Gabriel Alegria Sabogal. Fine typography and layout by Joseph Uccello. Printed on Accent Antique Alabaster 150 gsm archive-quality paper. Comes with a numbered tipped-in carton-plate signed by the Author.
Limited to 1300 copies | ISBN: 978-1-989339-24-4
Contents
SEMESILAM: The Eternal Sun
Preface, by Frater Acher
Prologue for Semesilam, by JosΓ© Gabriel AlegrΓa Sabogal
Book I. A Handbook of Sacred Anatomy
A Note from the Author to the Reader
A Handbook of Sacred Anatomy
Index of Images (for Book I)
Book II. A Second Nature
Introduction: The Two Natures
The Power of Books, the Power of Images, and a Book of Images
Angels or Manifestations: The Beheld
Metamorphoses
Death & Imagination
Symbols
Bone Works
A Second Nature
Index of Images (for Book II )
Acknowledgements
Verses
Epilogue:
PortΓ¦ Lucis β Solarization of the Crypt, by G. McCaughry
Book Summaries
In the new prologue to Semesilam, Sabogal offers personal insight into the diverse circumstances that played a role in producing this corpus, including the motifs, symbols, and ideas behind them, and further interpretations of various images and themes β Gnostic Symbolism, Angelic Iconography, and Symbols of the Unconscious among others β which have been crucial to his artistic process.
Within this myriad of symbology and meaning, the Sun is at the forefront, a recurring symbol and inspiration for the bookβs title, Semesilam β here identified as an inscription often found on the so-called Abrasax Gnostic gemstones, pointing to the everlasting nature of the solar orb.
The material from Handbook of Sacred Anatomy constitutes a Mutus Liber that explores mystical interpretations of human remains, while A Second Nature was significantly inspired by Jungian analyses, delving also into the mysterious Akephalos, the headless figure β symbolically suggestive of both the dragon and contemplation of death β used by surrealist author Georges Bataille, who, in an uncompromising non-rational way, sought to create its own visual associative language.
A new preface by Frater Acher (author of the Holy Daimon trilogy [Scarlet Imprint, 2018; 2020; 2022], Clavis GoΓͺtica [Hadean Press, 2021], and Ingenium [Tadehent Books, 2022]), and an epilogue by Gabriel McCaughry (founder and owner of Anathema Publishing Ltd., and author of (h)Aurorae, [Anathema Publishing, 2018] also illustrated by JosΓ©), both give testimony to Sabogalβs long-standing personal, literary, and artistic relationships β the fruits of which have taken the form of several publications and have inspired the artwork compiled here.
Semesilam features a new and carefully designed layout by artist and typographer Joseph Uccello, which enhances the presentation of this collection, thereby making it available as a fine edition, showcasing material that has been otherwise out of print for a considerable while. Certainly, a worthy addition for those who are interested in JosΓ© Gabrielβs body of work.
Semesilam [Hardcover] - Interior Mockup
Semesilam [Hardcover] - Interior Mockup