BLAKE TRUST 4

Exhibition at National Gallery of Canada
Facsimile by Trianon Press
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Copy Z, Rosenwald Collection
"The Lamb"

No process is stronger than the weakest link in the process, especially not one that involves many people, many decisions and many skills. As it turned out there was at least one weak link in the chain of production of the Trianon Press creation of the facsimile of the color copy of Blake's Jerusalem sponsored by the Blake Trust. The meticulous effort which went into completing the project broke down at one of the later stages. The paper purchased for the printing of the books did not meet the specifications which had been original laid out. The project went on to a successful completion but years later it was noticed the books were becoming discolored and need extensive restorative measures to maintain their integrity because of the acidity of the paper. Books which were meant to last for generations were becoming old after forty years.

In an article in Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly by Dena Bain Taylor, the problems with the facsimile of Jerusalem are explored. She tells us that:

"The archives of the Trianon Press provide a fascinating picture of the struggles—artistic, financial, and political—that went on during the whole period of production. In particular, the correspondence between Arnold Fawcus of the Trianon Press in France and his partner in England, Patrick Macleod, sheds light on the difficulties that had to be overcome. Unfortunately, there are no final answers, since neither man anticipated the problems of deterioration forty years later, but there are many clues."

When we look at Blake's own life experience we recognize that he saw life in terms of contraries which were always struggling for resolution, or were defying the validity of the contrary position. He, like the Blake Trust, made some poor choices regarding alternative ways of expressing his art, or of building relationships with people to negotiate solutions. But in spite of failures, progress is made: goals can be reached if failures are accepted as the price of continuing to make the attempt.

The Blake Trust did not quit after the publication of Jerusalem. Perhaps they were able to have a smoother process in the publication of their subsequent facsimiles of Blake's books because of the learning process they experienced in publishing Jerusalem. There is little doubt that Blake gradually found the right materials and methods as he invented his unique process of creating illumiated books. When he wrote of 'invention' and 'execution' he was thinking of his own art requiring both the concept and the implementation - two contaries which he became the vehicle for resolving.  

Public Address, (E 576)

"No Man Can
Improve An Original Invention. Nor can an Original
Invention Exist without Execution Organized & minutely Delineated
& Articulated Either by God or Man. I do not mean smoothd up &
Niggled & Poco Piud but Drawn with a firm hand 
at once with all its Spots & Blemishes which are beauties & not faults 
like Fuseli & Michael Angelo Shakespeare & Milton
...
  I have heard many People say Give me the Ideas.  It is no
matter what Words you put them into & others say Give me the
Design it is no matter for the Execution.  These People know
Nothing Of Art.  Ideas cannot be Given
but in their minutely Appropriate Words nor Can a Design be made
without its minutely Appropriate Execution. The unorganized
Blots & Blurs of Rubens & Titian are not Art nor can their Method
ever express Ideas or Imaginations any more than Popes
Metaphysical jargon of Rhyming.  Unappropriate Execution is the
Most nauseous affectation & foppery He who copies does
not Execute he only Imitates what is already Executed Execution
is only the result of Invention"
 

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