In this production, 6.5 x 10.5", 26 pages, Barnett creates 40 unique objects, an edition of hand-made and variable artists' books.
 
Both the artists' book and the literary chapbook versions of Open Cut stitch together the same core of letterpress-printed text pages, capturing Luciano's poetry and intertextualized images, in a letterpress split fount inking style.
 
For the artists' book only, image insert pages were also printed, and were then individually shellacked. These two sheets, stained and crackling, alluding to the fragility of experienced skin, are interleafed to alllow their materiality and affect to influence the presence and attitude of these powerful art print objects.
 
The image sheets were folded, inserted and stitched with the core pages, into short outer covers of machine sewn, neoprene-like Plike, another archival paper from Italy. Layered, printed, tacketted and stitched with eco-friendly mohair yarn and cotton, cotton rag Italian paper and Japanese mulberry writing paper, and mixed with vintage North American fine printing papers, the set of art print products that has emerged from the collaboration combines international and historic influcences and attitudes to these works.
 
The signed and numbered edition of 40 copies includes 13 with covers that are inked instead of laser-cut, available at the same price.