Featured on PDR in the collection “Light from the Darkness”: Paul Nash’s Genesis (1924)

The artist Paul Nash made Genesis, a small book of woodcuts set alongside biblical text, in 1924. Archives and museums all over the world own a copy. The book was printed by Nonesuch Press — founded in the early 1920s by socialists and bisexuals in a basement in London’s Soho — with a clothbound cover, gilt lettering, and twelve woodcuts. It’s a large book, a bit grand. Nonesuch wanted to make beautifully designed books less precious and more available; they typically used a commercial printer, but mimicked the handpress aesthetic.