Bookworms Limited Edition Serigraph Print

Forty years ago, Crumb was commissioned to illustrate the cover of a rare books catalog for Pepper & Stern Rare Books, a small books store in Santa Barbara, California. Somehow the illustration attracted attention, and Crumb was requested to use the same illustration for a cover of a Cornelius publication, as well as for the cover of Carl Richter's The Crumb Compendium. In 2023, Robert removed the Pepper & Stern banner, filled in the empty space with more shelving and books which resulted in a limited edition etching. That edition sold out within 40 hours. To provide all of Crumb's fans and readers the opportunity to purchase this popular image (now entitled The Bookworms), Crumb agreed to colorize the image in order to print a limited serigraph edition. We're very happy to announce the release of this edition, printed with 16 colors, almost all of which are transparent, over-lapping with one another in order to create a very saturated, beautiful edition with over thirty different colors and shades. The registration is very tight with this image due to the thinness of the line work, but it aligned perfectly when the final black key line was printed. We're very happy with this edition!

The BFK Rives cream paper is 15" x 19 1/2." The image size 11" x 14." Sixteen colors using fourteen screens were used to print 140 serigraphs in this edition, with 15 artist proofs and 3 printer proofs. Each print was numbered, signed and dated by Crumb in Paris this October. Your complete satisfaction is guaranteed.