Sol I nvi c t us Pr ess

Fi ne Pr ess Book s

Li vr es de Pei nt r e

One-of -a-Ki nd Book s
































Our primary activity is the making of artist's books since 1991. Our
books are made by hand and are published in limited editions. We also
nurture the development of one-of-a-kind books. Sol Invictus Press
pursues a little known aspect of Chinese art, the unique book of seal
impressions (yinpu). Stefan Arteni is the first Western artist who has
mastered the art of seal cutting, favored by the Chinese literati as a
cultivated pursuit. Sol Invictus Press books have been acquired by art
collectors, bibliophiles, and public collections around the world.

Myriam S. P. de Arteni is an artist, book designer, binder and paper
conservator. Her works are in numerous private and public collections.

Stefan Arteni is a longtime practitioner of Zen arts. He was awarded the
Grand Prize for Calligraphy 1996 and 2005 by the J apan Foreign Affairs
Minister. Arteni has been also awarded in 2005 the highest rank,
SHIHAN (Master Teacher), by The J apan Calligraphy Art Association.
His works are in private, public and corporate collections worldwide.

































As the leaves of a Sol Invictus book are turned and
the characters/symbols/images succeed each other in
space and time, each seemingly the work of an
inspired moment which has flowed spontaneously
from the artist's hand, the awareness grows that an
important message is being spoken to the eye and
inscribed in the mind.

(Isaac Gewirtz, Curator, Henry W. And
Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American
Literature, The New York Public Library)


Poster for Sign of The Logos , Artists
Books and Related Materials,
A Retrospective Exhibition of Sol Invictus
Press (November 19, 1998 - April 16, 1999),
St. Mark's Library,
The General Theological Seminary
(New York), curated by Isaac Gewirtz, then
Director of Special Collections at
St. Marks Library.


































Laudes Creaturarum
1992

Unbound, protected by a wrapper. Housed in a handmade drop-spine box covered in
esparto grass paper. Custom made plexyglass reading stand.


Poem by St Francis of Assisi. Fifteen original sumi ink drawings interspersed within text
and on wrapper. Text handset in Goudy Old Italian and printed letterpress on handmade
Papel Zepia. Handcarved initials and signature seals hand impressed with Chinese red
seal paste. Original drawings, initials and signature seals by Stefan Arteni. Designed
and printed by Myriam S.P. de Arteni. English translation by Barbara Carle.
Sixteen folios 37.3 x 57.5 centimeters (15 x 23 inches). Edition of twenty-six. Colophon
numbered and signed by the designer and artist


Everything that remains to our world of the man knows to us as St. Francis of Assisi is
addressed to our most intimate nature. His words illuminate such fundamental concerns
as the nature of existence, life, death, the self, and what is beyond the self. As a focus
for meditation, Laudes Creaturarum, known also as The Canticle of Brother Sun,
conveys through archetypal symbols the ultimate visualization of the serenity and joy of
the world.

The imagery of the sumi drawings must be approached in terms of the endless
juxtaposition, contrast and harmony of signs and symbols: an Egyptian hieroglyphic, the
American Indian sign for abundance, an imperfect circle as the expression of the
inexpressible. Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise.

Laudes Creaturarumis a stunning whole comprised of carefully considered details.
Each folio is a paper handmade from fiber of a different plant that grows in
ColombiaPage composition is based on the golden section. Printed on each is part of
the well-known Canticle of Brother Sunby Saint Francis of Assisiin its oldest known
version. Each section of type, in black, is decorated with handcarved initials in red. Also
red are the carved seals, their references and cross-references reflecting many
cultures, from Egyptian to Chinese and Romanian. The dramatic drawings are more
personal but as multicultural. Like oriental pictures of the mind, in black ink on the
natural paper, they refer to the words of Saint Francis as well, but through archetypal
symbols (Jacqueline Brody, Editor, The Print Collectors Newsletter, Vol. XXIV,
No. 1, March-April 1993)






































A Small Book Of Engraved Mountain
Stone Seals
1993

Seal engravings by Stefan Arteni imprinted
by hand through the application of vermillon
seal paste. Bound in shuincho format.
Housed in a handmade cloth covered box,
designed by Myriam S.P. de Arteni.
Accompanied by a blank stone seal to be
engraved by the artist with the collector's
name. 3 1/2 x 5 inches. One-of-a-kind book,
signed by the artist.

Seal, or chops as they are commonly called
by Westerners, were favored by the Chinese
literati as a cultivated pursuit. Ancient script
styles were seen in a non-continuum in which
the artist should achieve an inner response
to the model, rather than imitate it.

"A small book of engraved mountain stone
seals", an album of seal impressions,
contains the traditional complete collection of
the artist's signature seals up to 1993.































Encountering Sorrow
1993

Gold edged shikishi boards,with seal engravings by
Stefan Arteni, impressed by hand through the
application of vermillon seal paste. Bound in orihon
format between boards covered in silk brocade.
Protected by a maruchitsu wrap-around case.
Housed in a handmade box designed by Myriam
S.P. de Arteni containing a blank seal to be
engraved with the collector's name by Stefan Arteni.
7 x 9 1/2 inches. One-of-a-kind book, signed by the
artist.

Seal engraving, or seal cutting, and important
aspect of the literati's tradition, is a combination of
literature, calligraphy, engraving, and tactile
experience.

"Encountering Sorrow" is a variation of speech for
the title of the masterpiece by Ch'u Yuan,
immortalizing the quintessential spirit of the many
personal and metaphysical implications of dissident
loneliness, within the conceptual framework of a
meditation on art, life and knowledge. The text, in
the ancient form of seal script, has been engraved in
a variety of compositional schemes.

English translation from Chinese and J apanese by
Stefan Arteni.


































A Large Book Of Recently Engraved
Stone Seals
1993

Seal engravings by Stefan Arteni impressed by
hand though the application of vermillon seal
paste. Bound in shugacho format between boards
covered in silk brocade. Housed in a box designed
and made by Myriam S. P. de Arteni containing a
blank seal to be engraved by Stefan Arteni with the
collector's name. 6 1/2 x10 inches. One-of-a-kind
book, signed by the artist.

Seal cutting or engraving is an aspect of Chinese
art, little known in the West. The same word (yin) is
used for both printing and seals or chops.

"The Large Revealed In The Small" and "All Quite
At Random," two intimate poems of respectively
five and seven characters verses, have been
compiled by Stefan Arteni mainly from inscriptions
on classical Chinese paintings, as a deeply
personal response paralleling the individualism of
17th century monk painters in an era of trouble and
grief. The book, whose subtitle might be "Word as
Image", unfolds in time and space revealing
unexpected thoughts on art and life.




































The Large Emerging from the Small
1994

Foreword by Myriam S. P. de Arteni. Suite of
fifteen sumi ink drawings by
Stefan Arteni on handmade Papel Zepia.
Three letterpress pages handset in Goudy
Old Italian and printed on Handmade Papel
Zepia. Bound in orihon format. Housed in a
handmade box. Designed and printed by
Myriam S.P. de Arteni. 12 1/2 x 15 inches.
One-of-a-kind book. Colophon signed by
designer and artist.

Brush work is not conceived of simply as a
decorative device. It is meant to exemplify a
view of being. The brush strokes follow
subtle principles of positive and negative
design. They are diagrams of the dynamic
but harmonious balance of the universe.
Expressing oneself through calligraphic
brushwork, one borrows from the insight that
understanding is wordless.



































A Book Of Collected Seal Script
Carvings
1994

Seals engraved by Stefan Arteni,
impressed by hand through the application
of vermillon seal paste, with cicada - wing
rubbings of side inscriptions. Bound in
shugacho format. Housed in a box
designed and made by Myriam S. P. de
Arteni. 7 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches. One-of-a-kind
book. Signed by the artist.

The East, with its deep-rooted effacement
of the individual, accomplishes through
allusion the resonance with classic texts,
moving to another dimension of awareness
and release, when all has been silenced.
Symbols are personalized. The carved
words explore the wavering between
urbanity and self-immersion in the norm of
quiet, the forgotten vow for a reclusive life
in an age of dislocated identity. It is the
music of a silence.



































The Thinker as Poet
1994

Twelve poems by Martin Heidegger
translated into English by A. Hofstadter.
Original calligraphy and drawings in sumi
ink on J apanese handmade paper by
Stefan Arteni. Unbound, protected by a
wrapper. Housed in a handmade box
designed by Myriam S. P. de Arteni.
Fifteen folios 16 x 22 inches. One-of-a-
kind book. Colophon signed by designer
and artist.

Man has withdrawn so far from himself
that he no longer sees himself at all.
Knowledge has progressed to the point
of cancelling itself out. Man's history
appears as data at once incomplete and
yet too abundant. The flight of the gods,
the destruction of the earth, the
standardization of man, are nothing less
than signs of this darkening. To say:
saga. Man possesses language in order
to say who he is and to give testimony.
All of man's creation testifies to his
dwelling on the earth. The task of
cultivating and caring (Colere, Cultura)
finds its avatars in the artist, the poet and
the thinker. They are the sayers who
more daringly say.
























Casual Writings By A Window
1995

Original calligraphy and seal engravings by Stefan Arteni.
Seals impressed by hand through the application of red
seal-paste. Bound in accordion format. Housed in a
handmade box designed by Myriam S. P. de Arteni. 11 x 16
inches. One-of-a-kind book. Signed by the artist.

The basis for this meditation on art and life is the way of the
pilgrim drifting from place to place, searching for a way to
apprehend truth directly. The text uses mainly five and
seven characters for each line.

Casual Writings by a Window is a poem which Arteni composed by combining inscriptions from ancient Chinese paintings
and poems. These he either carved in stone and printed, or wrote with a bamboo stick. For the seals, Arteni has adopted an
ancient style of Chinese writing invented at least as early as 600 B.C. and whose various forms had become standardized
by 200 B.C. Now, it is
used only for seals and is called seal-script. Here, Arteni plays with the traditional seal-script forms, sometimes intentionally
distorting them to the point of illegibility, thereby transforming them into designs of almost pure form. For the text, he has
used a semi-cursive style of Chinese character. However, instead of employing a brush, the traditional means of forming
these characters, he has used a bamboo stick.

Arteni's calligraphic style incorporates elements from J apanese and Chinese traditions, as well as his own interpretations of
them. The mingling of the two styles, he feels, is natural, since in earlier centuries, the characters of both languages were
essentially identical, though a Chinese and a J apanese would pronounce them differently. (Isaac Gewirtz)


































Ai Tai I's Carvings
1995

Seal engravings by Stefan Arteni
impressed by hand through the
application of vermillon seal-
paste. Bound in accordion
format. Housed in a handmade
wrapper designed by Myriam S.
P. de Arteni. 6 5/8 x 10 inches.
One-of-a-kind book. Signed by
the artist.

This album of seal-impressions
(yinpu) contains the complete
collection of engraved stone
seals carved by Arteni to date.
"Ai Tai I" is Arteni's Chinese
name.

































Wandering

a runaway son
will never come
into his own

my treasure
is the cloud on the peak
the moon over the
valley

traveling east or west
light and free
on the one road

I dont know whether
Im on the way
or at home

Wandering
1995

Poem by Muso Soseki translated into English by W. S. Merwin and
Soiku Shigematsu. Sumi ink monotypes by Stefan Arteni. Two letterpress pages
printed by Myriam S. P. de Arteni. Bound in accordion format. Housed in a
handmade box designed by Myriam S. P. de Arteni. 9 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches.
One-of-a-kind book. Signed by the artist.

This album of sumi monotypes, based on variations on the characters for pilgrim
(unsui: clouds and water), is inspired by Muso Soseki's poem about the wandering
seeker. They are assemblages of pictures having an improvisation character,
heightening the awareness of emptiness by compositional cohesiveness and
varying textures.

































Cantique de Saint Jean
1996

Poem by Stephane Mallarme. Original calligraphy and
monotypes interspersed within text by Stefan Arteni. Paper hand
made in China, Mexico, and the Philippines. Designed and
bound by Myriam S. P. de Arteni. Box made by
Myriam S. P. de Arteni. Edition of 2. 12 1/2 x 15 1/2 inch (31.7 x
39.2 cm.) Signed by designer and painter


The echo of an inexpressible can be heard in CANTIQUE DE
SAINT J EAN, the last part of Mallarme's Herodiade. He sings of
the nearness of the power of the word. The word appears as the
mysterious wonder. It rings out in silence

In a dark and deprived time the poet utters the holy: a language
that responds to and recalls the unspoken. Images are bidden to
come to this place of meeting. Rhythm, that what forms the
movement of dance and song and poem, fittingly reemerges in
the essential schemata of Byzantine painting tradition.





































Democratie
1996

Poem by Arthur Rimbaud. Sanguine etching
ink calligraphy and monotypes by Stefan
Arteni. Bound in a flutter format. Housed in a
handmade box designed by Myriam S. P. de
Arteni. 16 x 12 1/2 inch. One of a kind.
Signed by the artist.

A historical crisis produces an age of
uniformity. It happens that the superficial
framework of our civilization finds the
mass-man possessed of no truth of his own.

An intense and fast dream, this fragment
from the "Illuminations" discloses images in
a pure state.



































Fool of a Cat
1997

Haiku by Issa, translated into English
by Lewis Mackenzie. Original linoleum
cuts by Stefan Arteni. Design,
mounting and handmade drop-spine
box by Myriam S. P. de Arteni. 7 1/2x
12x 1/2 inches (accordion book).
7 1/2x 54 1/2 inches (hanging scroll)
Edition of 9.

Contrary to common belief, each cat
has its own personality, thrives for
purrfection and has a strong sense or
purrpaws. There were many important
cats in history and culture: Purricles of
Athens; Cato the Roman; Leopardo
da Vinci, artist; Will Shakespurr,
writer; etc.

































Coda
1997

Poem by Daniel Simko. Sumi ink monotypes and calligraphy by
Stefan Arteni. Bound in accordion format. Housed in a handmade
box designed by Myriam S. P. de Arteni. 9 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches.
One-of-a-kind book. Signed by the poet and by the artist.

With few words, the poet achieves a quiet lucidity, a minimalist
presentation that is paradoxically resonant with levels of
interpretation. Zao Wou Ki said: "There is in the word 'nature' a
notion of a cosmic world, a melange, a mixing of space and
silence." In its elegant simplicity, the imagery functions on both the
descriptive and the symbolic levels at once.

The historical knowledge of mental and physical dislocation and
thus the mutation of heritage through a strategic appropriation of
the signs and techniques of Oriental calligraphy, enables the
painter to freely improvise a movement born of meditation.


Coda

August deep,
a thin line of grief swarms
around the wild cherry.

The music coming on again.














River Bank
1997

Poem by Tu Fu, translated into English by Rewi Alley. Sumi ink
monotypes and calligraphy by Stefan Arteni. Bound in accordion
format. Housed in a handmade box designed by Myriam S. P. de
Arteni. 9 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches.One-of-a-kind book. Signed by the artist.

Tu Fu, the wandering scholar-artist, forced into hermit-like existence,
turned to poetry as a form of psychic self-defense, in a movement from
one time of pain into another. Through symbiosis of calligraphic
abstraction and painting, Arteni's monotypes suggest ceaselessly
reinvented, renewed spaces, perpetually vibrating. The dispersal or
dark masses, blacks and greys, amplify the transparencies and make
the whiteness of the paper resound more.



River Bank

Here sits a man by
The river bank, who thinks
To return home; he is an
Ordinary scholar, drifting
Like a piece of cloud above;
At night, I am lonely
As the moon, but at sunset
I am still of good heart;
In these autumn winds
My illness gets better;
In past times, they were kind
To old horses, not sending
Them off on tiring journeys
After they had served so long.































The Return of Ulysses
2007

This artists book has been digitally created by Stefan
Arteni. It is signed with the artists seal. Radu Gyrs poem
has been translated into English by Stefan Arteni.
Printed on Somerset enhanced velvet 225.
[37] leaves. 8.5 x 11 (21.6 x 27.9 cm).
Drop-spine box was made by Myriam S. P. de Arteni.









































Scrieri
2008

Three short stories by Mihai Rogobete.
Design and illustrations have been
digitally created by Stefan Arteni.































Mioritic Poems
2013

Three poems by Lucian Blaga.
This artists book was designed
by
Myriam S. P. de Arteni who also
created the special box housing
it. It was printed digitally by Ray
Henders at RX RAYOGRAPHIX
printing lab on Hahnemuhle
Photo Rag 308 gms 100%
cotton white. 33 x 25.5 cms
Lucian Blagas poems were
translated into English by Stefan
Arteni. The images reproduce
digital compositions created by
Stefan Arteni.
The edition consists of 12
copies. All are signed by both
designer and artist.

Lucian Blaga (1895 1961)
was a Romanian philosopher,
poet, and playwright.















Rebeldia
2013

Poem by Rafael Posada Franco.
Myriam Snchez-Posada de Arteni
conceived and designed this artists
book as a dialogue between poet and
painter.
She constructed the binding of the book
in J apanese style and created the
special box housing it.
The book was printed digitally by Ray
Henders at RX RAYOGRAPHIX printing
lab on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310
gms 100% cotton mould-made white.
25.5 x 37 cms
Rafael Posada Francos poem was
translated into English by Stefan Arteni.
Covers and illustrations reproduce digital
compositions created by Stefan Arteni.
The edition consists of 12 copies
signed by designer and painter


Rafael Posada Franco (1921 -1959)
was a Colombian poet.

















ALBUMS














































Collages I
Undated

Accordion folding format, matted. Cut-outs
from journals pasted with methyl-cellulose.
[7] leaves; 8 x 8.5". Edition size: 1.
A suite of 6 of Stefan Artenis collages on
board .


Collages II
Undated

Accordion folding format, matted. Cut-outs from
journals pasted with methyl-cellulose. [6] leaves;
8.5 x 8". Edition size: 1.
A suite of 7 of Stefan Artenis collages on board.































Apocalypse
1996

Portfolio format. Brush and sumi ink, gouache, and
watercolor on Chinese handmade paper. [27] leaves;
19 x 15". Edition size: 1.

This is a portfolio of Stefan Artenis studies on Chinese
handmade paper for the clay monotype Apocalypse suite.
The studies and the suite are composed of images
described in the Book of Revelation. (Isaac Gewirtz)
































Apocalypse
1996

Portfolio of 19 clay monotypes on synthetic paper, including 1
colophon leaf and 1 title leaf. [19] leaves; 21 x 17". Edition size:
2 copies. Copy: no. 1.

Arteni based the iconography of this work on the imagery in
the Book of Revelation as depicted in the Kremlin Master's
Apocalypse icon (ca. 1500) in the Dormition Cathedral in
Moscow's Kremlin. The painting is the first known Orthodox
Apocalypse, though some scholars believe that a slightly
earlier example, no longer extant, may have existed. (Isaac
Gewirtz)

































Vices And Virtues
1992

Coptic binding format. Brush and sumi ink
drawings by Stefan Arteni on J apanese
handmade paper. [18] leaves; 21 x 16".
Edition size: 1.
































Ink
Undated

Accordion folding format. 16 brush and sumi
ink monotypes by Stefan Arteni on J apanese
handmade paper. [18] leaves; 21 x 16".
Edition size: 10.

The album ends with a haiku by Stefan
Arteni. Arteni has translated his haiku to
read, Daybreak Bearing up under its solitude
To make ink . (Isaac Gewirtz)

































No-thing-ness
Undated

Portfolio of 9 sumi ink monotypes
by Stefan Arteni on J apanese
handmade paper. [9] leaves;
29.5 x 21". Edition size: 1

Arteni comments on this work:
Artists succeed in circumventing
fate. Momentarily tasting
transcendence, they are freed
from human individuality. Artistic
creation suspends Time. No, no-
thing-ness, emptiness. (Isaac
Gewirtz)































The Prayer of Jesus I
1992

Accordion folding format; 9 brush and sumi
slate-blue ink, abstract monotypes, plus 1
colophon leaf and 1 title leaf by Stefan
Arteni; J apanese handmade paper. [11]
leaves; 21 x 16". Edition size: 1
































The Prayer of Jesus II
1992

Accordion folding format; 9 collages and sumi ink
paintings on J apanese handmade paper, plus 1
title leaf and 1 colophon leaf by Stefan Arteni.
[11] leaves; 21 x 16". Edition size: 1

Arteni has written in Greek with a brush directly
on the collages, each of which is accompanied by
one of his signature seals. (Isaac Gewirtz)
.

The Prayer Of Jesus IV
1992

Accordion folding format. 9 brush and sumi ink drawings on
J apanese handmade paper, plus 1 title leaf and 1 colophon leaf by
Stefan Arteni. [11] leaves; 21 x 16". Edition size: 1.
































Works in Progress

What speaks is, in its solitude,
in its fragile vibration, in its nothingness,
the word itself - not the meaning of the word,
but its enigmatic and precarious being.
Stephane Mallarme

The glory of the book as a work of art lies in the future, once the electronic media and the computer have taken from it the baser
burdens it must still bear. Literature is a kind of self-contained verbal ceremony (Mallarme).

The festive state as a game is a rite - a rite de passage - to be participated in only by initiates, participating sacrificially: com-
memoration (Coomaraswamy).


Wellspring of Golden Dust (Wang Wei and Pei Di)

Tang Dynasty poet, painter, and musician Wang Wei produces through
his poetic technique an artifact whose contemplation can itself be an
ecstatic Zen experience. Sudden knowledge, however, leads to grief,
measured by movement from one time of pain into another.
Contextualization occurs through allusion to Buddhist, Taoist or poetic
texts.

Wang Wei transfers to his own spiritual experience the legendary
trip of the Queen Mother of the West towards the jade Emperor.
He explores the landscape of Taoist inner alchemy where the cultivation
of stillness results in activeless activity. Word and symbolic image are
objectified in Pei Di's response quatrain. Pictographs, poems, and
etchings mix lights and darkness: a shared vision of a book which unfolds
to reveal a rich textural world, probing of line, and interrogation of
language.

































Mythology / From the Fragments (Daniel Simko)

We feel our real life to be a deformation - sometimes greater,
sometimes less - of our possible life. We are shipwrecked in our
own existence. Our times form our destiny. The present, in which
the past is summarized, is that portion of fate which intervenes in
life. We remember the past because we are awaiting the future.
But today, because of historical ignorance, man feels himself to
be only a crippled fragment: while history moves, the stillwaters
are made swift.

Making is in greek, poiesis. Cultivating and caring - colere,
cultura - are a kind of building. To be a poet in a destitute time
means to attend to the traces of history that are often
inconspicuous, like the owl, the bird with ever-dazzled eyes,
watches the darkness.
































Mama Owl and Her Owlets,
Spotty and Fuzzy


I am mama Owl; I come of
a large familywith many
traditions and tales.

Since I was born, trees have been part
of my life

A work in progress. "Mama Owl and her
Owlets" is our new book. The tale was
written by Myriam S.P. de Arteni who
also designed the book. The illustrations
will be created by Stefan Arteni.








Light
(a fragment from Milton's
Paradise Lost, Book 3)


HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-
born!

Or of the Eternal coeternal beam

May I express thee unblamed? since God is
light,

And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity-dwelt then in thee