Pointyhead Press was founded in 1996 as a way to contribute to the Wayzgoose Anthology, an annual publication of the Grimsby Wayzgoose in Grimsby, Ontario.
Since then books and peripherals in such subject areas as travel, ephemera, memoir and the curious have been published. The artist/publisher, working occasionally with a collaborator, uses found materials, painted illustrations, and photography,frequently matching them up with quotes from other texts. The quirky and often abstract approach turns ideas upside down, or experiments with the historical and the new.
Please find the published books below. Don Taylor regularly attends book art fairs in Toronto. If you would like to purchase any of our books please contact Don at: dstbook@gmail.com
A snapshot of life among the volunteers at Kibbutz Ein Hachoresh in 1973. Illustrated with photos from the period.
An appreciation of the Winter season. Quotes from Shakespeare to Ursula Leguin illustrated with paste papers by the publisher.
collaboration with Reg Beatty A fantasy rare book catalogue featuring certain found objects preserved within the bindings of books treated in the Don Taylor bindery. New edition 2014.
Talk to the Hand! a poster for all occasions.
Monoprint and paste paper illustrations for “The Scottish Play”.
A selection of favourite “loas” from the Voodoo pantheon presented in a colourful fold-out chart with a handy information pamphlet.
Inspired by Poe’s own heart-felt tribute to his young wife at her untimely death. A plea for greater appreciation for the quiet work of wrapped trees everywhere.
“A spectre is haunting the woods – the spectre of revolution. / The forest is a fertile place for insurrection. / No longer shall we be content with prey and predator! / No longer shall we believe talking wolves!”
A travel memoir featuring rude boys, a melancholic old Greek gentleman, the Battle of Salamis and too much retsina.
A box of “Library Flakes” i.e. fragments of paper from the pages of books disintegrating in the libraries of the world and extracted from sweepings from the floors of the same. Each box comes with a handy composing board and a stylus for arranging flakes on the board to easily create poetry.
The nonsense adventures of the The Jumblies as they go “to sea in a sieve.” Text of “The Jumblies” rendered in brush calligraphy. A smaller format edition of the original bookwork.
Collaboration with John Dowding Photographs taken at a Noh performance in 1978 and forgotten in a drawer until 2004. The text gives background information on the art of Noh theatre.
A codex version of a bookwork done in 1992 called Game Box – long before the popular electronic device had been invented. Game Box consisted of a series of 13 quasi-game boards in a box which came equipped with a un-numbered spin counter and a selection of “men” to use in the games. The book version comprises all the games with instructions in the “playing” of each one.
An illustrated selection of5 play synopses from the book “A Guide to Noh” by P.G. O’Neill, 1953, Hinoki Shoten Publishing.
An incident of travel set in the Irish countryside amidst mould, dogs and eccentrics in an Irish castle of surpassing dampness. The book includes 20 illustrations by Tony Bounsall, DonTaylor and Kieran O’Driscoll.
Varied and frequently bizarre quotes from numerous historical and contemporary sources on the treatment of illness and maintenance of bodily integrity.
A “supplement” to the original 1938 edition of “Hints to Travellers” as published by the Royal Geographical Society. The 16 paste paper illustrations complement quotes from the original text.
THE SPRING SALE CATALOGUE FROM PONSONBY AND CLUTTERBUCK- “DEALERS TO THE DISCERNING”. Collaboration with Reg Beatty A fantasy rare book catalogue featuring certain found objects preserved within the bindings of books treated in the Don Taylor bindery. A new edition is available in Fall 2014.
A beautifully written personal history of Joan Taylor that includes an account of growing up in London, life during the Blitz of 1940, and emigration to Canada as a war bride.
Reflections on travel from columnist Fiona Taylor, The Peeblesshire Pedaller.