Blue Moon Press Limited Edition Letterpress Books

A’tugwaqan: Three Mik’maq Indian Stories—2009
by Ruth Holmes Whitehead

This letterpress book is a major work developing from the Nova Scotia series, with 14 full-page color reduction woodcuts that took four years to produce. It publishes legends from the Mi’kmaq People (the indigenous native tribe of Nova Scotia), first collected by Ruth Holmes Whitehead, ethnologist at the Nova Scotia Museum of History, Halifax. The text is a creation story and two other legends of the people, animals and shape-shifting world of the Mi’kmaq. “A’tugwaqan” means a tale or story in their language. The covers are woodcut-printed Mohawk Superfine paper over boards with a red cloth spine, with woodcut images on the end sheets. The 21 pages are printed on Somerset Book paper with camel colored Hahnemuhle Ingres fly and end sheets. The horizontal book measures 9x11" and it is issued in an edition of 100 copies. 2009