"Death Letter"

   

 

Within each copy of Carrier Pigeon Volume II issue no. 4 is is a four-color letterpress "Death Letter," with six hand stamps, by Phil Sanders.


Phil Sanders
Death Letter
Four-color letterpress with 6 hand stamps, 2012
letter size—11 x 8.5 inches
envelope size—4.25 x 9.5 inches
edition size—1,000

Printed by Phil Sanders, stamping by Sara Sanders and Phil Sanders, printed at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.


Death Letter is a play on the themes of the absurdity in war, politics, and personal relations in Joseph Heller's Catch 22. It contains a blacked-out section of the book from the chapter on the soldier in white. The intention was to create a new way of looking at the cynical death of a soldier. It was an attempt to read a salute to the soldier in white, between the lines. The blacking out is a nod to the central character's role as a screener, or reviewer, of soldier's letters home in the book. The title, Death Letter, and the design of the envelope reference letters mailed in the Victorian era to mark the passing of relatives. Often these letters featured a black band, or edges, on the envelope and stationary and were mailed faster for a lower rate.