Richard Wagener
Richard Wagener (born 1944) is an American wood engraver known for his prints and fine press books. His work has been collected by over one hundred and thirty public institutions. His first livre d'artiste, Zebra Noise with a Flatted Seventh, was included in Artists' Books in the Modern Era, 1870–2000 at the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Victoria Dailey has called Wagener the first California artist since Paul Landacre to achieve prominence in the art of wood engraving. Works Wagener's early engravings juxtaposed realistic elements against a field of abstract imagery, frequently incorporating letterforms. In 1990, while teaching at Kala Institute, he met Peter Rutledge Koch, fine press printer, Berkeley. California. Their collaboration resulted in the publication of Zebra Noise with a Flatted Seventh (Peter Koch, Printers, 1998). Zebra Noise included 26 wood engravings of a zoological alphabet as well as a text by Wagener that is evocative of the American West. Simon Brett, noted British engraver and writer, wrote that “No one else I know of is making such avant-garde grand opera in wood-engraved prints.” Mark Dimunation, Head of Special Collections at the Library of Congress, referred to the book as a “work of maturity