Timothy Comeau • Vita Nova (2000)

Vita Nova is the product of creative writing I began in the summer of 1999, and by the end of that year I was curating it to assemble a narrative divided into four parts. A guiding theme was a summation of my experience growing up in Nova Scotia ("vita nova scotia") but it also repurposed the title of a work by Dante Alighieri, whose work I then understood as a summation of the 14th Century zeitgeist. I too wanted to capture the spirit of the age and record what it was like to grow up in the late 20th Century.

The book was originally produced in 2000 as a handmade artist book, printed on 4x6" index cards with an HP laserjet printer. It was distributed as a gift through the years 2000 to 2003 as a numbered edition. The handmade version had six different cover designs, and each had an assigned ISBN. I kept a log (reproduced below) to record who they were given to.

In 2009–2010 I created a print-on-demand copy via Lulu.com. In 2021 I revised it to produce a hard cover version more in line with the orginals.

Exhbition History

A copy of Vita Nova was exhibited twice:
  • Overtime @ Workplace
  • Music for Lawyers
The first was the Overtime @ Workplace show in May 2001, and the second was at my solo show in March 2003 at the Zsa Zsa Gallery ("Music for Lawyers").

Review

Listed as "Zine of the Month" in May 2002 Broken Pencil magazine nº19.

Vita Nova Log

To Date Printed Cover Endpaper Illustrations Count Nº Notes Given Date Given
Janna Popoff     Beckett with credits Fully Illustrated   xb-2      
Eva Brannen   Tuscany Beckett with credits MT   8b      
Ben Skinner   Citadel Hill Beckett with credits MT   13b      
Andy McLean   Glowing Green Beckett with credits MT   25b      
Andrew McLaren   Glowing Green Beckett with credits MT   26b      
Artist Proof July 2000 None N/A Fully Illustrated 1 I   N/A July 2000
Artist Proof July 2000 None N/A Fully Illustrated 2 II   N/A July 2000
Artist Proof August 2000 Poppy Candles Fully Illustrated 3 III   N/A July 2000
Artist Proof 25 October 2000 Nudity Collage Beckett with credits Mostly Text (MT) 4 5a   N/A N/A
Edward Deary August 2000 Poppy Candles Fully Illustrated 5 1-1   Yes Mailed on 30 August 2000
Basil Wood August 2000 Glowing Green Beckett MT 6 2   Yes Mailed on 30 August 2000
Nick Eley September 2000 Yellow Bridge Beckett with credits MT 7 3   Yes Delivered on 3 October 2000
VITA NOVA REVISED 7.1 October 2000
Sara Spike 25 October 2000 Tuscany Beckett with credits MT 8 4a   Yes Delivered on 23 April 2001
VITA NOVA REVISED 8.1 April 2001
Andrew Kear 7 May 2001 Tuscany Beckett with credits MT 9 6b   Yes Delievered on 10 May 2001
Kate Monro 14 May 2001 Glowing Green Beckett with credits MT 10 7b   Yes Given on 25 May 2001
Destroyed 22 May 2001   Beckett with credits MT 10.5        
Andrea Lalonde 11 June 2001 Tuscany Beckett with credits MT 11 9b 2001-07-12 Yes 12 July 2001 (Trip/Halifax)
Gretchen Skye 12 June 2001 Yellow Bridge Beckett with credits MT 12 10b   Yes 19 July 2001 (Trip/Halifax)
Jessica Brannen 19 June 2001 Tuscany Beckett with credits MT 13 11b   Yes 9 July 2001 (Trip/Halifax)
Chris Lloyd 19 June 2001 Ajax One Beckett with credits MT 14 12b   Yes 9 July 2001 (Trip/Halifax)
Cynara Mori 5 July 2001 Yellow Bridge Beckett with credits MT 15 19b   Yes 6 July 2001
Natalie de Vito 3 August 2001 Glowing Green Beckett with credits MT 16 15b   Yes 29 August 2001
Sarah Kilpack 6 August 2001 Citadel Hill Beckett with credits MT 17 27b   Yes 17 August 2001
Craig Powers 13 August 2001 Yellow Bridge Beckett with credits MT 18 22b   Yes 23 August 2001
Sarah Hollenberg 13 August 2001 Glowing Green Beckett with credits MT 19 23b   Yes 23 August 2001
Thea D 15 August 2001 Tuscany Beckett with credits MT 20 16b 2001-09-11/12 Yes 13 September 2001
Sasha Havlik 6 Sept 2001 Poppy Beckett with credits MT 21 17b 2002-03-20 Yes 13 September 2001
Artist Proof 8 Sept 2001 None Beckett with credits MT 22 37b 2001-09-11 & 2003-02-18 N/A See Notes 2001-09-11
R.M. Vaughn 11 Sept 2001 Poppy Beckett with credits MT 23 14b 2001-09-11/14 Yes Mailed on 17 Sept 2001
Janice Demkiw 15 Sept 2001 Ajax One Beckett with credits MT 24 18b 2001-09-22 Yes 22 September 2001
Holly Ward 18 Sep 2001 Citadel Hill Beckett with credits MT 25 20b     due 6 June 2002
Jenny-Orenda Smith 24 Sep 2001 Poppy Beckett with credits MT 26 21b 2001-12-10 Yes Maied on 17 Oct 2001
Sandy Plotnikoff 19 Nov 2001 Citadel Hill Beckett with credits MT 27 24b   Yes 6 December 2001
Jon Sasaki 12 March 2002 Citadel Hill Beckett with credits MT 28 28b   Yes 14 March 2002
Brie Bergen 19 March 2002 Tuscany Beckett with credits MT 29 29b 2002-03-23 Yes 22 March 2002
VITA NOVA REVISED 2002-07-22 April 2001
Kathy Ruppert 22 July 2002 Ajax Beckett with credits MT 30 30b 2002-07-22a   31 July 2002
YYZ Fundraiser Prize 22 October 2002 Tuscany Beckett with credits MY 31 31b 2002-10-22
2003-05-31		   31 May 2003
Jo Cook                  
VITA NOVA REVISED WITH RESTORED FONTS & ENDPAPER LOGO 2003-03-09 April 2001
Marie Sano 10/14 Feb 2002 Tuscany Beckett with credits MT 32 32b    

For Music for Lawyers 5 March 2004
Jade Rude 18 Feb 2003 Tuscany Beckett with credits MT 33 33b   Yes 19 February 2003
Day Milman 24 March 2003 Halifax Beckett with credits MT 34 34b      
Jenifer Papararo 14 June 2003 Glowing Green Beckett with credits MT 35 35b     15 June 2003

ISBN Nº

N Collage cover, ISBN 0-9689468-3-6
Citadel Hill cover, ISBN 0-9689468-4-4
Glowing Green cover, ISBN 0-9689468-0-1
Poppy cover, ISBN 0-9689468-2-8
Yellow Bridge cover, ISBN 0-9689468-6-0
Tuscany cover, ISBN 0-9689468-1-X
Ajax One cover, ISBN 0-9689468-5-2

Notes

2001-07-12: Andréa Lalonde's is inscribed with a to/from
2001-07-19: Gretchen Skye's is inscribed with a to/from
2001-08-15: A Notes on Being only was printed on 15 August due to a printer error
2001-09-11: I discover while printing RM Vaughn's, that the picture Hannalore Reaching, has disappeared from the file. Even stranger, the fact that it has disappeared from the backup file on the zip disk as well. I thus find it on the hardrive and reinsert it. Checking the three that I have bound already, I notice that it is absent from the one I printed for Thea on Saturday (8 Sept). It was not absent from the one I printed for Sasha on Thursday. The third book that I had bound on the weekend was the one I had intended for Micheal Fernandez. I had thought about using this one to give to Thea, but I wanted to give her a Tuscany cover, and it was already ISBN'd for the Yellow Cover. Since she did not choose a cover, I am going to give her this one, and the one I had printed for her is now an artist proof, which is a piss off, but whatever, it'll find a use one day.
2001-09-12: I bind Thea's with the Tuscany cover after all. Last night I had printed a Yellow Bridge cover, only to discover that the ink was running out, and it was streaky, so I couldn't use it. So, I simply printed an ISBN sticker (which was faded due to the whole ink thing) and stuck it over the Yellow Bridge number which had been printed in the back.
2001-09-14: More problems because of the stupid disappearing picture. Rereading the book on the computer (to revisit it I guess, want to see just what I have exposed to Thea and Sasha now…) I find that the line "From an email from the month of May" in the Notes on Being Reprise section, has shifted up so that it lies under the part where Gretchen told me I was beautiful. I sort of liked this effect on the screen, but then thought, oh shit! It is present in Vaughn's … I figure this is because of the picture, I doubt it's present in Sasha's or Thea's. I corrected it nevertheless. It seems that everyone is so impressed by the quality of the binding (by that I mean, since it looks so good, rather than being actual 'quality' binding…) and the uniqueness of it to their experience so far ("you bound this yourself?!") that no one is going to care about typos and what nots. I aim for meticulousness, and yet, the whole hand bound thing means it's going to be rough around the edges inevitably. That fact is one of the nice things about the book, that it looks machine made, but it's not…
2001-09-22: I intended to give Janis her book on Friday the 21st. I expected to see her at one of the three openings. I didn't see her, but dropped it off in her board member mailbox at Mercer Union this morning on my way home. I sent her an email to tell her this.
2001-12-10: Jenny told me on Th. 6 Dec 2001, after the Mercer opening, that pages of her VN had fallen out, but that she liked that. To her, it made it more precious, and she was able to replace them in the way that she wanted.
2002-03-20: I visit Sasha at her apartment, and check out the book I gave her. I noticed one of the pages had come loose.
2002-03-22: Given to Andrew Kear, so that he could give it to Brie.
2002-07-22: Computer change-over in May resulted in loss of fonts. Had to reformat the books, chose new fonts for the design.
2002-07-22a: Kathy wanted a picture substition, the “tangled girls” doodle in place of “Hannalore Reaching”.
2002-10-22: This is first fully revised book. Kathy's used the fonts "Back to 1982" on the title page and "snootpixel.org" somewhere in the text. This copy uses the font "intimacy" on the title page, and is set in Times New Roman, rather than Agaramond which the older versions (pre new computer) were set it.
2003-01-17: I determined that the print run of VN in total should be 40. That is, with 31 made, I only need to make 9 more and I can close the project down. Having offered it for sale earlier in the week on the website, I priced it at 50$ to discourage interest, since I don't want to be inundated with orders.
2003-02-09: I reformatted the text with the restored fonts.
2003-02-14: I modified the edition number to be 45
2003-02-18: AP 37b - I put a Glowing Green cover on it and used it as a "cover model" during my Music for Lawyers show.
2003-05-31: This book was printed with a Glowing Green ISBN but a sticker replaced it to the appropriate Tuscany cover. This book was submitted as a prize at the YYZ Fundraiser, Trixxx, on 31 May 2003