Eden is a limited edition book of 90 collages by David Coggins. The artist finds beauty and solace in the Edenesque gardens and woods of the longtime family country home. A compliment to The Nostalgic Heart, his award-winning travel book about cities, Eden is about connection to place and nature, the camaraderie of family and friends, and the solitude of the studio. Cobalt Press 2008. 110 pages. $40.Eden Summer Collages and The Nostalgic Heart by David Coggins are available from Cobalt Press and at many bookstores, shops, and museums in the U.S. and Paris. They are also available at www.amazon.com.
"Eden is a poetic look at the passage of time, sometimes bright, sometimes melancholy. It is beautiful, even seductive, from its birch bark endpapers to the visually compelling collages and snippets of often provocative words.... A hardbound, slender tome with a robin's egg blue cover backgrounding an image of a languid water lily, the book confirms Thoreau's statement, "How much virtue there is in simply seeing."
Mason Riddle, "An Eden of One's Own," mnartists.org
"David Coggins's stunning collages catch and hold a season. These evocative images remind us that the substance of memory is itself fleeting, yet all around us wherever we look. And in looking with care, as Coggins has in this splendid book, he helps us to begin to see."
William Souder, author of Under a Wild Sky
"A slim book of summer days, Eden is a collection of visual poems by Minneapolis artist, David Coggins, whose subject is nature seen through a sultry haze of sentiment and sensibility. Each page reproduces a collage of dried things -- leaves, blossoms, grasses -- artfully arranged with bits of Oriental paper, antique engravings, postcards, and other ephemera. Haiku-like notes (apparently recorded on an old typewriter bereft of capital letters) recall date, place, mood. It's a sweet book."