“Make-ready” is a general term that describes the process of preparing a press for printing. It is also used to define the waste paper stock that passes through the press before color, registration, and ink density are adjusted and approved by the press operators. In order to conserve paper, printed sheets of make-ready from earlier runs are often fed into the press until the next form’s settings are correct, resulting in the arbitrary superimposition of disparate images on these sheets.

On the press run for Esopus 2 at Westcan Printing Group in Winnipeg, Canada, I noticed these sheets, and—to the bemusement of the press operators—started collecting them before they could be tossed into the recycling bin. I found these arbritary impositions to be arresting—accidental artworks in their own right—and asked the printer to fold down several hundred of these make-ready sheets to be bound into this limited-edition booklet, which we offered as a gift to donors to the Esopus Foundation during our 2004 fundraising drive.