NEAR TO PERFECTION
A BOOK OF WOOD ENGRAVINGS. By a Mervyn Taylor. Caxton Press, Christchurch. | HIS must be the most beautiful book | so far produced in New Zealand. The engravings are in fact so flawless, and | the printing so near perfection, that the reviewer is reduced to complaining of the fact that the paper has been used too economically. It is not the fault of the artist nor in present world condi--tions of the printer, but the complaining habit dies hard in reviewers, and there’ is nothing else to criticise. It is one of those rare cases in book-production in which the artist has compelled the printer to do his best and the printer’s response would have exposed the smallest weakness in the artist. But there are no weaknesses; certainly no technical ones. If Mervyn Taylor ever gets nearer to perfection than he is now it will be almost indecent. Meanwhile it would be indecent to ask-no other question will be asked by anybody — why such uncannily competent work leaves the admirer less excited than he ought to be. Is it, as Browning suggested, that the nearer we approach perfection the farther we pass from life?
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19460830.2.38.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 375, 30 August 1946, Page 23
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196NEAR TO PERFECTION New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 375, 30 August 1946, Page 23
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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