George Kuthan’s Aphrodite’s Cup is a sexually explicit wordless novel using 25 three-color linocuts; each image is in the style of ancient Greco-Roman pottery.

In a June 7, 2011 communication between Ken Martens and David Beronä: notwithstanding the thin “story” line, David said he considered this a wordless book and the only reason he didn’t include it in his survey was because it was published after 1951 (ie David’s cutoff date).

1964 Honeysuckle Press

  • artist and author: George Kuthan
  • Publisher: Honeysuckle Press, North Vancouver, BC (Kuthan’s own press)
  • Copyright holder: not indicated
  • This is the first book published by the Honeysuckle Press
  • Small square quarto 9 5/8H x 9 3/8″W [24.3 x 23.7 cm]
  • full black cloth binding
  • Spine: with title stamped in white lettering and initial “K” stamped in brown ink
  • Front Cover: features an ornamental design of a naked woman stamped in brown ink
  • unpaginated (50 pages),
  • Green and gray floral patterned endpapers.
  • Thick mylor clear DJ as issued.
  • The lino cuts are by Georges Kuthan
  • printed from original lino blocks by Ib Kristensen on Carlyle Japan paper
  • all prints in red/brown, black & white color.
  • the typeface is Perpetua (as an aside, Perpetua was designed by Eric Gill (1882-1940) who was no stranger to bawdy print images).
  • Top and bottom edges trimmed; deckle fore edges.
  • 275 copies, signed & numbered in pen. – BUT not all signed; not all numbered
Black cloth (in some light it appears to have a brown tinge.
Image is done in brown ink.
Showing spine with white lettering done in a Greek style. Presumably the “K” is for “Kuthan”
but usually the Publisher’s Press Device goes there.
In any event the “K” is in the same brown ink as the image on the front cover.
End papers
Half-title
Title page.
Publication page
First image, also used as the last.
FINIS (The End). Priapic male in pursuit of a female.
Colophon last page: Hand numbered and signed in ink.

1976 Hurtig Publishers – Posthumous Reprint

The 1964 edition was printed from the linoleum blocks. This Reprint used lithographs to reproduce the linocuts and was printed on Carlyle Japan paper.

  • introduction by William McConnell (the 1964 edition lacked an introduction).
  • Edition 1000, machine numbered
  • Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton, AB 1976.
  • Copyright by A. Coad (unclear as to Coad’s relationship to Hurtig Publishers).
  • square quarto [24 cm]
  • Natural beige cloth over boards, Buckram binding.
  • title and publisher’s device stamped in red on the spine and front cover
  • Top and bottom edges trimmed; deckle fore-edge.
  • Red end papers
  • unpaginated
  • In this edition the linoleum cuts are reproduced using lithographs on Carlyle Japan paper.
  • issued without a dust jacket
  • each image is depicted in a circular design
Red end papers.
Half-title page.
Hurtig Title page.
Hurtig publication page. Copyright by A. Coad.
Introduction – not in the 1964 edition.
First and last image are the same.
FINIS (The End). Priapic male in pursuit of a female.
Colophon: machine numbered out of 1000.

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