Forty-five original calligraphy designs on Strathmore paper. The collection completely represents the process of hand-lettering as an enterprise in book-making: together the pages make up the contents of Shepherd’s Song of Songs: The Bible’s Great Love Poems, published by Mount Tabor Books in 2021. The precise line-work, careful coloration, and mise-en-page of each sheet show how hand-lettering can still breathe fresh life into scripture from centuries ago. These originals were then reduced and given slight digital tweaks to transform them into a modern book without losing any of their detail, color intensity, or emotional impact. Especially advantageous to the collection is Shepherd’s thorough documentation of her thinking about each piece, featured in short essays that accompany the scripture. All at once, Shepherd explains her negotiation between art history, religiosity, and meaning, and the unique ability of calligraphy to triangulate and interpret all three. Her preferred artistic style is to use the tools of calligraphy to enhance meaning by manipulating the letters themselves, through spacing, line density, ink color, and font choice rather than adding ornament or illustration. As a whole, then, the collection of originals offers a rare glimpse of hand-lettering as a continuous tradition, one particularly tied to the chronology of the Bible and other texts of the Abrahamic religions. Though Shepherd’s text in English combines translations chosen from several centuries, her range of visual styles evokes the aesthetics of Hebrew and Latin as they have appeared in pre-print manuscripts, incunabula, and modern fine press books. Margaret Shepherd has published twenty books, appeared in over a dozen exhibitions chiefly in the New England area, and has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, Channel 5 Chronicle, and NPR at WGBH Radio. Her 55-year freelance career has ranged from lettering thousands of MIT diplomas and restoring ceiling inscriptions in classical Greek at Boston College, to creating honorary degrees for Lesley College and scrolls of retirement for law firms. She designed a signature logo for chef Jacques Pepin’s line of cookware and consulted on the design of a calligraphy preservation spray. Her teaching brought her to Vietnam, Boston University, Sarah Lawrence College, the Rhode Island School of Design, the MIT Sloan School, and the Boston Arts Academy. Her work is collected in the Boston Public Library Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, and in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. An impressive and quite complete overview of calligraphy as a medium for serious art. Designs individually framed. Accompanied by a custom box and a copy of the book. All materials fine, suitable for display and/or archived storage. Sheets measure 17 by 14 in.; 43x36 cm