Kurt Vonnegut’s darkly comic novel of survival and sanity in times of desperation resonates to this day. Drawing from his experience surviving the fire-bombing of Dresden at the end of World War II, Vonnegut transforms trauma into a time-hopping work of imagination. The novel begins when Billy Pilgrim becomes “unstuck in time” and launches into fourth dimensional time travel, journeying from the Battle of the Bulge to the planet of Tralfamadore. Defying genre, Vonnegut’s masterpiece encompassed science fiction, satire, and the classic war novel as the book soared to its singular perch in the heights of American letters.

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Arion Press is proud to collaborate with acclaimed artist Vincent Valdez to present Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Valdez has created 20 original pen-and-ink drawings—many enlivened with ink washes—to bring Vonnegut’s anti-war classic roaring to contemporary relevance. Two sweeping depictions of the destruction of Dresden in 1760 and 1945 appear on the front and rear end sheets of the Arion edition. The full suite of drawings reflects Billy Pilgrim’s fractured psychological landscape as well as the external collective psychosis of a world engaged in perpetual warfare. Altogether, the body of work coalesces into what Valdez calls a “visual testimony of transformation, hope, love, and survival in 21st-century America.”

Valdez worked at Arion Press for 6 weeks onsite in 2023 creating drawings for the book as the inaugural King Artist in Residence. This period of creative incubation nurtured a singular collaboration with the Arion bookmaking team around the design and format of the final presentation. The result is a remarkable edition whose unique binding evokes a military dossier with motifs derived from wartime ephemera in Valdez’s own family archive.

Everything Was Beautiful, etching on 300 gsm textured white Somerset. 10-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches, on paper 13-1/2 x 11 inches. 50 prints are available for sale: 40 accompany the Deluxe edition and 10 are offered individually.  All prints are numbered and signed by the artist.

Production Details

• Limited to 250 copies for sale.

• Quarto, 9-1/4 x 7 inches, 200 pages with 24 unnumbered pages for drawings with washes and color, plus 2 imprinted translucent overlays. There are an additional 8 drawings rendered in black only.

• 20 drawings in total, including the artist’s interpretations of Vonnegut’s 3 original sketches.

• Printed by letterpress from metal types cast onsite.

• Military dossier binding motif in a modified “dos rapporté” style, with paper over boards and titling imprinted on the front cover in red and black inks.

• Signed by the artist.

• Arion Press publication #126, 2023.

The Fine Press Edition

• Cloth spines.

• Presented in custom die-cut cardstock envelopes with trompe-l’oeil design and red linen string-and-button ties.

• Limited to 210 copies for sale.

The Deluxe Edition

• Leather spines.

• Housed in sculptural and stenciled aluminum slipcases in a military surplus canister style.

• Accompanied by Everything Was Beautiful etching, signed.

• Limited to 40 copies for sale.