Pick a card -- any card . . .

. . . for any card that you pick comes loaded with an immense visual heritage from millennia of deep play.

Many book artists and printers have found inspiration from the symbols and structure of cards, and many have found a livelihood as well (or at least a way to pay for expensive new printing equipment) from often-lucrative card manufacture -- since before and probably including Gutenberg.

And since the time of the early printers, card design has influenced communications and information science by its structure and honed-down visual language. Where do you think such ancillary book arts evolutes such as the library card catalog came from originally?

Worn-out playing cards. Business cards and calling cards? The same. Of course, book artists have taken the design and production of card decks quite a few steps beyond the commercial versions. With so much to choose from, this exhibition focuses on hand-crafted work, ingeniously structured, from west coast book artists. Here, you'll find the pre-publication originals of Susie Rashkis' collaged Tarot deck, the broadside-sized letterpress deck coordinated by Catherine Michaelis' May Day Press, or Anna Wolf's wall-hanging sculptures.

Since we think that you'll be stimulated, as we have, by the always-evolving deck structure, we'll also have an "inspiration corner" where you can try out your ideas for a card deck on the spot. Or take a special workshop created just for this exhibition, Chaos Cards, by popular Center instructor Dayle Doroshow, polymer clay artist.

Kathleen Burch, co-founder of the San Francisco Center for the Book, is internationally-known as a playing card historian and creator of a limited-edition card game and monograph called "Indicia . . . a romance" published by Burning Books. She learned to play cards before she could read.

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