Tom Trusky

Learned the very sad news that Tom Trusky has died.  There is more news about it here at the Idaho Statesman’s website. I never met Trusky, but I have read most of his work on the artist James Castle and corresponded with him recently about creating an archive of his extensive Castle material.  In our last exchange he wrote:

Finally, I’m grinning to myself when I think of some of the Castle items you’ve not seen–nor anyone else, except for the Castle dealer and some family members. I predict you’ll be delighted with some of the inventive items James “toyed” with, what you have so delightfully termed “deviant book forms.”

It would have been a privilege to have collaborated or assisted him on his project and to have shared in his unparalleled knowledge of and seemingly unending enthusiasm for Castle’s art.

Castle’s work has had a profound effect on me.  And I would know nothing of Castle if it was not for the work of Trusky.  I now find myself wishing that I could have told him this, and I wish I could have indicated how much I respected and appreaciated him for writing of James Castle, the artist with vision, dignity, and genius, and not the usual derogatory scripted cliche of the “outsider” artist.

There is a podcast with Trusky at the Book Artists and Poets blog here. This is a tremendous loss to both Castle scholarship and the book arts community.

Images Sources: Castle image from Adam Baumgold Gallery (via (YOU)ENOCH). The book cover is James Castle: His Life & Art (2nd edition) by Tom Trusky, published by Boise State University. For more Castle images see the Philadelphia Museum of Art, (YOU)ENOCH, and elsewhere.