The Beginnings of Night Eye Books (2/4): Oculi Fine Editions

Oculi Fine Editions is a collaboration between two bibliophiles who found each other through a shared passion for finely made books. Where Tim focuses on special bindings and binding techniques, I can spend hours on typefaces and papers. To keep individual ownership of ideas and of which books to publish, we each decided to found a separate imprint. For Tim, Crooked Eye Press was a given. For me, Robin Hobb's Nighteyes was a monumental character in my appreciation of speculative fiction. While I was searching for a name that would combine my love for that character, my love for books in their entirety, and our partnership with Crooked Eye Press, my imagination eventually arrived at Night Eye Books. And so the Crooked and Night Eyes make fine books together as Oculi Fine Editions, where we strive to make art from art.

The mark of Crooked Eye Press: two eyes above the press name

The mark of Night Eye Books: a wolf howling at the moon inside a stamp-edged circle

The mark of Oculi Fine Editions: an eye above an open book between two banners

For our first project we chose a story that had been on Tim's radar for a long time: Claimed by Gertrude Barrows Bennett, writing as Francis Stevens. Neither Tim nor I had any training in the arts that go into bookmaking. We only knew what we loved from other publishers, and we deeply admired the people who can bring a vision to life as a tangible object. For the illustrations we approached an artist we had come to admire through his work on Red Dragon for Suntup Editions. Jason Mowry was kind enough to say yes to two fledgling publishers with no track record. He began in August 2023 and created five gorgeous full-page paintings and fifteen black-and-white chapter headings. For the binding, Tim is working with Gabby Cooksey, who tattoos the leather. Together they have produced some amazing results, as you can see in the prototype photographs.

Close-up of leather endbands on two Claimed binding prototypes in cream leather — Claimed — binding prototypes, tattooed leather by Gabby Cooksey

Two Claimed binding prototypes in cream leather, seen from the head, with leather endbands

Two Claimed binding prototypes with paper endbands and silver and gold top edges

A Claimed binding prototype with raised bands beside an open copy with blue marbled placeholder endpapers

A Claimed binding prototype in cream leather, its spine with five raised bands

The spines of two Claimed binding prototypes with raised bands, side by side

Tattooed leather for Claimed: a trident with banners reading Claimed and F. Stevens over wave lines

A Claimed binding prototype in cream leather with a tattooed anchor on the front board

Two Claimed binding prototypes from above, one with a gold and one with a silver top edge

Then life intervened. Extremely busy periods in our day jobs and young children meant we made no progress after Jason finished the art and Gabby created the prototypes. Their work deserves to reach its intended audience: lovers of finely made books.

Jason Mowry's pencil sketch Archangel for Claimed: a vast face with streaming hair above toppling columns

Jason Mowry's finished painting of Leilah for Claimed: a fair-haired woman in blue seated in the waves beneath a ship's red dolphin prow

Jason Mowry's frontispiece sketch for Claimed: a flooded, rocky landscape below a ruined tower under a pink sky

Alpha proof of the Claimed title page, striped with shadow from a window blind

Alpha proof of a Claimed text page, with lines printed in red and a large initial T

Alpha proof of the Claimed title page with a handwritten note and a pen

Alpha proof of chapter XII of Claimed, Sea-Gods prize, with a pencil correction

Jason Mowry's pencil sketch of Leilah for Claimed, seated in the sea beside a ship's hull

Jason Mowry's sketch of a bearded priest with raised arms for Claimed

Jason Mowry's sketch Scarlet Palace for Claimed: a domed palace washed in red, a green light at its door

Jason Mowry's pencil sketch for Claimed: a woman in the waves beneath a monstrous dolphin's head

Fast forward to 2026. During 2024 and 2025 I acquired several proof presses, a Heidelberg Windmill, enough type to set full pages without running out of lead, and a space to work in. Things are looking bright again! We went back to the drawing board and decided that Claimed will be printed by my Kraaiven Press on Hahnemühle mould-made paper, in Monotype Caslon newly cast by Parnassia Vättis. I expect the type to arrive at the workshop by the end of 2026, and then the work can finally begin to bring this weird tale of supernatural horror back to life in the edition it deserves. We can't wait to see this first book out in the world, and we're sure many more will follow.