Tyler, Richard Oviet. THE ADVENTURES OF TOM GRAY, BOOK 1. Uranian Press, New York, 1959. Portfolio of paper-covered pictorial boards with string ties containing 21 loose sheets with hand-cut blocks of text and illustrattions by Ronald Short, a nine-year old apprentice at the Uranian Press. Number 1 of a stated edition of 10, a presentation to the artist and graphic designed Marcus Ratliff (1935-2022), signed and numbered "1/10" by Short, and inscreibed "(to Mr. Ratliff)." This item is listed in the 1960 Catalogue of works of the Uranian Press.There is evidence of some waterstaining to the back board of the portfolio and to the lower right corners of some of the sheets, but the overall condition is Very Good notwithstanding. Rare; OCLC locates no copies, nor are there any copies for sale in any of the online venues.Richard Oviet Tyler, American 1926-1983, served in WWII, and studied at The Art Institute of Chicago. He established the Uranian Press in NYC on the Lower East Side. There he created and printed art books, pamphlets and broadsides, which he sold from a pushcart near Judson Church in the West Village. In 1974 he and his wife Dorothea Baer established the Uranian Phalanstery, a commune based on the ideas of the French philosopher Charles Fourier. The Philanstery served as a space in which artists could live, work, and create closely together. The Tylers were associated with Claes Oldenberg, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Monroe Wheeler, and other in the course of their activities with the Philanstery.Marcus Ratliff (1935-2022) moved from Cincinatti to NYC in 1956 to attend Cooper Union. He was a founding member of the Judson Gallery at Judson Church in Greenwich Village, and thus associated with Tyler, the Uranian Press and the Philanstery. He was friends with Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselman, Red Grooms, and other leading artists of the period. As a graphics designer he maintained a studio which produced publications for art galleries. In his later years he lived in Vermont, where he exhibited at the Big Town Gallery in Rochester.
