Description

The Driftwood Beam

A Jones Island Elegy

There is a beam above the altar of St. Stanislaus, carved from driftwood and donated by the fishermen of Jones Island.

From that image, The Driftwood Beam begins.

This 56-page artist book is a poetic, imagined retelling of the lives of the Kashubian fishermen of Jones Island, a once-distinct fishing community in Milwaukee Harbor. It follows one fictionalized life through childhood on the island, love and marriage, the First World War, the return home, and the slow unraveling of the community that followed.

It is a story about home and what happens when home disappears.

Across three acts, the book moves between intimate memories and forces far beyond the lives of its characters: the sea, war, industrialization, displacement, changing language, environmental destruction, and the gradual loss of a way of life.

The narrator remembers weathered boats and chipped paint, bread in the oven, salted fish, church bells, tavern dances, graphite drawings, family, and the lake. He carries those memories through the trenches of France and back to an island that no longer looks the same.

At its heart is the question of identity: What remains of a people when the place, language, work, and traditions that shaped them are taken away?

The book is deeply personal to the author. Benjamin Bardot is a descendant of the Jones Island fishermen through his maternal family, the Konkels, one of the Kashubian families of the island.

The Driftwood Beam is not presented as historical fact. It is an imagined elegy rooted in the history and cultural memory of Jones Island. The historical note at the end provides context for the real community, its Kashubian origins, and its eventual displacement.

The Object

This is a handmade artist book produced individually by the author.

• 56 pages
• Kraft paper cover
• Vellum insert
• Hand printed
• Folded into signatures
• Hand-pierced and sewn
• Saddle-stitched construction
• Limited edition of 52 copies
• Each copy signed and individually numbered
• Produced in Tucson, Arizona, 2026
• Published under the imprint Saffron & Silt Press

Each copy is assembled by hand, so minor variations between individual books are inherent to the work.

Publication

The Driftwood Beam
A Jones Island Elegy

Written by Benjamin Bardot
First handmade edition
Tucson, Arizona, 2026
Saffron & Silt Press
Limited edition of 52

All poems and illustrations © 2026 Benjamin Bardot.

Each copy is numbered ___ / 52 and signed by the author.

This is a small edition made by hand from beginning to end. Once the fifty-two copies are gone, this edition will be complete.