I am stymied in my 200 artist book man­u­fac­ture. The first 35 went quickly into pro­duc­tion and I uti­lized E6000 glue to cre­ate the spine. E6000 will secure a live chicken to the bumper of a Volvo. But now the book cov­ers will be com­prised of match­book cov­ers and I need small, ever so tiny, sta­ples to secure the spines. Sta­pled Spines. Sounds like a punk rock group, doesn’t it? Or like my per­sonal spine, lumbar-​fused with pedi­cle screws. For me, find­ing the right tool for the job requires more than sim­ply secur­ing the appro­pri­ate mechan­i­cal device. Severe degen­er­a­tive arthri­tis of the osteo vari­ety, lim­its my mobil­ity, espe­cially in the hands. I have no grip, no thumb strength and, to make mat­ters worse, I can’t push down on any­thing — torn rota­tor cuffs.

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