Czech printmakers are the largest national group in my ex libris collection. With over 30 artists in my listings, I've selected two book plates this week with Christ portraits from two women artists of two different generations working in two different styles. Born in 1912, Ludmila Jirincova is known as "The First Lady of Czech Graphic Art," creating over 350 illustrations for books and some 480 book plates. The exquisite detail of Jirincova's ex libris etching of a weeping Jesus in a bejeweled cross is in marked contrast to her expressionistic serigraph of a thorn-crowned Christ already in the East European Ex Libris page gallery. Born in 1957, Renata Simlikova offers us a swooning Man of Sorrows in the style of Baroque artists like Guido Reni. The hyperrealistic details of the mixed media portrait link this to the 1980s revival in air brush art. (John Kohan)