Here’s a question tuned to the theme of our upcoming conference The Black Art & Printers’ Devils at the Huntington Library. Perhaps an APHA member or friend of APHA has knowledge about this particular uppercase “M” that featured in an 1890 book of poetry privately printed at the Chiswick Press in London. Has anyone seen this spooky “M” in other publications?
Enhanced screengrab from the HathiTrust copy of Sand Key (anon., Chiswick Press, 1890).
Josef Beery demonstrating the common press at Rare Book School. (Amanda Nelsen)
Amanda Nelsen & Josef Beery: “When the Printer is a Press: Teaching with the Common Press” ¶ Todd Samuleson: “Manageable Engine:” The Common Press as a Focus for Book History Pedagogy”
In a refreshing change to academic protocol, the presenters of this panel decided to deliver their talks as one big program rather than two distinct ones. They asked the audience, well over thirty people, to circle around their chairs and to interject with comments and questions in the course of the discussion. This roundtable format helped to bring out the central and shared ideas in the approaches of teaching book history at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and the Book History Workshop at Texas A&M University in College Station. Both programs emphasize the necessity for returning the human body to the study of books and bibliography. Reading about books and their histories can not substitute for the kinds of practical knowledge that material study affords. Likewise, while better than consulting digital surrogates, merely viewing book-objects in a special collections library cannot teach our students half as effectively as hands-on encounters with the materials and processes of composing, imposing, printing, binding, etc. [Read more]
Laser Cutting Fine Binding, Artist Monique Lallier, Interpreter of Maladies. (Brian Queen)
Brian Queen started off this sparkling panel with his presentation, “The Paper Artist & the Engineer: How Technology Supports the Creative Process.” He amply demonstrated that new digital technologies have presented book artists and designers with amazing new tools: laser cutters, CNC routers, and 3-D printers are capable of more than you might imagine. The talk was supplemented with several short “demo” videos, and a parade of artifacts that were passed through the audience. Queen pointed out that throughout history, artists have been among the first people to exploit new technologies. [Read more]