(Photo: Lynette Spencer)

Fri, Oct. 25. | Visitors grabbed pencils and linocutters and returned to the world of relief printing in Lynette Spencer’s “Building Bridges” letterpress workshop. Hosted by BookLab, the University of Maryland’s one-year-old book arts and letterpress space, participants engaged in a four-hour intensive class designing and printing graphic two-color postcards reflecting on the APHA conference’s theme of social diversity and inclusion.

BookLab, a fledgling book arts center created by Maryland faculty members Matthew Kirschenbaum and Kari Kraus provided the perfect venue. Two hours of drawing and block cutting followed by two hours of printing on a Line-O-Scribe and BookBeetle immersed the printmakers in the supportive community experience of a letterpress studio. The intensive workshop provided a perfect introduction to the “One Press Many Hands” conference.

Particpants printing on a BookBeetle. (Josef Beery)