Frederic W. Goudy’s many interpretations of the ampersand’s design through history. Original printing form, ca. 1946, with a modern print. (RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection)
“What in Sam Hill is an Ampersand?” asked Frederic W. Goudy in The Typophiles 1936 Christmas keepsake titled Diggings from Many Ampersandhogs. The Typophiles, founded in 1930, brought together typographers, designers, and printers. The organization published many important books on the history and practice of the typographic craft, some of them scholarly, some playful. [Read more]
A small collection of Haldeman-Julius’s Little Blue Books. (Steve Cox)
Sat., Oct. 26 | Moderated by Seth Gotleib: Steve Cox, “A Radical Press in Kansas: Haldeman-Julius’s Forgotten Publishing Dynasty” ❉ Jessica Barness and Amy Papaelias, “Radical Scholarship: The Visual Language of Emerging Disciplines in the United States” ❉ Matthew Kirschenbaum, “Kamau Brathwaite’s Printer”
This session provided a lively glimpse into the unique printing and publishing practices of three radical subjects. [Read more]
Left: Valmor and Sweet Georgia Brown Beauty Products No. 27 (Yvonne Chireau Collection). Right: page from Charles Dawson’s ABCs of Great Negroes, Dawson Publishers, 1933 (Source: AIGA Design Journeys: Charles Dawson, Rights: Art Institute of Chicago)
Fri., Oct. 25 | “Outside in: image and words of assimilation and resistance in American print history” by Colette Gaiter, Professor, Art & Design and Africana Studies, University of Delaware. Professor Gaiter is an artist, graphic designer, and writer. Her work over the years includes mixed and digital media, video, interactive installation, and digitally manipulated photographic prints. Her remarks came from the perspective of a maker as well as an educator and scholar, which embodies the spirit of the APHA conference.
Left: cover of Frank Marshall Davis, Black Man’s Verse (Chicago: Black Cat Press, 1935). Decoration by Calvin Brazelton. Right: interior page, with typography by Norman W. Forgue. (Images courtesy of the presenter)
Sat., Oct. 26 | Kinohi Nishikawa began by showing an image of a marbled black and white slipcase from a 1935 Frank Marshall Davis fine press edition. He used this object to pose questions about the contents it would hold, asking how viewers would perceive the value of those contents. [Read more]
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. [Read more]
Example of a class survey by a student at Ohio University. (Miriam Intrator)
Sat., Oct. 26 | Moderated by Katherine Ruffin, the presenters were: Miriam Intrator, “Collecting the Diversity of American Historical and Contemporary Printing: A Librarian’s Perspective” ❉ Dianne L. Roman, “Early Nineteenth Century Boston Weekly Provides Diverse Employment for Women, Supporting an All-Female Communication Circuit” ❉ Jamie Mahoney, “Incarcerated Authors, Activist Poets, Student Designers, Led by Women Printers: Publications of the Bowe House Press are Truly Created by Many Hands” [Read more]
Left: Charles White’s “My God is a Rock,” linocut. Right: David C. Driskell’s “Accent of Autumn.” 2016—a textured serigraphone with Dorit Yaron explaining.
Fri., Oct. 25 | On this afternoon, an intimate group of APHA members gathered at the front of the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, for an introduction to the center, its mission, and a tour of the current exhibition. [Read more]
The American Printing History Association (APHA) is currently accepting applications for the 2020 Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship in Printing History for the study of printing history. An award of up to $2,000 is available for research in any area of the history of printing, including all the arts and technologies relevant to printing, the book arts, and letter forms. [Read more]
Mathias Tusiime with some of his woodcuts on his handmade paper. (Casey Smith)
Sat., Oct. 26 | Casey Smith presented on his month-long trip to Kampala, Uganda as part of a cultural immersion program for artists through apexart. He explored the city and prestigious Makerere University in particular, where he learned about their printmaking techniques using hand-registered woodcuts on MDF. As Smith showed photos of the woodcuts (both blocks and prints), he pointed out that they typically depict domestic life or political subject matter. [Read more]
