You read about it here last year. Now the date approaches: October 29-31 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. After a fifteen year hiatus, this show will again bring booksellers and bibliophiles together for a three day event. Details on their site.
–Bob McCamant
A good profile of typefounder Michael Bixler. Love that foundry and composing room!
Michael and Winifred Bixler Press and Letterfoundry from Mary M Jones on Vimeo.
Thanks to Michael Russem for the link.
— Paul Razzell
Parenthesis 19: nearly there!
Most copies of Parenthesis 19 have been bound and, as promised, an original silkscreen print (produced by Tara Books of India) has been hand-inserted into each copy. If you are a member of the FPBA, one of these prints will be yours. Become a member now.
In the photo below, Canadian novelist Susan Bailey stopped by Gaspereau Press and helped fold jackets. Note the mountain of untrimmed copies of the journal behind her. Susan appears to be saying, “How many more do I have to fold?!” Copies of the latest issue will be mailed out to members very soon.
Photos from the Gaspereau Press blog.
— Paul Razzell
We’re lucky our printer (and designer), Andrew Steeves, had his camera on hand while he was printing the jackets for Parenthesis 19. Andrew writes:
Today, I started printing the final colour on the jackets for Parenthesis. I mixed this blue by eye using mix of yellow, rubine red, reflex blue, and transparent white. I usually ignore colour matching systems like Pantone® when I’m mixing inks for my own letterpress jobs. I neither need nor desire perfectly matched colour. I don’t want to be able to reproduce this again, exactly the same, six months from now. A letterpress printer never dips his pallet knife in the same ink twice, Heraclitus might have said.
I’m still chained to my press today, cranking out Parenthesis covers. Hand-cranking 1200 sheets of paper through a Vandercook, watching the same inked form flash by over and over, gives you time to think about things. If there are problems with the job which are beyond your control to repair, it makes for a long and depressing run, knowing that what you are making falls short of your intentions. But if the work is sound and the press is running well, there is joy and fresh discovery to be found in each sheet through the press.
Although I had originally intended to print the body text in black, the decision to run the text in a separate pass from the ornaments (which required massive amounts of ink) opened up the opportunity to introduce a third colour. I’ve selected Warm Grey no. 4. This flexibility, this ability to alter a design to suit what occurs on the press, is one of the reasons that I like printing the things I design personally. This is not to say that you shouldn’t plan a job carefully, only that you should be attentive and responsive to opportunities and challenges as they present themselves.
More photos from the Gaspereau Press blog showing Parenthesis 19 in production. The letterpress-printed jacket will feature Gaspereau’s proprietary Memorial Hall ornaments, shown here in photopolymer. you can see a few more sneak-peek pictures here and here.
Parenthesis is the journal of the Fine Press Book Association and deals broadly in fine and private press printing as well as bookbinding, typography, collecting, publishing and related areas. Richly illustrated in full color, it is published twice a year and is available free to FPBA members. The coming issue will be larger-than-normal, has a special focus on fine printing in California, and will include a loosely inserted limited-edition print from Tara Books in India. FPBA members whose dues are paid up will receive their copy toward the end of September. If you have been thinking about joining the FPBA, now would be a great time to do so. Membership in the FPBA is surprisingly affordable, and you can do it online here.
— Paul Razzell
The Lone Oak Press just announced a new publication: Christmas Trees, which commemorates the 80th anniversary of the first Robert Frost Christmas card. As with all Lone Oak Press titles, the engravings are by Abigail Rorer. See more here.
The press also has a smart new website designed by Michael Russem of Kat Ran Press that’s worth clicking through.
— Paul Razzell
The fall 2010 issue of Parenthesis is in the bindery and is on schedule for a September release. Here’s a pic from our designer-printer, Gaspereau Press, showing the photopolymer plate they’re using to print the letterpress cover. And below, folded sheets ready for binding. It won’t be long now until members receive their finished copies!
— Paul Razzell
Susan at Green Chair Press brought this great two-part blog post to my attention. She writes,
Photographing artist’s books can be tricky and frustrating — getting the lighting right, staging the book to show off all its features… The 23 Sandy Gallery blog recently had a 2 part post on “What Makes a Good Photograph for Submission to a Juried Show or Gallery” (which also applies to photographing your work for selling online). Part I is here and Part 2 is here.
Thanks, Susan!
— Paul Razzell
Oak Knoll has now placed the full schedule for its fall Fest, to be held October 1 through 3 in New Castle, Delaware, on its web site.
Highlights include:
–Talks by Alexander Campos and Sarah Nicholls of The Center for Book Arts in New York, Martyn Ould of The Old School Press in Bath, England, and Russell Maret, printer from New York City.
–A reprise of the Friday Symposium (pre-registration required), this time on the topic of “Artists’ Books – Press Books: Siblings or Distant Cousins?” featuring panelists Alexander Campos, Duke Collier, Mark Samuels Lasner, Timothy Murray, Martyn Ould, and Jane Siegel. Many credit the previous symposium with increasing interest among special collections librarians and private collectors.
–A huge book fair with more than 40 exhibitors from around the US, the UK, Canada, and France.
Remember, FPBA’ers: the FPBA annual membership meeting will take place Sunday morning at 10:30 am, and will feature the talk by Russell Maret.
–Bob McCamant
Every time we publish an issue of Parenthesis, our 100 de luxe members receive a special limited edition of Parenthesis which is case-bound and presented in a slip case with a parcel of items specially printed by presses from around the world (see photo above). For example, past parcels have included wood engravings by Gaylord Shanilec, Frank Martin, and Simon King, printing from Henry Morris and Nicolas McDowall, pochoir by Peter Allen and Ian Beck, and a poster for the Pennyroyal Caxton Press edition of the Holy Bible.
This fall, the slipcases for the de luxe copies will be bound in a specially commissioned pattern paper made by Leigh McClellan of the Meadow Press in San Francisco. If you’d like to see a series of photos showing these papers being made, go to http://www.meadowpressbooks.com and click on the link at NEW! How to Make 125 Paste Papers in a One-Bedroom Apartment.
To become a de luxe member of the FPBA (and receive a handsome limited-edition copy of Parenthesis twice yearly) or to be come a highly valued Standard member (and receive 2 copies of the standard issue each year) go here.
— Paul Razzell
