Valeria Brancaforte Prints. Valeria Brancaforte. C/ Jordà 10, 2-2, Barcelona, Catalunya 08034, Spain. Tel: +0034669710273. Website: https://www.valeriabrancaforte.com/.
Valeria Brancaforte. Opera dei Pupi. 2024. 10 pages. 250 x 350 mm. 15 linocuts by Brancaforte printed in 1, 2 or 3 colours and on 3 different types of paper. Printed on a Reig manual press. 12 copies full bound by Brancaforte: 3 on Somerset paper, 3 on Drap paper (handmade Catalan paper), and 6 on Magnani Incisione paper. Price: €600. The Opera dei Pupi is a puppet theatre that emerged in Sicily in the mid-1800s and was proclaimed an Intangible Heritage of Humanity. I wanted to realise this project driven by the desire to pay tribute to my roots and to the very rich Sicilian popular culture.
Hirundo Press. Caroline Saltzwedel. Woldsenweg 18, Hamburg 20249, Germany. Tel: +49 178 1701608. Website: https://hirundo.eu.
Caroline Saltzwedel. King Coal. 2023. Accordion fold. 18 pages. 330 x 186 mm. Futura, Baskerville on Richard de Bas, Siquieros (both handmade), with illustrations by Saltzwedel. Printed on proofing press, etching press. 10 copies bound by Caroline Saltzwedel in black cloth with a printed inlay on the front cover with label in a case with magnetic closure that opens flat. Price: £2000. King Coal is a book in concertina form showing a chronology of coalmining from antiquity to the present day. Significant dates in coal mining history appear in white on a thick black line, the coal seam, which continues on the back. Idioms in German and English deriving from coal mining culture are combined with songs from both countries. The work combines letterpress, etching and monoprint techniques.
The Reading Room Press. Miles Wigfield. Coneygar Lodge, Coneygar Road, Quenington, Cirencester, Glos GL7 5BZ, UK. Tel: +44 1285 750662. Website: https://www.thereadingroompress.com.
Miles Wigfield. Parliament of Owls. 24 pages. 180 x 155 mm. Caslon on Liber Charta, with 5 wood engravings by various illustrators printed from the original blocks used to illustrated Yarrell’s A History of British Birds (1843). Printed on Barrett & Cope Albion. 75 copies bound in quarter cloth (brown) with gold titling and paste papers essayed by Victoria Hall which had been inspired by the feathering of the owls themselves. Price: £60. A slight volume displaying 5 of the owls from the original wood engravings used to illustrate both Yarrell’s’ 1843 A History of British Birds and its successor, Saunders’ Manual of British Birds (2nd edition 1899). Also told is the remarkable tale of how these blocks – two from Bath and three from Norfolk – found their way to my pressroom.
Corvus Works. Christopher Wakeling, 9 Ravenside Terrace, Blackhill, Consett, Durham DH8 0LB, UK. Tel: +447824397664. Website: http://www.corvusworks.co.uk.
Stanley Morison, James Wardrop, A.S. Osley, and Sebastian Carter. Giovanbattista Palatino. 2023. 68 pages. 232 x 262 mm. Stempel Palatino on Somerset Book White 115gm with 4 plates and 14 letterpress plates on Zerkall Smooth White 145gm. Printed on Korrex test press and Schelter & Geisecke Phoenix IV parallel art platen. 95 copies: 85 quarter bound in terra cotta cloth, Zerkall Ingres printed paper sides over boards, printed spine label, binding by Wakeling: price £180; 10 quarter bound in tan leather with hand-made marble papers from Compton Marbling, full cloth slipcases, binding by Roger Grech: OOP.
The Blue Print Press. Janine Raedts. Via Mezzavilla 26a, Vittorio Veneto, Treviso 31029, Italy. Tel: +393200525289. Website: http://www.theblueprintpress.com.
Nicola Dal Falco. Inventori di lettere. 2023. 6 pages. 270 x 125 mm.Bodoni on Laurier mould-made, Canson mi-teint end papers and Cordenons paper for the wrapper. Printed on Fag proof press. 25 copies in pamphlet binding: €60. This pamphlet was started in 2022 to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of master printer Alessandro Zanella’s death. But it wasn’t until this year that it was finally completed because of the search for real Greek type necessary for the poem (a story in itself). Nicola Dal Falco is a well-known poet in Italy, and his poem “Inventori di lettere” combines Alessandro Zanella’s love for printing and Greek culture.
TOC Publishing. Birgit Schmitz. Potsdamer Str. 98a, c/o Galerie Erik Spiekermann, Berlin 10785, Germany. Tel: +491705882279. Website: https://www.toc.berlin.
Wolfram Eilenberger. Time of the Magicians. 2024. 368 pages. 215 x 130 mm. The Future & The Future Mono by Kris Sowersby FF Real by Erik Spiekermann on 90g MetaPaper Rough Air White-Warmwhite. Printed on Heidelberger Cylinder from 1954. 998 copies in sewn binding & finishing at Buchbinderei Müller, Leipzig, with Schabert Brillianta Yellow linen, endpapers of Schabert Cyan, jacket of Gmund Cotton Paper. Price: €138. A portrait of four remarkable philosophers: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ernst Cassirer, Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger. It revolves around the emergence of modern thought and follows four men who provided different answers to the challenges of their time and continue to play an immensely important role in intellectual history. “An intellectual history that largely succeeds in bringing philosophy to life.” The New York Times.
Two Ponds Press. Ken Shure. 218 Howe Hill Road, Camden, Maine 04843, USA. Tel: +16173350175. Website: https://www.twopondspress.com.
Joyce Tenneson and Claire Millikin. GOLD TREES. 2024. 44 pages. 11 x 9 in. Garamond on Rives BFK 280 gsm, with photography by Joyce Tenneson, 16 mounted images and an additional photo printed on aluminum and housed in the clamshell box. Printed on letterpress. 30 copies: 25 in quarterbound leather and Japanese gold metallic paper, bound by Amy Borezo/Shelter Bookworks. Price: $5000. Joyce Tenneson has bathed this series in gold, harkening back to sacred icons and alchemy. The letterpress ink color is gold as are elements of the binding. The book is quite literally luminous in subject and design in celebration of her Golden Jubilee. Claire Millikin’s words accompany the images.
Deep Wood Press. Chad Pastotnik. PO Box 726, Mancelona, MI 49659, USA. Tel: +12315870506. Website: http://www.deepwoodpress.com/.
James Bernard Gross. The LIQUORSTORE pomes. 2024. 109 pages. 25 x 16.5 in. Garamond #3 on Hahnemühle Biblio with 2 wood engravings by Chad Pastotnik. Printed on Vandercook 219 OS. 60 copies: 55 quarter bound in Harmatan Oxblood goat with Asahi heavy textured grey linen cloth over boards with marbled end papers; title foiled in black on spine and in gold on the cover on a brown goat skiver, designed and bound by Chad Pastotnik. Price: $500. 1 variant edition copy bound in full leather in a blue Nouvo goat; tight rounded back with a sprinkled panel binding; title in copper foil on cover along with other accented tooling in copper; housed in a drop spine box with spine label. Price : NFS. With an introduction by Toby Olson and 2 color printing throughout, this book is a collection of 36 poems centered on James’ father Herman Gross, growing up in Gary and Chicago and the Liquor Stores Herman owned. An homage to family, life in the rustbelt in the 1950’s and 60’s and the adventures, joys and hardships that left an enduring charming impression on James. At the author’s wish, the poems are printed on the recto pages only.
Gibraltar Editions. Denise Brady. 5050 Pratt Street, Omaha, NE 68104, USA. Tel: +14022504926. Website: https://www.gibraltareditions.co.
Jane Vincent Taylor. Skylight. 2024. 43 pages. 6.75 x 4.5 in. Bembo on Arches wove text and various papers for endsheets, with an original drawing by Hannah Demma on the her over-beaten abaca paper. Printed on a Vandercook No. 4. 55 copies bound by Denise Brady with a long stitch to sew the signatures into covers of lime green Cave Paper; the title face is 48 pt. Schwabacher printed from a photopolymer plate made by Boxcar Press after a proof of slightly damaged BB&S foundry sorts.. Price: $65. Out of print. Jane Vincent Taylor’s collection “Skylight” is a twenty-four poem narrative told in the voice of a woman — Lu, a teacher and poet — spending her final days in an assisted living facility. Though physically failing, she continues to read, observe, communicate, and dream. Taylor references many literary and visuals artworks in these poems.
Incline Press. Graham Moss. 36 Bow Street Oldham, Lancashire OL1 1SJ, UK. Tel: +44166271966. Website: https://www.inclinepress.com/.
Graham Moss. The Book, The Whole Book and Nothing But. 2024. 32 pages. 220 x 120 mm. Scotch Roman on Zerkall Butten, with 6 reproductions of woodcuts from Jost Amman’s Book of Trades from the 1560’s, 1 reproduction of a drawing from William Hogarth, an advertisement cut of an Arab press (circa 1930), 2 line drawings done for Incline Press, and 1 tipped-in plate facsimile of a broadsheet given to participants at the Society of Bookbinders 50th anniversary conference. Printed on an Arab press. 225 copies bound by Graham and Helen Moss in hardback covers with quarter bound cloth spine, yellow-based marbled paper by Claire Hooson of Marsh Marbling, and a front cover label. Also available in sheets to binders. Price: £60. Contains two essays by Moss about making books by hand at Incline Press. The first is about binding and was written in response to the Lifetime Achievement Award given to the author by the Society of Bookbinders in York during August 2024. The second essay is about Mr. Taberer’s Arab printing press that first came to Incline Press in 1999 and was recently returned after a sojourn in the south.
