Wednesday Exhibitions: Simon Redington's BOMB

Simon Redington's BOMB (2008)

 Welcome to this week's Wednesday Exhibitions, featuring another piece from the Center for Book Arts' current exhibition: Fine & Dirty: Contemporary Letterpress Art, on view until March 31st! Today we shall be looking at Simon Redington's amazing and beautifully-colored book, BOMB.

A woodcut print from BOMB

Redington's piece is based on the poem BOMB, written in 1958 by Gregory Corso, described as "a heart-felt homage to the terror of the H-Bomb." For the 50th anniversary of its publication, Redington worked for Kamikaze Press to produce this piece, featuring the original text with an artwork all his own. Most of the images in Redington's work were created with woodcuts, printed onto thick white paper that enhances the vibrancy of his piece.

One of my favorite parts of Redington's book is his outstanding use of color. The first page of the book, seen above, takes the image of a terrified soldier and uses a beautiful fade from red to black. For a book about the destructive force of the hydrogen bomb, Redington is not reduced to a nuclear-winter scheme of blacks and greys, but uses bold, bright images. The woodcut (right) mixes black with the starling reds and yellows against a soft blue background, enhancing the vibrancy of the already bright colors. The image of the America flag below even uses a hot, shocking pink!

Two-page spread of BOMB

Another particularly beautiful part of Redington's book is his use of layering images. The soldier on the cover page of BOMB is sheer enough to see both the reverse-printed title and the blue background behind it, giving the image both depth and a powerful, even haunting quality. This translucent distance is complemented by the opaque text superimposed on top of the soldier, boldly announcing itself to the reader. The image, left, is a particularly striking example of Redington's use of multiple press runs to create depth. The large translucent star on the left side appears ethereal, hovering both beneath and above the dancer. The doves at right are even more powerful: a white symbol of peace is covered with reds and blues, just sheer enough to still see the white beneath. These layers do not only show an explosion of color on the page, but also makes the birds, from a distance, into a completely different image of chaos and confusion. This, together with the powerful text of the poem floating on top ("It flows thru/the death of me"), creates an incredible and imaginative piece, loaded with emotion, to which images just do not do justice!

Redington's BOMB, a part of the CBA's main exhibition, Fine & Dirty, as well and many others (including everything in our past Wednesday Exhibitions!) can be seen until March 31st, 2012. As always, admission to our exhibits is free, so stop on by Monday-Saturday and see them before they're gone!

For more information about Fine & Dirty and other exhibitions currently on display, visit http://www.centerforbookarts.org/exhibits/

-Christina Squitieri

Have any stories about your favorite (or least favorite) piece of book art, either in our exhibition or somewhere else? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Tuesday Typefaces: Times New Roman

Times New Roman

Today we're going to be discussing the most-used typeface in undergraduate papers: Times New Roman. Anyone who has ever used Microsoft Word is familiar with this no-nonsense, serif typeface, and likely (I know this is true for me, at least) have seen it so often that you do not notice anything special about it. But what is the origin of this inimitable typeface?

Times New Roman, though a staple of the computer world, was actually designed much earlier. Originally commissioned by the British newspaper The Times after a writer, Stanley Morison, critiqued the paper for using an "antiquated" typeface, Times New Roman was first created in 1931 by Victor Lardent for the Monotype Foundry. After a few drafts, with changes made for economy of space and ease of reading, the typeface made its debut in the October 3, 1932 issue of The Times. Like many typefaces created in the early 20th century, Times New Roman is considered a "transitional" serif typeface. The difference between thick and thin lines in Times New Roman is more pronounced than will be found in "old style," while still remaining more understated when compared with later, "modern" ones. 

Times New Roman is also a typeface that, perhaps due to its popularity and use in the newspaper world, also comes in an astoundingly high number of weights: Times New Roman, Times New Roman Medium, Times New Roman Semi-Bold, Times New Roman Extra Bold, Times New Roman PS, Times New Roman Condensed, and Times New Roman Small Text—each with the variants of Roman, Italic, and Bold—are just some of the examples of the diversity Times New Roman has seen since it's first appearance nearly 80 years ago!

Perhaps because Times New Roman was originally created as a newspaper text, it is most often used in book typography, especially in mass-market paperbacks. While known mostly for its cleanness of readability, Times New Roman is quite beautiful in its simplicity. The curled serif at the tips of lowercase "a"s are especially graceful, and the use of both the curves and sharp points in the number "5" are just two of the small details that make Times New Roman the typeface equivalent of the quiet girl next door: beautiful in its own way, with an understated elegance that can often go under-appreciated.

Times New Roman stayed the main typeface of The Times for 40 years, until 1972, when the paper began undergoing formatting changes. Just because The Times no longer use it does not mean it is out of fashion, however. The versatility and ease of reading of Times New Roman has brought it to the forefront of the United States political arena: as of February 1, 2004, the US Department of State announced that all US diplomatic documents would henceforth use 14-point Times New Roman, replacing the previously used Courier New.

-Christina Squitieri

Have any stories about your favorite (or least favorite) typeface? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Monday Methods: The Brayer

A selection of brayers

For most of our Monday Methods, the topic of choice has been a bookbinding tool, from bone folders to sewing keys. This Thursday, we're going to discuss an important term for printmaking: the brayer.

The brayer, as seen above, is a hand roller used to spread ink onto a glass plate or ink table. Brayers can be made from a variety of different materials: rubber, sponge, acrylic, polyurethane, or even leather. Certain materials are used for different methods of printing. For example, rubber brayers (which come in various levels of hardness) are used most often for relief printing. Leather rollers can be used in lithography, while sponge rollers are used primarily for paint. This roller is than mounted on a spindle rod or pin which is attached to a  handle. Larger brayers sometimes use metal, while the larger ones even have double handles in order to apply maximum pressure.

The brayer is most often used in transferring ink to a printing matrix. Ink is laid out on a palette, and the brayer is rolled into the pool of ink, and then repeatedly rolled in one direction until the ink is evenly distributed. The brayer is then rolled across the surface to be printed, transferring ink onto the raised areas before paper is run through the press and the ink is transferred to the paper.

Brayers are particularly useful when inking an image or text form that requires more than one color. For example, instead of coating a plate with black ink, printing, and coating another section with red ink and printing on top of the original, one plate can be inked with multiple colors. Using small brayers to ink up multiple sections of an image or block of text can allow this whole process to be complete in one run!

 -Christina Squitieri

Have any stories about brayers? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Friday Insights: Artist Interview with Roni Gross

Letterpress Artist Roni Gross teaching in the Print Shop at the Center for Book Arts

For today’s Friday Insights, we have a special treat for all our readers: another artist interview! Back in February, we did out first interview with book artist Gavin Dovey. This week we’ll be speaking with letterpress artist Roni Gross, who not only does her own work but also spends a lot of time teaching at the Center for Book Arts. Gross, who is teaching a new class, Playing on Press, next weekend (some spots still may be available, so make sure to check it out!) was kind enough to sit down with us and answer some questions about her time as a letterpress artist—including some typefaces that we might have to explore on Tuesdays!

1. How did you first get involved in letterpress art?
Before my involvement with printing and book arts, I was a choreographer. I happened to take class in a studio that was one floor above the Center when it was on Broadway above Houston. I would go down and look at the shows, and was taken with the fact that anything you were interested in could become a book. Eventually, when I stopped dancing, I took an intensive letterpress class with Carol Sturm (Nadia Press) at CBA, and loved the sculptural quality of letterpress and wanted to start making multiples.

2. What's your favorite piece you've created?
Whatever piece I've just finished is my favorite piece for a time. I often collaborate with my husband Peter Schell, and our bookwork is very satisfying to me. I feel like it expands my ideas of what books can be—as atmospheric, sculptural presences.

Her Life

3. Do you prefer to set type by hand or by using polymer plates?
Having spent so much more time designing on the computer, I think that I am a better typographer generating my work digitally. Being around Barbara Henry, however, has sharpened my eye to the beauty of handset type, and thus, I have been doing more handsetting in the last few years. I think that I have more patience now to work with it then I did earlier on.

4. What do you love about the Center for Book Arts?
I am all about community. I have made many friends at the Center: fellow artists, teachers, and students. There is a wide range of people coming to the Center and that keeps it interesting. So many different things happen there every week. You never know who you will meet, or what contacts you might make. It's great to see what kind of work other people are doing, and be able to get some feedback when you want it.

5. You’re going to be teaching a new class, Playing on Press, next week. What’s the most exciting thing about that class?
I think that when people are first learning how to print and set type, they get very focused on technical issues. We tend to want to be very precise register everything perfectly, understand the press, and sharpen our eyes to what good printing looks like.

That's all great and necessary, but it's nice to take a break from that kind of focus and see that we can actually be looser on press not plan everything out from start to finish but to experiment with making our own pressure printing plates, monoprinting, and manipulating the elements on the bed of the press to build up a print. It's nice to start out with the idea that you can keep building until you get something you are happy with, rather than having to know where you are going right from the start.There is room for happy accidents, and broader strokes, in terms of using color and shapes. Things can happen more quickly. Anyone can take this class, experienced or not. It's about using the Vandercook as a printmaking tool.

Full Necklace

6. Do you have any advice for aspiring letterpress artists?
Printing takes practice and patience. The patience part is something I have to keep learning. It's always better to do something the right way at the start than to think that you will fix it later. Generally it takes more time to fix it than to do it right at the beginning. When you are just learning it seems like there is so much information to keep in your mind. As time goes on, much of it will become automatic. The best way to learn is to do projects. When you need to learn something, you will.

7. Lastly, for our readers of “Tuesday Typefaces,” what’s your favorite typeface?
I can't narrow it down to one typeface. In my work, commercial or otherwise, I spend a lot of time trying to select a face that speaks so that is generally more important to me than whether I "like" it. Having said that, I do like and use Mrs. Eaves, Perpetua, and Scala a fair amount.

-Roni Gross

www.ronigross.com 

Thank you very much to Roni Gross for the lovely interview! Gross is teaching more than just Playing on Press next weekend, so be sure to check out out classes page and see what you can learn!

If you are a book or letterpress artist  and are interested in being interviewed for Friday Insights, please contact info@centerforbookarts.org

-Christina Squitieri
 
Did you enjoy our artist interview? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts), or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Thursday Terms: PVA

Jade PVA from Talas

Throughout these weekly blog posts, PVA has been mentioned in passing as the glue of choice for bookbinders, especially when mixed with methyl cellulose. But just what is this mysterious acronym?

PVA glue, used in bookbinding

PVA stands for "polyvinyl acetate," a rubbery, synthetic polymer from the polyvinyl esters family with the chemical formula (C₄H₆O₂)_n. For those of us without chemistry degrees, PVA is a type of man-made plastic (the "vinyl" refers to a similar chemical structure that is found in vinyl records) whose rubbery properties make it a useful paste when mixed with water. Because of this, PVA has become an adhesive best used with porous materials, such as wood, paper, and cloth, and is a common component in everything from carpenter's glue to Elmer's paste.

In bookbinding, a more pure version of PVA is used. Flexible, strong, and—very important!—naturally non-acidic (unlike other polymers), PVA will hold together paper, book board, and book cloth without risking the disintegration and yellowing that is found in papers that are not acid-free nor archival quality. Because PVA dries rubbery and springy, it is also perfect for the creation of books: the flexibility allows books to be opened and closed without cracking (or holding boards so tightly the book is unable to be opened at all!). As PVA is also quite strong, it will prevent book board coverings (such as quarter-bound books that use both paper and cloth) from peeling, keeping your book neat, clean, and able to be read for many years to come!

-Christina Squitieri

Have any stories about how PVA? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!