Friday Insights: The 2012 Benefit Auction

The logo for the 2012 Benefit and Auction

Happy Friday! Next week, on Wednesday, April 4th, is going to be our annual Benefit and Auction! There is still time to get tickets, so if you're interested, you can buy online, stop on by (28 W 27th Street between Broadway and 6th, 3rd floor), or give us a call at (212) 481-0295. Ticket prices are a tax-deducible donation, and this year we're having an after party! We also offer a range of tickets, the lowest being only $30 (or 2 for $50), which is extremely reasonable.

Since our online auction just went up, it seems only appropriate to give a brief review of some of the wonderful things in it. A few weeks ago, I received a call from renowned printmaker, author and teach John Ross, who said that he loved the theme of our upcoming event, Architectural Elements, and that he had many prints of the city and of architecture, and would we like to take a look at them and have some for the auction. Well, we said of course! John brought us several different amazing prints for us to choose from, and ultimately we picked two- This one, a triptych call Homage to the City- a series of three 22" x 30" collographs.

 The second image is a two-color 38.5" x 29.5" collograph called City of Dreams, which is a mix of buildings both real and imagined. Ross brings together buildings from different cities and different times, along with famous work by architects that were never actually built, into one seamless landscape.

A fine contemporary printmaker, illustrator and author, John Ross studied art in New York at the Pratt Institute and at Atelier 17. A full member of the Society of American Graphic Artists, Ross has exhibited his engravings and woodcuts throughout the United States and major international expositions. Ross spends ample time in Venice and has created several artists books and colorgraphs on cityscapes, both real and imaginary, as well as on typography.

Some news: Next week, Christina will be away for a class event, so expect some guest blogging! As the benefit is next Wednesday, April 4th, we're promising daily insights into different aspects of the benefit and auction, including preparations, pictures of what we'll be auctioning off, and photographs of the event itself. It should be a blast, so if you can make it, definitely come on down (tickets are still available!) You'll be donating to a great cause (including things like keeping this blog going!), you'll have a great time, and it will be great to see you there!


Have any stories about your favorite part of the Center? 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: Font vs. Typeface

Typeface vs fonts, thanks to Tink Makes Art

While fonts and typefaces aren't terms only found in book and letterpress arts, when speaking to a printer you will definitely notice that the two are not interchangeable. With computers, the term "font" has become the most common way to discuss what your text looks like, when it actually refers to a set of characteristics of one overarching type. These characteristics include typeface, size, and weight. That's why we have Tuesday Typefaces!

Different weights are subsets of a typeface like Futura

A typeface is a style of text, the type design, independent of other factors, that will be used. For example, last week's Times New Roman is a typeface, as was this week's Helvetica and way-back-when's Calson Openface. A style of text, however, is only one aspect of the font. Each piece of typeface (letters and symbols) comes in different sizes: 12 point, 24 point, 36 point, 72 point, etc. Many typefaces also come in different weights, such as light, medium (the standard roman type), and bold; as well as styles, such italic. When the type one is using is discussed with these components, it is considered a font. For example, while Helvetia is a typeface, Helvetica 12 point is a font; while Calson Openface is a typeface, Calson Openface Bold 14 point is a font. The lovely diagrams made by Tink Makes Art (seen above and right) are great ways of looking at the differences. The typeface is the broad, overarching term, while the fonts are subsets (different sizes, different weights) of each typeface. There are many, many more fonts than typefaces!

While this may seem like semantics, in letterpress arts the difference is important. Unlike a computer where sizes and weights can be changed with a click, each individual piece of type used is cut from wood or metal to be a certain size and thickness. If you were given half a sign to finish and the artist only left the typeface name (ie "Use Times New Roman"), you would be at a loss. Artists, of course, do use different typefaces and font sizes in their pieces, but if your goal is consistency, the font chosen is very important.

If you visit the Center for Book Arts, you'll notice that there are multiple drawers for each typeface, each containing a different font. To the left are just a few of the drawers containing the typeface Spartan Black, which includes two sizes (30 pt and 48 pt) as well as two styles (Italic and Condensed). While Spartan Black is the typeface, Spartan Black Condensed 30pt is just one of the many fonts one can find in the Spartan Black family.

Using computers, where there is no tangible piece of type, the differences between font and typeface  become blurred: some will even argue that, since a typeface downloaded online is one file containing many possible fonts, the difference has become meaningless. In the world of hand letterpress, however, where wood and metal are still used, there is indeed a difference.

-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!

Wednesday Exhibitions: Maureen Cummins's Anatomy of Insanity

Maureen Cummins, Anatomy of Insanity (2001-2008)

My day job is a student of early modern literature, so I have a special affinity for Maureen Cummins's fascinating piece of book art. Anatomy of Insanity—written, printed, illustrated, bound, and published all by Cummins—uses reproduced images from the 16th century anatomic drawings of Andreas Vesalius, whose groundbreaking De Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) was essential to the Renaissance understanding of the human body. Interspersed throughout these images are also photo-engravings from 19th century trade cuts, also from medical and anatomy books. These images are more accurate, but still have the incredible feel of going through an old book, ones where detailed drawings took the place of photographs and the titles under pictures were written in an unevenly spaced Latin.

Diagnosis: Old Age

Cummins's piece—which is divided into two sides, one for male and one for female—feels like a mixture of a first edition of Henry Gray's Anatomy and the clipboard medical records of contemporary patients. Each page, which folds above the top of the book as if it really were attached to a patient report on a clipboard, also includes the details of each diagrammed patient. The patient number, date received (usually the 1830s and 1840s), age, and illness are all described in neat boxes on the top of each page. One of the best parts of Cummin's Anatomy is how each diagnosis is presented. In the image above, the man of the left is suffering from "Gradual Decay from Ill Health," written in clean text beneath his feet. The woman on the above right, however, is suffering from "Hysteria, Old Maidism," written in a straight line between her legs.What is wonderful about this is that Cummin really did her research. Hysteria was indeed a medical term, while "old-maidism" was coined by witty author George Eliot to describe the illnesses of spinsters. Whether or not it appears in any medical textbook of the time, Cummins made sure she had a handle on the terminology of the first half of the 19th Century.

The translucent pages, which Cummins also meticulously printed to look like graph paper, are made from Trace 51, a heavy-weight type of tracing paper. Using this paper allows the viewer to see beyond the first page and into the ones beneath it, as seen above with the birds perched on the shoulders of a man behind the one we see. These layers can have a startling effect, from the birds and snakes (seen right) that can appear to be devouring the skeleton to the above birds that can appear inside the man's ear. They can also be used to bring the diagnosis upfront, hiding the patient's image behind it. The image of the woman above appears muted, blurry almost, as she is hidden beneath the page announcing her illness as "Hysteria, Old-Maidism" placed almost like a censor bar (or, perhaps, an arrow) right between her legs.

Cummins's Anatomy of Insanity is a part of the CBA's main exhibition, Fine & Dirty. You can see it, as well as many others (including everything in our past Wednesday Exhibitions!) until the exhibition closes this Saturday on 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!

Monday Methods: Rounding and Backing

The curved spine of a book after rounding and backing

A backing hammer

The most basic description of rounding and backing that I have heard is "stick some glue on the spine and hit it with a hammer." Though the process is significantly more delicate than that, the point is that creating round-back books is not as difficult as it may seem. Don't be intimated by the equipment used: at the Center for Book Arts, this is a skill taught in Bookbinding 1!

The first part of rounding and backing takes place in how you sew your signatures. Usually, signatures are sewn together as tightly as possible, with thread held taught in order to create a strong text block with no strange gaps between pages. If you plan on rounding and backing a book, however, the outermost signatures can be sewn more loosely than the center ones in order to help the book to curve. To aid this, bookbinders may place a piece of scrap board between the signatures (usually the first and last 2) when sewing them, leaving the necessary gap.

"Backing" a book

Once your signatures are sewn and the endsheets added, the spine is glued up. When the glue is still tacky and not fully set, the book is rounded. This process can be done on a table or other flat surface. Using a backing hammer, the bookbinder lightly hits the top few signatures of the spine. The fingers that are holding the book push the foredge inward as the spine is hammered out, creating a curve on one side of the book. The text block is then flipped, repeating the hammering and pushing on the other side to make the curve symmetrical. The text block is hammered and flipped multiple times until the desired curve in acquired: this must not be too round nor too square, and should not be lopsided.

A rounded and backed book

Once the "rounding" is completed, the slight curved text block is placed between backing boards, as in up top. This press holds the curved text block in place, and is the point where you strengthen and consolidate the curve of the spine. Rounding gives the book a basic shape for the binder to work with, but "backing" is when the curve really comes to life.

Once the text block is placed snugly in the backing boards (so that nothing will wiggle out), the backing hammer is struck across the block, one side at a time, along the desired angle. Using the correct amount of force at the right angle is the most important part of backing a book (and a skill that takes a lot of practice!). Hitting the block on too steep of an angle will appear more like a triangle than a curve, and hitting the pages directly does nothing more than smash your signatures together. However, once you train yourself to back properly, the process is relatively easy and fun. Plus, it gives a very special, even classic, feel to the book you finish making.

Not many mass-produced books are rounded and backed anymore, though you can definitely find some of your shelves. They're particularly beautiful and for those even mildly interested in bookbinding, it's something you should definitely try your hands on at least once! You'll be pleasantly surprised with the results—I know I was!

 -Christina Squitieri

Is rounding and backing your favorite way to set a spine? 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!

Auction Spotlight: Candace Hicks

Formerly a house painter, bounty hunter, and translator, Candace Hicks has spent most of her life in her home state of Texas (excepting three years in Paris, France). She established a non-profit center for the arts in Athens, TX, The Image Warehouse, in 2003. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Texas Christian University. Trained as a printmaker, she works primarily with books, but dabbles in video and installation. Hicks will have a solo Featured Artist Project at the Center in 2013 which will feature her unique embroidered book composition series.

Her silkscreen print, based on one of her embroidered composition books, was printed in limited edition of 20 and measures 20" x 25". It is one of the many! exciting! works! on auction here at the Center for Book Arts on Wednesday, April 4th. You can preview the auction here and place bids even if you can't make it in person.

Tickets start at $100 and are available here. All proceeds help us to continue to advance the art of the book and support classes, exhibitions, programs and artists residencies here at the Center.

Friday Insights: Letterpress I

Colorful Birthday Invitations from Roni Gross's Letterpress I: Hand Typesetting Class

In early February, letterpress- and book-artist Roni Gross taught a week-long intensive of one of our most popular classes: Letterpress I: Hand Typesetting. This course teaches the basics of hand typesetting. Students learn the basics of setting type and images by hand, using our collection of metal and wood type, and learn how to operate a Vandercook Proof Press. These beginning skills include an introduction to inking, imposition, and impression. By the end of the class, the students will have experimented with different typefaces and colors, as well as adding illustrations. Letterpress I is a fantastic chance to try out some of the Center for Book Arts' collection of lead and wood type that we discuss every Tuesday!

Printed greeting cards and envelopes

After only a week, just one look at the projects completed show that Gross's Letterpress I class was indeed a success. The students made birthday cards (seen above) as well a second, independent project, such as greeting cards with beautiful, multicolored envelopes (seen right). Not only were different colors and personalities shown in these cards, but different typefaces, as well! Even on a single card, such as the "HI!" one at right, two different typefaces were used (check out the differences between the style of "H"). Despite being different, the two typefaces complement each other—just as Tuesday Typefaces wants to show you!—and when put together give the card a very whimsical and happy feel.

Make Mom Happy!

Students also learned how to incorporate images into their projects, such as the small ET poster seen left. One of my favorite pieces of the class, this image also shows the high level of skill one will acquire during even a short course at the Center for Book Arts! This image is made up of multiple colors and images and required at least two to three press runs. A combination of the green "Phone Home" text, the smaller, orange "make mom happy" text, the orange ET (and hand that might not have been part of the original image!) as well as the phone—which must have been printed after the ET image since it appears on top—this piece shows an understanding of many different aspects of letterpress, including the use of complementary color and typefaces, positioning of text and images, and how to properly layer images. In fact, all of these projects, including the Happy Birthday cards that have an incredible blend of color in them, show off an impressive level of skill for a student who likely never even touched type until the first class!

Positioning type

Letterpress I is one of the most competitive of classes to get into (believe me, I know!) so make sure to grab a spot while you can. Very few students drop out and the waitlist is one of our longest, so I suggest you reserve your place as soon as the classes go up. We're beginning to add classes for the Spring and Summer seasons, so check back often! Places are currently available for our most recent additions in beginning letterpress, including another intensive section (this time over two weekends) of hand typesetting with Roni Gross! I'm definitely planning on taking one of these courses, so perhaps I'll see you there!

For more information (as well as information on other letterpress and bookbinding courses available), check out http://www.centerforbookarts.org/classes/, give us a call at (212) 481-0295, or stop in. We're open Monday-Friday 10:00am to 6:00pm and Saturdays from 12:00 to 4:00!

-Christina Squitieri

Have any stories about your favorite part of the Center? 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!

2012 Benefit Auction: Wayne Hodge

 

Artist Wayne Hodge recently printed Android Market, an edition of 75 right here at the Center on our Universal III Vandercook Proof Press. Hodge was one of our 2010 Workspace Artists-in-Residence here at the Center. When he interviewed for the residency, Wayne told us all about his fascination with vintage sci-fi comic book imagery and how he wanted to explore using these kinds of images in the book format. Fast-forward a year, and he's completed a whole series of letterpress prints based on his fantastical collages of scenarios made up of images from his collection of vintage source material. We loved them, and asked him to print a new edition for us- Android Market.

Join us on Wednesday, April 4th for our 2012 Benefit and Auction! We'll be raffling off one copy of Hodge's print, and auctioning a second one. If you can't make it in person, you can still bid on this print and so many other great works online here.  

Tickets to the benefit start at $100 for the main event-available here. Or you can join us for the after-party! This year we'll be holding an After-Hours DJ Party from 9 until 11pm with DJ Q-Raider & DJ R!C. Tickets are only $30 each, or $50 for two. Join us for music and cocktails and support the Center. 

Thursday Terms: Fleuron

Metal fleurons for letterpress

Common Fleurons

A fleuron, also called a "printers' flower" is a naturalistic symbol, or glyph, that is used as an ornament for typographic compositions.
Unlike other "dingbats," the general term for ornaments, characters, and spacers used in typesetting, fleurons—which derive their name from the Old French word "floron," or "flower"—are specifically stylized forms of flowers or leaves, such as the image seen right. These heart-shaped leaves and stems are common fleurons that can be seen in older printed books, including as "breaks" between sections of text. In today's novels, we can see vestiges of this practice: the use of 3 circles is especially common in dividing parts within a chapter!

These symbols, which are usually rather small, can also be very elaborate. As seen in the images seen below, artists have created highly stylistic shapes and silhouettes of flowers and leaves, each expressing something different. Some are more ornate than others, some are round, some are wide and seem to flourish. You may even recognize modifications to the French aristocratic symbol, the fleur de lis, at the top right. Though these three images are not the exact fleur de lis, they are a type of fleuron that recalls the power and authority of a kingdom and the past.

Examples of different fleurons

Fleurons were crafted just like type: a small block of either metal or wood, carved with the image in relief, that can be placed alongside letters, numbers, and spaces inside a chase. The fact that fleurons did not have to be individually produced, but could be made in groups, allowed for printers to use more than one in a single type forme. This was most commonly seen in historical codices, where multiple, repeating fleurons were used to create borders on the title pages of books. This was cheaper and easier than producing elaborate ornamentation (such as etchings of the author or symbol expressions of poetry unique to the book itself), while still giving the cover page a decorative (and expensive!) feel.

A large variety of fleurons are still used today in everything from the borders on folio-style books to the tops of invitations. So don't be shy! Come down to the CBA and try some out today!

-Christina Squitieri

Have a favorite fleuron? 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!

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!

Wednesday Exhibitions: Dead Language, Patricia Sarrafian Ward

Patricia Sarrafian Ward: Dead Language

Our avid blog readers might remember Patricia Sarrafian Ward's piece My Characters Were Not Able to Come Fully to Life featured in our Wednesday exhibitions a while back (the first one, in fact!). As Ward will be giving an artist talk tonight at 6:30pm, I thought now would be a good time to revisit Ward's amazing Featured Artist Project exhibition, Re/vision, on view until the end of the month.

Dead Language, detail

Ward modeled her exhibition after her studio, complete with a desk, chair, and piles of the shredded paper she used to create these intricate and almost mystical pieces. Ward is a writer as well as a book artist, and in a cathartic way to overcome the rejection her work received from publishers, she shredded it and picked up the pieces, giving them new life in nearly numerous pieces of book and paper art.

Dead Language, a small scroll created from pasting together (and on top of one another) sentences sliced in two, is a piece both eerie and compelling, contemporary and ancient. Because the words have their tops of bottoms cut off, it is difficult to recognize them as words. The way Ward overlaid them makes even the characters seem strange: this could very easily be an alien tongue, a foreign language not spoken nor understood. By taking pieces of her novel and rejection letters, this piece distances the artist from her former work. The words are no longer understood, but a relic of the past, a destruction that Ward says allowed her to move forward.

Ward's logo for her exhibition

Having the piece created as a scroll also gives it an ancient feel while also taking book arts to a new level. Way before there was the codex, the modern bound book, there were scrolls of papyrus and cloth. I love that Ward is returning to that time with Dead Language, showing that book arts can encompass the book from a time long past. Just as her scroll can encompass the language of grief, confusion, and the courage to move forward with words we cannot understand.

If you can, please come to Ward's Artist Talk on Re/vision TONIGHT, Wednesday, March 14th at 6:30pm. She will be speaking about her process as well as the emotional and creative impetus behind these works, and it's guaranteed to be a wonderful discussion. You might even get a chance to ask her a question! And, of course, to see these beautiful objects on display before it's too late.

For tonight's talk, there is a $10 suggested donation/ $5 members.

For more information about Patricia Sarrafian Ward's work 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: Palatino

Palatino

In the world of typefaces, Palatino is one of my personal favorites, and if I ever have a book or article published anywhere, this is the typeface I would want my writing to be set in. A serif typeface, Palatino is elegant and smooth, with delicate, straight lines, as well as fun swooshes (such as in the lowercase "g," "a," and uppercase "Q") that carry traces of the personal feel of handwriting. Perfect for longer passages of text, Palatino is a typeface that is most commonly used in books and scholarly journals.

Palatino was designed by Hermann Zapf for the Linotype foundry and was initially released in 1948. Palatino, based on the humanist fonts of the Italian Renaissance, was named for the 16th-century Italian master of calligraphy, Giambattista Palatino. The typeface mirrors the letters created by a nib pen (used most often in calligraphy) while modernizing (and expanding) the size and proportion of its letters. By reshaping the letters and making the strokes darker, Zapf created a sleeker and more easily readable design.

Interrobang in
Palatino Linotype

An extremely popular typeface, Palatino has expanded broadly since its creation. In 1999, with computers getting more popular, Zapf was asked to revise Palatino for both Linotype and Microsoft. The result creating Palatino Linotype, a family that incorporated extended character sets in Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets. It also included currency signs, subscripts and superscripts, and fractions, all of which can be found in roman, italic, and bold weights. To keep up with the times, Palatino Linotype also includes an "interrobang" (a combination ? and !) as seen right.

The Palatino font family continued to expand in the early 2000s. Zapf, who is now 93 years old, collaborated with contemporary typeface artist Akira Kobayashi. Together, the two released three new families for Linotype: Palatino Nova, Palatino Sans (a sans-serif typeface), and Palatino Sans Informal, in 2005 and 2006.


-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: Sewing Keys

A Sewing Frame with "A" keys

If you have done basic bookbinding (or if you take the Center for Book Arts' Bookbinding 1 course) you are likely familiar with the low-tech method of taping down linen tapes to your table while sewing up the signatures of your book. This method, as seen below right, is a quick and simple to keep tapes relatively straight and prevents them for curling or sliding out of the stack you are sewing.

Taping linen tapes to a table to prevent them from slipping

When you progress to more advanced bookbinding, however, especially binding that uses raised cords, the tape method becomes less desirable. In more advanced books, the designer needs a more reliable way to keep cords and tapes tight. One such method is the sewing frame, the adjustable wooden structure seen above. Yet how to keep the tapes from sliding out?

That's where sewing keys come in.

"A" and "H" keys

The two most common kinds of sewing keys are "A" keys, used for sewing with raised cords, and "H" keys, used for sewing with linen tapes. For each tape (the book above uses three), a sewing key is used. The cords or tapes are tied around the sewing key, which is placed beneath the bottom of the sewing frame. Because the key sticks out, it will not slip through the bottom as the cords will, but keep it both tightly in place and perfectly straight—a benefit that masking tape does not have. The cord is pulled taut and then tied to the top part of the frame (or from loops hanging from the top of the frame) to keep it in place.

Text block in a sewing frame

Next, the stack of signatures that will become your text block is placed flush with the tightly drawn cords or tapes (as seen right), allowing the body of the book to be sewn neatly, without slack or wobbling. This is particularly important in books with raised cords, where the cording is visible when the book is completed. Any unintentional bumps or crooked angles caused by crooked or loose cords can ruin the elegant aesthetic of leather-bound books.

Because cords and tapes are shaped differently, different types of sewing keys are used. As seen in the cover photo of this post, cords and tied around the narrow part of the "A" key. Linen tapes, which need to be kept flat as well as straight, are placed through the middle window of the "H" key. Regardless, both types of keys are placed beneath the frame, keeping your tapes and cords neat and tidy and perfect for creating that next book!

-Christina Squitieri  

What sewing keys do you most commonly use? For what books? 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: The Reference Library

Part of the Reference Library at the Center

One of the Center for Book Arts' best kept secrets is its reference library, a collection of books on a range of topics relating to letterpress and book arts. From the manuals on basic bookbinding for most novice of students to the highly specific research books on the use of letterpress in Italian post cards, the CBA's library is filled with literary treasures: and is open to all, whether you are a member, student, artist, or simply curious about bookbinding and printing.

Some books on type

The reference library has a range of periodicals (including some that are now out of print) as well as catalogs from past exhibitions both at the CBA and elsewhere, which are perfect for students and scholars doing research on history or trends in book arts.There are also books of research on specific aspects of book art and letterpress history, including paper and letterpress arts in different regions of the world, the practices of renaissance artists, and the aptly named "History of Bookbinding."

A great section of the reference library is the books on different styles of bookbinding. When I first took a class at the CBA, I was amazed that there were differences between flat-back and round-back books (the book covers on modern, mass-produced books always hide the details). Looking in the library, that isn't even the beginning. A student last week had a very specific idea for a book that would open two ways but was not sure how to approach it. After some time in our reference library, she went home with pages full of notes and ideas on how to craft just what she was looking for—along with how to craft many books she never even knew existed before.

More books!

We also have a range of books on type (which are much more in-depth than Tuesday Typefaces) including a massive specimen book of typefaces simply called "LINOTYPE." The best part about this book is that is shows examples of different faces at different sizes, giving the letterpress artist a full range of possibilities. It is a wonderful book to use when you're in the print shop and stuck on using a 12 or 14-point version of a typeface!

There are also plenty of books on paper arts, including paper making, paper crafts, paper detailing, and paper marbling. Different techniques and projects are described, including making textured paper with onion skins, embossed writing paper, and paper sculptures. My all-time favorite is a pair of dainty blue shoes made entirely from paper!

The reference books all range from the basic to the complex, including volumes on designer bookbinding and letterpress techniques, many of which are employed in the works of art we show on exhibition. If you see a type of accordion book you want to try, odds are, we have a book on that. If you like a specific way of printing the cover of a book before binding it, odds are we have a book on that, too. So stop on by and check them out! You're guaranteed to be informed, inspired, and ready to try something new.

It is important to note, however, that our reference library is just that: books can be looked at for reference by anyone visiting the Center, but cannot be checked out. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but in order to be fair to all our visitors and artists, we ask you to take a seat in the bindery, take some notes, and return the book when you are finished. That way they are here for everybody! Thank you very much!

-Christina Squitieri

Have any stories about your favorite part of the Center? 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: The Awl

A selection of Awls

The awl is a versatile tool that is used for many aspects of bookbinding, including marking guide lines for quarter-bound books (to make sure your paper is straight), poking holes in paper, leather, and even board, and prepare for sewing those signatures we talked about on Monday!

A leather book, which requires a larger awl

Different types of awls can be used for different things. Ones with a small, thin point (such as the "student" one seen above) are used for creating tight holes for stitching, and can also be called a "pin tool". Because the paper used in bookbinding can be fairly heavy, and because working with signatures require a very precise hole made through the entire stack to prevent the book from being uneven, it can be helpful to punch holes through each signature before the sewing is to be done. Once made, they allow the needle and thread to slide easily through the pages without slipping, creating a text block with a straight spine that is (relatively) even on both head and tail.If you choose to stitch on end sheets instead of tipping them in, you can also use an awl to make those holes before sewing them to the text block.

An book with exposed spine

Larger awls, such as #1, #2, and #4, are used for bigger projects, such as puncturing holes in leather or in binder's board. Though leather-bound books can be made without exposing the stitching, some, such as the one above right, choose to expose it. These books will require a thicker awl to make proper size holes through the thicker leather.

Thicker and sturdier awls are especially useful for books with exposed spine, such as left. In absence of a spine, these books (especially ones without raised cords), require the front and back covers to be sewn, not glued, to the paper text in order for the text block and cover to remain together. In order to sew this, however, the binder's board and its covering (such as book cloth) must also be punctured. Thinner awls can also be used to make an indentation in board, marking the distance from the foredge to where you want a new type of cover material (such as paper) to begin.

Though the awl seems like a tiny thing, different thicknesses are necessary for different jobs. Thicker and finer threads, board, paper, or leather, will all determine which awl will be used in order to create the tight, neat, and artistic book that the artist has in mind. So appreciate your awls, because bookbinding would be very difficult to do without them!

-Christina Squitieri

 

Have any stories about the best awl to use for a certain project? 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!