Last week, the UANews interviewed me about why book art matters and why our Collective promotes old printing processes like letterpress. Here is the video the reporter put together from the interview. (Note: ignore the photos of my Talking face. It’s not pretty.)

Last week, I received a copy of the latest issue of Sonora Review (#58), handbound by Spork Press in our very own Tucson. The cover was letterpressed by Spork, with plates made from a drawing I did. What I like about the concept of handbinding a book, especially a literary journal, is the attention to the book, the writing, as an object; as an environment we can enter into.

The binding used in this edition is a kind of modified stab binding (for which you can download directions here, from the excellent Booklyn). The stab binding is a side stitch that has a long history in Japanese bookbinding. Side-stitch works best, in my mind, with large pages (and hard cover) or small pages with a soft cover, creating a flexible page-turning experience. This edition is slightly difficult to open on account of the hard cover, wide gutter and small pages; though the pages, the paper choice, the words are, I believe, worth the read.

Interestingly, in the way that the world thinks collectively, the latest issue of Poets & Writers has several features about indie publishing and DIY bookmaking, to which I say: thank you and it’s about time. (These articles, sadly, aren’t available online.) Anyway, they talk about writing as contained object/s, while namedropping presses and journals like Diagram, Ugly Duckling Presse and Granta.

Above and below are two spreads that I illustrated for the section headers. The issue didn’t have a theme, per se, but contains a sort of whimsical feel. Something about flight, about the imagination, about space and prettiness. Anyway, the forthcoming issue, #59, is underway here in the studio. I can’t reveal the theme just yet, but let’s just say we’re going way back. Back into time.

This Friday, I am ridiculously excited to announce that one of my book art heroes is coming to Tucson, Julie Chen. I think this must be what regular people feel when they find out they’re meeting … the Kardashians? Or someone else.

Julie Chen, True to Life (detail)

Since 1987, Julie has published limited edition artist’s books under the imprint, Flying Fish Press. Her work is not only meticulously crafted, but seamlessly combines interesting writing and concepts with lovely, often abstract imagery and a sense of play.

Julie Chen, True to Life (detail)

Anyway, the Book Art Collective is hosting an artist talk this Friday @ 4pm with Julie at the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center.

To promote the event, my friend John designed some posters and we letterpressed them yesterday on one of our trusty Vandercooks. The style sort of parallel’s Chen’s use of games in her work. We printed the posters on various French Papers, this one their Pop Tone Whip Cream, Cover #140. It’s pretty. For ink we mixed some metallic copper with brown and then violet. It was…experimental, to say the least.

If you’re in Tucson or nearby, come to the talk and reception after. Meet Julie. Meet the rest of us. Eat food. Hera are the details, yo:

Artist Talk with Julie Chen
Friday, November 5th @ 4pm
Poetry Center, University of Arizona
Reception to follow in Book Art Lab

[Note: I'm cross-posting this on the Book Art Collective site.]

This weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting the master of Vandercook letterpress machines, Paul Moxon. Paul was in town for a week or so, offering demos, workshops and a lecture to the Book Art Collective. I’m posting the main article on that blog, but wanted to give a shout here too, since a lot of us like letterpress.

It’s basically understood that Paul knows everything there is to know about Vandercooks, proof presses made by Vandercook & Sons beginning in 1909. In addition to working as a printer and artist, he maintains a website, VandercookPress.info, where anyone can access information about presses.

In the 59 years the company was in business, about 30,000 presses were manufactured; there are currently about 1,500 Vandercooks documented in existence. And what do you know, 23 of them are in Arizona; 4 are kept by the Book Art Collective. Last year was the Vandercook’s 100th birthday and Paul orchestrated a Centenary Print Bundle with lovely prints from shops throughout the country.

The workshop this weekend covered basic operating procedures of the presses and we brought him in not just to teach, but also to fix up our new machines. This summer, the Collective acquired three new presses, one of which seems to have been outside for, well, years.

Paul was gracious enough to travel here from Alabama on the weekend of his birthday. So happy birthday, Paul! Thanks so much for spending some time with the Book Art Collective. We hope to have you back soon.