Exhibition Hall at the Grolier Club (photo from Grolier Club website)

Oh fortunate man, I successfully lured my wife, Gay, into the august halls of New York City’s Grolier Club on our whirlwind two-day holiday trip to the city!

The Grolier Club, with a clubhouse in midtown Manhattan, is one of America’s oldest associations of bibliophiles. It can never hope to compete with the blockbuster exhibits of the Metropolitan or the MOMA. But Gay had suffered through hours in line at the Metropolitan this fall and still missed the exhibit of Alexander McQueen’s high fashion dresses, “Savage Beauty.” She was potentially piqued enough to give the Grolier’s five-centuries-with-no-waiting exhibit a glance.

The Grolier Club exhibition, “Printing for Kingdom, Empire, & Republic: Treasures from the Archives of the Imprimerie Nationale” successfully satisfied Gay’s taste for books, especially the antique and the unique.

And, after all, how could the exhibition, collected from the vaults of the French government’s official printing works, disappoint? As suggested by the exhibition’s title, this “printing office”, like the book itself, has survived centuries of regime change and only been enriched in the process. Founded as the Imprimerie Royale in 1640 by Cardinal Richelieu, it was the exclusive printer for the French government, whether royal, imperial, or republican.

Decades before Richelieu established the Imprimerie, the French king had been served by royal printers. A royal company of printers (Imprimeurs du Roy pour le grec) had been established by François I in 1538 as waves of Renaissance change rolled through France carrying the infant technology of printing with movable type. A royal committee set about creating their own typeface to print the works in Greek needed to satisfy a growing hunger for books. It was this group which appointed Claude Garamond (Garamont) to create a suite of types based on the hand writing of the royal scribe Angelo Vergetio. The Greek font was soon followed by a Roman font, and the rest of the story is typographic history.

On display as one of its premier treasures, is a collection of the steel punches engraved by Claude Garamond to create this first sixteen point Greek cursive font. Garamond’s design of a roman minuscule based on Vergetio’s calligraphy and a roman italic based on the handwriting of his assistant Robert Granjon became the standards which would guide the hands of type designers for the next half millennium.

Garamond died in 1561, but with the establishment of the Imprimerie Nationale, his type designs evolved in the hands of successive punch cutters. In 1827, a type specimen of a Garamond-like font created in 1621 by Jean Jannon was discovered, but unfortunately not attributed to him until the twentieth century. During the reign of Louis XIV, and after the creation of the Impriemerie Royale, a new “King’s Roman,” the “Romain du Roi,” was cut in steel by Phillippe Grandjean (Grandjon).

Here exhibited in the Grolier’s cases are the actual steel punches and brass matrices used in the creation of this essential type face, the Romain du Roi. Huge steel punches for the creation of 120 point type are the central attraction. These monsters make quite clear the work required to design the intricate shapes we now call type.

What is all this about steel punches and brass matrices? Gutenberg’s movable type was cast from lead, a metal easily accessible and moldable for medieval craftsman due to its low melting point. In order to cast a piece of type or a sort, a mold had to be created. And preferably a reusable mold. Thus a finely crafted brass matrix would become the cradle for the casting of the dozens of sorts which would fill one small compartment in a font’s type case. To create this matrix required the skills of jewelers. They knew how to create this mold by carving special steel punches which could be hammered into the softer brass to create the exact impression which became the mold for a letter of type. Thus the first type designers, like many of the early illustrators of the printed book, came from the jeweler’s benches of Europe.

The Grolier exhibition displays hundreds of the many thousands of steel punches and brass matrices in their vaults. Included in the exhibition are punches for many foreign alphabets including Tamil, Cambodian, Brahman, Javanese, Khmer, and Tibetan among many others.

And what is it that is so remarkable about seeing these unique sculptural objects? How do they illuminate my understanding of the story of the design of our printed alphabet? The key is in that word “sculptural.” Type emerged from the artist’s hand in three dimensions not on the two dimensional flat plane of a piece of paper!

In the late 1980s I had the great pleasure to work with Warren Chappell, a book and type designer who had actually worked in Germany cutting punches with another great type designer, Rudolf Koch. Warren impressed on me repeatedly that type is a sculptural object, that the making of it involved the crafting of shapes in steel, not just the drawing of the outline of a letter. When I spent time with Warren, drawings of letters were all the rage as digital type was just being born as a new printing technology.

So as I perused the cases of objects selected for display from the collections of the French Imprimerie, I finally grasped the nature of a letter as a three-dimensional object. Here it is, I can see it in all of its hefty glory! And I can see the impression it makes as it is stamped into brass to create a matrix. It is not just the picture of a letter; it, like the Roman letters inscribed in stone, has dimensional form.

Included in the exhibition are engraved copper plates made by the Imprimerie’s type designers to stand as records of the design of each letter. In these prints, along with the outlines of the letter, are engraved the lines of construction. These are the guide lines used by the artist in drawing these letters–perfect circles and lines of proportion. It is these guidelines that interest me. Since the Renaissance, artists have studied letters and attempted to describe the rational essence of their beauty by discovering the mathematical proportions at work in their creation. The fifteenth century calligrapher Felice Feliciano had written a treatise on the classical proportions of letters in 1463, the Alphabetum Romanum, appearing just eight years after Gutenberg’s Bible was printed in a font to imitate the calligraphic hand writing of the time. In 1525, Albrecht Dürer published his own rationalized instructions for constructing letter forms. And as recently as 1982, the artist and calligrapher David Lance Goines offered a new and detailed treatise on the construction of the roman alphabet.

But, as I walked through the exhibit, it became clear to me that try as we may to capture the beauty of a letter form with mathematical understanding, the letter form is still the product of the craftsman’s hand and eye working with a material which has its own contributions to make to the final form of the letter. Just as the Romans had discovered of the concept of entasis — that to make a column look truly vertical it must actually be cigar shaped — the slight bulge accommodating the light as it sneaks around the sides of the column and narrows it in the middle, the type cutters of the Renaissance understood the minute effects of line and curve as they filed and honed their letter forms.

I left the Grolier Club with a renewed since of awe for the craftsman who carefully crafted the lines and curves of each and every letter of type (with different designs for every point size created within a typeface). They listened not to the rational ideal of beauty found in following mathematical guides, but instead to the aesthetic sensibilities that they had mastered from working long hours with tools and materials. Through experience they had discovered the perfection of form required to create the perfect letter form.

Josef Beery has worked at Ten Flavors Studios in Charlottesville, Virginia as a publication designer for almost three decades. He is a cofounder of the Virginia Arts of the Book Center and an early organizer of the Virginia Festival of the Book. He shares observations on the fields of typography, printing, and books to promote discussion and interest in the activities of the VABC.

And be on the lookout for the return of our intensive bookbinding course. It will be, like “Design with Type,” eligible for the UVa Education benefit. If you have been UVa faculty or staff for more than one year and you receive the benefit, you could take this class at no cost. To read more or see application, click here.

More classes on the way! Maybe you want to bookmark our full class schedule page for reference.

Bookmakers corner drop in classes are taking shape too.

Sat, February 4, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Description Workshop: Intensifying Love (A Wood Type Reduction)
Instructor: Garrett Queen Date: February 4th, 1-5 pm.
Fee: $35 members, $45 non-members
This workshop will concentrate on presswork using the Vandercook Universal One. Focus will be on prepress planning, lock-up, multi-color registration, impression pressure and overall print quality. At the end of the day each participant will receive six prints (cards) suitable for Valentines Day. While press experience is helpful it’s not necessary for this class.
Contact Garrett Queen gsqueen@comcast.net to register or for more information.

Sat, February 11, 11a.m. – 4 p.m.
Bookbinding Workshop,  Enclose This: Bound Enclosures and Clamshell Boxes
Instructor: Amanda Nelsen
Fee: $110 VABC Members, $120 non-members
During this workshop we will discuss and practice measuring off the object, materials selection, gauging material thickness, adhesive options, cutting techniques, and best practices for construction. Students will create two four-flap enclosures with variations and two clamshell boxes, one with set dimensions and one for an object of their choosing. Familiarity with bookbinding terms, tools, and techniques will be quite helpful, but not required
Contact Kevin McFadden kmcfadden@virginia.edu to register or for more information.

Sat, Apr 28 through Sat, Jun 2
6 Saturdays, 10 a.m. –  Noon
Design with Type Certification Course*
Instructor: Josef Beery
Fee: $500 (Member and Nonmember price, *UVa Education Benefit Eligible)
VABC Members not using Education Benefit receive $50 discount ($450)
In this Design Certification Course students will receive a strong introduction to typography and design for print. The course will be held in the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, home to a letterpress printing laboratory with hundreds of cases of wood and metal type. The course will outline the history of printing, type design, and book production. Students will learn the basics of design for the printed page through hands on work. Students will use conventional page layout software on their own desktop computers to complete assignments in the design of posters, brochures, magazine articles, and books. At the completion of the course students will receive a certificate of mastery in “Design with Type.”
Contact kmcfadden@virginia.edu for inquiries and registration.

We hope you’re enjoying your art already. We’ll arrange pickups for those of you who may have left a silent auction bid and were wondering. Contact kmcfadden@virginia.edu if you are curious how it ended, but we’ll be in touch soon to make arrangements with the winning bidders.

Raucous Auction

Virginia Arts of the Book Center
2125 Ivy Square Shopping Center
(enter through the Art Box)

It’s that time of year again–join us for the Raucous Auction as the members of the VABC celebrate the auspicious postmark date 11-11-11 with a debut of the  “POSTMARK” project–a collaborative print set of postcard-influenced art. Every piece is a 4″-6.5″ expression of the temporal, spatial, and emotional displacement we experience beneath the glossy veneer of a postcard.

What else might you see for sale, silent auction, or raucous auction that night? Have a peek at our preview (constantly being updated) below:

The VABC will join a long line of artists in investigating the intricacies and mechanisms of a postal system with their next collaborative project. In the project entitled “Postmark,” artist-members will create handmade editions of postcards which consider the mystery of distance, place, communication, memory, and nostalgia. (Among other topics!) All participants will receive a complete set of the postcards produced by the group for their personal archives.

THE PAPER IS IN. Artists can pick up enough paper to make their 65 cards. It’s cut to double size, for work-and-turn, or to trim to the 4 x 6.5 size. You must be a member of VABC to join the project.

Sets of cards will be auctioned off to the public at this year’s Raucous Auction on 11/11/11 which will also feature a show of all of the pieces.

Join a long line of amazing postal artists: Saul Steinberg, Ray Johnson of the New York Correspondence School, Bruce Licher of Independent Project Press, Charles Peale, Henrik Drescher, and most famously in the world of trade books, Nick Bantock author of the Griffin and Sabine series. You can participate by contacting Garrett Queen at gsqueen@comcast.net.

There will be a brainstorming and informational meeting at the VABC on Wednesday night, August 31, (Block Night) from 6:00 until 7:00 PM. If you’re curious about membership, come that night to see what we’re all about.

Yours truly will also host a display and discussion of postal art and its possibilities at Block Night on September 7. I will also lead a tiny workshop on carving rubber stamps suitable for use for cancelling your mail at Block NIght on September 21.

-Josef Beery

Postmark Project Specifications

A project open to all VABC Members! Completed artwork due
October 15, 2011. Each participating artist will receive one set of all
cards. Our gallery show of the edition will be the Raucous Auction, November 11,
2011.

If you would like to participate, contact Garrett Queen
(gsqueen@comcast.net). We would like to gauge how
many postcards will be produced.

Guidelines

Participants will do each produce an edition of 60 postcards (print 65)
(trimmed to 4” x 6.5”), emphasizing

-the distance or travel mystery that postcards present (sent
from places we are at one moment, but usually are not; received when we the
sender may even be elsewhere)
-the two modes of communication on each
side—one primarily visual, one verbal
-memory and meaning and nostalgia of a
place and the separation from the postcard’s destination
-travel and
correspondence emphasis; not the sort of “business” postcard meant to remind,
etc.

Paper: Double-size stock is available at the shop (Lennox 100, 250 gsm). This can be used to print 2-up,
or single prints with full bleeds to be trimmed to size. Other papers may be
substituted at participant’s expense, but should meet the trim size (see below).

Process: All work must be printed in the shop,
with bookarts presses and methods; no clipart or inkjet for work that could be
otherwise done with press; if inkjet is used it should be for original works
only (photographs, etc).

Features: Complete postcard, written-on or not;
if mailed should include stamp and be cancelled; consider creative ways to
postmark 11-11-11 (we may create a cancelling stamp or stamps for this)

We will start a collection of postcards to use for
inspiration at the shop. If you have posts of interest to the group about any
aspect of the project, please comment below (“Leave a Message”).

Press-Time Scheduling: Please contact Garrett to schedule your press time (this includes key-holders) In planing your press usage, please remember to allow for sufficient drying time if printing on both sides of your card.

Additional Notes & Questions…

Photopolymer Plates: We use KF152 plates that can be ordered from Boxcar Press.

Full-Bleed Printing: When printing bleed on the stock we’re providing (8 x 6.5″) you can only print one-up (2-up on the supplied stock is possible with no bleed.).

The bleed area can be any amount in excess of the trim size of the card (4 x 6.5″) usually .25″ all around works fine (a 4.5 x 7″ image area before trim).

Printing on a single 8 x 6.5″ card (and trimming to 4 x 6.5″) provides ample room for gripper, bleed area and registration marks (for those doing more complex color).

Printing the second side of the untrimmed card (on the Vandercook) will require some planning as to align the card (image/text) front and back prior to printing.

The Virginia Arts of the Book Center welcomes The New World, an installation by The Printmakers Left, an international collective, working for ten years through the UVA art printshop on collaborative installations, portfolios and books: Anne Back, Christopher Thomas, Charles Beneke, Dean Dass, Maggie Booth, Clay Witt, Adam Wolpa, Barbara Campbell, Dana Giacofci, David Bendemagel, Akemi Ohira, Juan Garcia, Adam Moyer, Lydia Moyer, Sam Witt, Berenika Boberska, Annu Vertanen, and Jyrki Markkanen.

The New World is the second of a three-volume project, exquisite history. “ex:hi” is modeled after the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, a history of the world from creation to present day and beyond.

Copies of “ex:hi” are available for $20. (Leave payments in the VABC donation box)

From the artists’ statement: “In the New World, nation states are still operative, but the world is ruled in effect by the multi-national combined managed universal health care and oil consortium called Well-Well. Everyone is well cared-for at last. Our protagonist is Agent Dot, the invention of Jyrki Markkanen. Dot works for Well-Well as a programmer and case manager. Or does he? He is perhaps a double agent working for the resistance…”

June 11 and June 18
(Two Saturdays, 12:00 noon-4:00pm)
Instructor: Lana Lambert
Cost: $150. members, $175. non-members

Learn the basics of Moku Hanga or Japanese Woodblock Printing.

In this two day workshop, students will learn how the Japanese pulled beautiful prints using only a block of wood, a bit of rice paste, and a bit of pigment.  Students will learn carving techniques and a light history of Edo era printing on the first Saturday.  After carving the block at home for a week, students will return the following Saturday to print their creations and learn about the process of  Japanese water based printing.  Experience the beauty of this methodical printing technique and take home your own hand carved block as well as an edition of sumi ink prints.

Fee includes all materials
Minimum of 4 students needed for class to run.
Sign Up Ends a week before start of class.
Contact kmcfadden@virginia.edu to enroll.

Cost: $500 (tuition is UVa Educational Benefit eligible), $450 for members

In this Intensive Bookbinding Certification course we will learn a series of bookbinding techniques. Starting with a simple pamphlet stitch binding, students will plan and create three small books with a final enclosure case. We will cover everything from the importance of paper and grain direction, cloth and board types, stitching techniques, bookbinding tools, planning and measuring, casing-in, and other bookmaking embellishments. By the end of the class, students will have a bookmaking vocabulary as well as the skills to create their own hand-bound book projects. VABC Certification for Bookbinding upon successful completion of the class.

Contact kmcfadden@virginia.edu to enroll.

March 31: Introduction to tools, paper, bookcloth, thread, folding, signatures
Pamphlet stitch (3 and 5-stitch)
Pamphlet binding with variations
April 7: Single-signature case binding with no spine piece (like Cerulean
Probabilities and After Love)
April 14: Case binding sewing on flange
April 28: Case making, joining binding with case
May  5: Enclosures: phase box and slip case
May 12: Finishing work session, sharing, evaluations