PICTURES FROM POEMS & PICTURES

The Center for Book Arts in New York has posted some photographs from the opening of the Poems & Pictures exhibition. There are also some pictures from the opening from the concurrent show, I will cut thrU: Pochoirs, Carvings, and Other Cuttings. The image above shows part of a collaborative piece by Ron Padgett and the great George Schneeman. You can see the photos here.

TOMORROW NIGHT IS PRINTERS’ NIGHT

Tomorrow night, Tuesday the 20th at 6 PM, I will be presenting as part of the Printers’ Night at the San Francisco Center for the Book. Here’s the official description from the SFCB website:

OPEN PRINT STUDIO: PRINTER'S NIGHTS
Join us for a new SFCB tradition, Printer's Night, a bi-monthly evening of community and camaraderie among printers (and aspiring printers!). Bring your current project, your stories of challenges and triumphs, and your love of letterpress and printmaking. The evening will include a short presentation by this month's featured artist, Aaron Cohick, proprietor of NewLights Press and printer extraordinaire. Bring yourselves, your projects, your questions, and your enthusiasm!

I will be showing some of the more recent books, and concentrating on the current, in-process project—Kyle Schlesinger’s What You Will. I am about 96 runs deep on that now, past the halfway point, almost to the close of the first and most involved section of printing.

This will, sadly, be my last event at the SFCB, at least for awhile. I would love to see you all before I go.

Printer's Night at San Francisco Center for the Book
Tuesday, July 20th
6 PM - 8 PM
300 De Haro St., San Francisco
www.sfcb.org

PRINTER OF THE PRESS

I am tremendously excited and honored to announce that I have recently accepted the position of “Printer of the Press at Colorado College,” in Colorado Springs.

The Press at Colorado College was founded by Jim Trissel in 1977, and has operated more or less continuously since then, publishing fine print editions of literary works (books & broadsides) and artists’ books, and teaching students the arts of typography, printing, and binding, both through those projects and in conjunction with their regular classes. And so my job as Printer of the Press (love that title) will be part teaching (working with faculty to develop and facilitate coursework that will be done in the letterpress studio) and part making/publishing (developing, designing, printing, and binding books). I can not really express how thrilled I am to be chosen for a position where I will be paid to do my two favorite things—make books, and teach/help others to make books!

I know that this will be a challenging job—but the ones worth doing always are. I am looking to this opportunity as a chance to broaden my engagement with printing, books, and publishing, with the pedagogical and social issues that surround those activities. The NewLights Press will continue to operate (and will actually have more time to do that) and I am hoping to ramp up production more than ever. The future is bright, gleaming, breathless.

I am sad to leave the Bay Area though. Everyone here has been extremely welcoming, kind, and supportive. Thank you all again. I intend to remain as much a member of the community here as I can, even from afar. Being here, being a commercial printer, being a teacher—all of these things have been rewarding, enriching experiences, all of them bolstered by the wonderful community.

The Big Move will happen in August. Until then, production on various projects and postings here will continue, as I can. Thanks for reading.

POEMS & PICTURES: A RENAISSANCE IN THE ART OF THE BOOK (1946-1981)

Phillip Guston & Bill Berkson, Negative, 1973

The official text:

The Center for Book Arts (NY) is pleased to announce the Summer 2010 exhibition, Poems & Pictures: A Renaissance in the Art of the Book (1946-1981). This exhibition, organized by Kyle Schlesinger, examines the fundamental relationships between: form and content; visual and language arts; seeing and reading; and the miraculous occasions when these relationships blur. The major presses featured in this exhibition were established between 1945 and 1980, and some are still in operation. Together they share in the common objective of bringing bold new writing into print where commercial presses fear to tread, and to do so with flair, imagination, and intelligence.

The exhibition features over 60 books produced between 1946 and 1981, as well as paintings, collages, periodicals, and ephemera. Poets, artists, and collaborators include Wallace Berman, Joe Brainard, Robert Creeley, Jim Dine, Johanna Drucker, Philip Guston, Joanne Kyger, Emily McVarish, Karen Randall, Larry Rivers, George Schneeman, and many more.

I am tremendously excited and deeply honored that the NewLights Press is a part of this exhibition, as one example of a contemporary press whose work is linked to the tradition(s) initiated by the historical examples shown. The three new NewLights broadsides (Yau, Sirois, and Evenson) will be on display.

After the show is finished in NYC, it will travel to the Museum of Printing History in Houston, Texas.

OPENING TONIGHT! July 7, 6 – 8 PM

July 7 – September 11
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
www.centerforbookarts.org

2011 CODEX BOOKFAIR & SYMPOSIUM

Registration is now open for the 2011 Codex Bookfair and Symposium. This year’s theme is “Borders & Collaborations,” and so the focus (as seen in the presenters listed below) will be on international presses and books. Here’s the info from the website:

The third biennial CODEX International Book Fair and Symposium will take place February 6-9, 2011 on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. We are gathering together a congress of the world’s finest private presses, book artisans, artists, curators, collectors and scholars in the spirit of an Old West rendezvous. The Symposium and Bookfair will provide an opportunity to see and be seen in a relaxed setting. The best and most current work of a truly international group of artists and artisans will be on display. Participants from all the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand have responded. The San Francisco Bay Area’s libraries, book-arts & bibliophilic organizations host an abundance of events, exhibits and receptions during the week. Finally, the following weekend, will be the 44th annual California International Antiquarian Book Fair, certainly one of the biggest and best in the world. This will be an historic “bookweek” in the grand scale of the San Francisco tradition!

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS :

Paul van Capelleveen. Curator Modern Collections, Museum Meermanno, The Hague. The Contemporary Dutch Private Press.
Richard Ovenden, FRSA, FSA. Keeper of Special Collections and Associate Director, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Book Arts in the 21st Century Research Library.
Juan Nicanor Pascoe. Printer. Fine Printing in Mexico: Taller Martin Pescador, Michoacán
Martha Hellion. Artist & Independent Curator. Perspectives: The Artist Book in Latin and South America.

PRESENTATIONS BY ARTISTS & PRESSES:

Jan & Crispin Elsted: The Barbarian Press, Mission, British Columbia
Marina & Mikhail Karasik: M.K. Publishers, St Petersburg, Russia
Barbara & Markus Fahrner: Fahrner & Fahrner, Vancouver/Frankfurt/Main
Caroline Saltzwedel: Hirundo Press, Hamburg, Germany


The image at the top was designed by Russell Maret. That same image is used for the Codex postcards and some really nice letterpress printed posters.

My first year at Codex was the last one, in 2009. I had a great time. If you are at all considering buying a table, don’t hesitate too long, because they will sell out. And you may not make your money back, but showing your work at the fair brings in more than just money—it will connect you with an international community. & that is worth a tremendous amount.

Even if tabling at Codex is not in your future, it’s worth coming anyway, both for the symposium and the fair. You will not see more fine press/artists’ books from all over the world in any other single venue (at least in this country). Mark your calendars. We will all look forward to seeing you there.