AGAINST PRESERVATION: THE VISTA SANS WOOD TYPE PROJECT

Hatch Show Print’s motto is: “Preservation Through Use.” When they say this they are talking specifically about their collection of historic type & image blocks. They “preserve” those physical things by continuing to use them and keeping the iconic images that they produced circulating in the culture. The idea of “preservation through use” is an oxymoron—using those blocks is not going to preserve them. That use is going to destroy them.

Generally speaking, when it comes to Book Arts & letterpress printing, I am against preservation. Not that I want to see all of our lovely tools, equipment & materials burned & scrapped. Quite the opposite, actually. I am against preservation in the sense that something that needs to be “preserved” is something that has died, that is in the process of rapid decay. The preservation impulse in Book Arts, while noble & in some ways worthwhile, is holding it back.

Letterpress printing, hand bookbinding, small/private press publishing, etc., etc. are commercially obsolete. That does not mean they are “dead”—historically over, sealed shut, capable of no further development in aesthetics and/or technology. The Economy is not the only economy. These things—these techniques, tools, equipment, processes, materials, ways of doing-learning-moving—are living things. & there is, terrifyingly, excitingly, more work to be done.

The Vista Sans Wood Type Project gets at several very important things:

1) It literally advances the technology of type production & letterpress printing. There is now a typeface that was never available as type, in lead or wood, in the world in physical form. And the type is different from traditional wood type—some of it has a very visible grain. It is not so precious anymore—it can be kerned, mortised, cut, spliced without worry. It points toward even more possibilities.

2) The project is not just about the type, it’s also about its utility & function. The functional/shareable is the new relational.

3) The project is not just about the type, it’s also about how it’s used to advance the aesthetic range of letterpress printing. You can see lots of the prints in the video above. Very few of them look like a “traditional” letterpress broadside. & that points to one very, very important thing about letterpress printing—it’s an extremely flexible & adaptable medium. The pinnacle of its aesthetic achievement was not/is not black, serifed text type on white or off-white paper.

4) The project is not just about the type, it’s about community, about this community of incredible people making incredible things.

Things like the Vista Sans Wood Type Project are absolutely crucial to keeping the fields of book arts, printing, typography, design, publishing, etc., etc. moving & interesting & fun. Tricia & Ashley have already made the type, but now they need some funds to make a book documenting the project—a book that will take the project even further. Please consider helping them out by following the link at the end of the video or by clicking here.

ABOUT THIS OBTUSE BLOG TITLE, or THE BUREAUCRACY OF ONE

Some of you may be wondering where that ridiculous blog title comes from. It’s actually a riff off of an earlier, on-going piece that this blog is essentially an extension of. That piece is called IDE(A/O)LOG(Y/UE). What it is, very simply, is a log of the ideas that I have for pieces.

Fig. 12.08.1
The front and back of the “Taxonomy and Notes” section of the IDE(A/O)LOG(Y/UE). Shown here is the entry for the IDE(A/O)LOG(Y/UE) itself. Note the negative conception date.

Taxonomy & Notes
I designed myself a form to fill out every time I have a specific idea. The front of the form (Fig. 12.08.1, left side) has boxes for: Conception Number (date of conception plus one extra number to distinguish it from different ideas entered on the same day), Working Title, Source (stolen, adapted, or constructed), Form (what it is & made of), Description (a detailed physical description of the piece), Commentary (my thoughts on the piece as it develops, potential problems, etc.) Connections (artworks, of mine and others, that the piece relates to somehow), Final Title, and Reception Number (date of completion plus one number). The back (Fig. 12.08.1, right side) simply provides space to expand the Description and Commentary sections as the piece develops. Initial entries are typed in on a PDF form, which is then printed, 3 hole punched, and placed in a binder. Every time that I change the idea or something in general happens with the piece, I make handwritten additions/changes to the forms. When a piece is finished, it gets a “MADE” and date stamp in red in the Status section.

The IDE(A/O)LOG(Y/UE) goes through “iteration cycles.” An iteration of the log ends when it is displayed (generally at a NewLights solo show, although I think the current cycle may end at the Codex Symposium). When an iteration is complete, the status of all pieces in it must be assessed and accounted for, receiving stamps such as “PENDING” or “ABANDONED.” Other stamp possibilities: FUTILE, FAILED, SOLD, COMBINED, etc. The new iteration begins with its first entry. All “PENDING” entries from the previous cycle are photocopied and placed in the new binder.

Proofs & Ephemera
There is a second binder, referenced to the first, which collects documentation of the process of each piece in the log--sketches, order forms, receipts, print set up sheets, and other scraps. If a piece is actively worked on through two or more iterations, its documentation remains inside its original binder.

Functional Analysis
The third binder appears at the time of display. It is more or less a guest book for a gallery show, providing forms for people to leave their contact info and whatever comments they wish. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many people used the comments section as a place to leave their own artwork, so in the end the “Functional Analysis” became a multi-person collaboration.

Completed IDE(A/O)LOG(Y/UE) iterations will be scanned and released via the NewLights Press website.

So, hence the title, hence the blog itself.