OCAC: Books Accomplished.
The artists’ books are done after a marathon week-long workshop at the Oregon College of Art and Craft! The three presses were humming all the time and some planning was required to get everyone on the press in the right color.
On the last day, the binders quietly and intensely assembled and bound their work in the calligraphy studio.
Meanwhile in the pressroom, Nancy was struggling with some 12 point Kennerly type. After spending much of Thursday setting a Dahl recipe. . .
she discovered after taking a proof that much of it was “dead type.” Dead type is mashed type, type that has been rounded and compressed and deformed through years of use. See the proof below:
When a proof looks like this, one has no choice but to get one’s tweezers out and start replacing letters. When we started digging them out, we realized that the entire case was full of type with flaws so severe you could see the rounded bad edges even before setting it in place. I tried to take a picture of a particularly pathetic ‘e’ through a loop, but the photo does not do it justice. I include it here out of stubbornness. Please pretend to see how flawed and crushed it is and then, if you want to make me and Nancy happy, comment about it below.
In any event, we fought a good fight and replaced as much as we could. It is only now, looking at the photo below as I type this, that I realize that this recipe calls for a ‘biced’ onion.
In the end all of the work paid off and everyone produced a small edition of books. Below, Cheryl broke all the rules by printing the covers after binding (do not try this at home.)
Veronica broke all the rules by stapling her books together. (and binding them in player piano roll paper)
Dominque’s folios, pressure printed from linoleum blocks, fit into an unusual accordion/pamphlet structure.
Everyone’s books looked great, but the rest of my photos are too blurry! But here is one, at least, of the class. Thanks everyone for a great week!
On Tuesday I head back to England! Next up on the teaching calendar: Bookbinding summer school at Ink Spot Press August 28-31. But first it is time to get back to printing my book. (Book? What book?)
Stay tuned. My next post will be from Brighton.
7 comments on “OCAC: Books Accomplished.”
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Big Jump Press 
I am sure Brighton (and residents) will be as happy to see you arrive as usa is sad to see you leave. GOOD JOB.
Idea for a new poster:
“some l-c* Es are just troublemakers.”
*lower-case or low-class. Your choice.
agh, that e!!
i hate to be the one to say it, but in the recipe, the can of tomatoes went from being a l4.5 oz to 4.5 oz can. if it were mine and i had to go through all that dead type, i wouldn’t even care. it reminds of me of typos i have let go out into the world for that exact reason.
everything looks wonderful! have a safe trip! show us your book progress!
No no! that was the typo! It was accidentally an l4.5 (as in ‘el’4.5, the letter ‘l’ accidentally set instead of a space). We removed it! We were victorious! Victorious, Laura!
it wasn’t supposed to be a one? as in a 14.5 oz can?
Well I thought it was a space, but now I have no idea. Let’s just say it is perfect now.
perfect! IT’S PERFECT.
That e is a loser.