PRIVATE PRESSES AND TYPOGRAPHY, part 1

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PRIVATE PRESSES AND TYPOGRAPHY, part 1

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: Arion Press aims to match the finest contemporary art with the finest literature past and present in books that are beautifully designed and produced. Printer-publisher Andrew Hoyem employs the exacting standards and skilled craftsmanship of the fine printing tradition in the service of an ambitious publication program. Two to three limited edition books are published per year. Each is conceptually unique, bringing together a significant text with a contemporary artist, or in other cases, a purely typographic interpretation. Those illustrated by prominent artists are often accompanied by separate editions of original prints. The texts of the more than fifty Arion Press publications are characterized by their diversity and intellectual depth, with titles that range from ancient literature to modern classics. Its authors extend from Ovid to Shakespeare, Laurence Sterne, Herman Melville, Gertrude Stein, Sigmund Freud, Allen Ginsberg and David Mamet. The Press has also developed entirely new material for publication. It has resurrected "lost" texts and commissioned new works by poets, critics, and scholars. Since 1982 the Press has also issued books and portfolios with original prints by major artists, including Jim Dine, Michael Graves, Jasper Johns, Richard Bosman, John Baldessari, Robert Motherwell, Richard Diebenkorn, R. B. Kitaj, Ida Applebroog, and Wayne Thiebaud. Editions are strictly limited and are designed and produced, mainly by hand, in an atelier-like setting near the new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Type is composed and cast on the premises by M & H Type, established in 1915, the oldest and largest type foundry still operating in this country. A complete book bindery and the historic letterpress equipment of the Grabhorn Press are in use, alongside the technology of the late twentieth century. Beside its publishing program, Arion Press offers custom services for the design and production of fine typography and printing, from small quantities for personal use to large quantities for organizational needs. Consultation on projects and publications is available as well as high-quality products.
The Melville Press: a new small press specializing in limited edition. The site features CETUS, The Whale; an illustrated companion to Moby Dick. This handbound edition of 200 has been honored with a 1997 Rounce & Coffin Award for excellence in book design, and is currently touring the U.S. with the Western Books Exhibition.
The Alembic Press: Claire M Bolton, Hyde Farm House, Marcham, Abingdon, Oxford, OX13 6NX Telephone 01865 391391 ..... Fax 01865 391322, AlembicPrs@aol.com.
A Fine Press creating and printing limited edition books by traditional letterpress. The Press is housed in a 70ft x 20ft stone barn and has available a collection of printing presses, comprising an Albion hand press, Arab and Peerless treadle presses, Vandercook and Farley proof presses, and one Adana 8x5, two Horizontal Quarto, and one 5x3 table-top press. The Press has a wide range of metal and wood type, from 5 point up to 60 line, for hand setting, and 5 to 14 point for machine setting. There is a collection of Monotype matrices, keybars, etc., plus two keyboards, one Super caster, two Composition casters, although the Super caster and one Composition caster are not yet in full working order. The Press is happy to accept commissions for designing and printing, be it letterheads or a book, but be aware that the work will be printed letterpress.
Mothertongue Press: Private Press on Salt Spring Island, B.C. Canada. Specializing in exquisite chapbooks of poetry & prose, broadsides & book art. Limited & Signed Editions. Using a Vandercook SP-15, handmade & recycled papers, die-cuts, lino & wood cuts, colour letterpress printing. Annual catalogue issued: $5.00
CHAX PRESS: non-profit literary organization which publishes books in limited book arts editions and in trade literary editions.. Chax Press is a nonprofit (501c3) literary organization which publishes books in limited book arts editions and in trade literary editions. The books present contemporary exploratory writing in forms noted for their excellent design. Book arts editions are hand printed and hand bound according to exacting standards; however, they do not follow traditional fine print formats, rather offer contemporary excursions into the relationship of visual, verbal, and structural elements in the book. The trade literary editions are standard trade paperbacks published in small editions (500 to 1000). Chax depends on supporters not only to buy and read our books, but to further support Chax Press with contributions which are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Sales of the books alone will not pay for the costs of maintaining a productive literary press. Purchase of these books, together with contributions to Chax Press, allows the continued publication of exciting works of innovative new writing.
ZINES: a weird, interesting, unique site of magazines created by underground artists
BRIAR PRESS: homepage devoted to promoting the art of letterpress, and the preserving of some of the familiar and not so familiar graphics and images of letterpresses and the printed image
THE FINE PRESS BOOKSHOP: on-line catalogue of contemporary fine press books produced in limited letterpress editions by private presses the world over
PRIVATE PRESSES OF THE U.K.: website presenting a number of presses actively producing books, all with metal type and generally with illustrations and original texts
RESOURCES FOR LETTERPRESS PRINTERS: list of links interesting to letterpress printers; links to museums, type foudries and publications
QUIXOTE: magazine of type and typography
BOOKBLOCK: University of Idaho
FIREPROOF PRESS: about letterpress history, type, people and programs; with letterpress links page.
typoGRAPHIC: an interactive experience (requires SHOCKWAVE, Netscape plugg-in)
JOSEPH ISHILL: and the ORIOLE PRESS; 50 years of publications ( Joseph Ishill (1888-1966) emigrated to the United States in 1909 and settled in New York City. Having been apprenticed in a print shop in Rumania, he found work as a typesetter in the city. An anarchist by the time he came to the U.S., Ishill soon began attending the lectures of Emma Goldman and other notable radicals. He was a frequent visitor to the Ferrer Center in New York, and when a Ferrer Colony was founded in Stelton, N.J. in 1915, Ishill was one of the original members. Ishill began helping print the Colony's magazine, The Modern School, and a year later he published Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol. From the publication of that book in 1916 until his death fifty years later, Ishill published more than 200 books and pamphlets, all of them typeset and printed by hand. In spite of toiling in relative obscurity he has been lauded both by radicals, who recognize him for his efforts in publishing radical materials, and by fine press enthusiasts, who consider him to be one of the finest American printers and typographers of the twentieth century.)
MODERN FINE PRINTING: focusses on British and American fine printing in the 19th and 20th century, with particular emphasis on William Morris and the Kelmscott Press.
ON-LINE TYPE MUSEUM: GRAPHION: here you will find information about the history and practice of typesetting. While the advent of the personal computer has put the tools for page composition within the reach of virtually everyone, Graphion feels that an appreciation of the roots and subtleties of type can only enhance the experience of both publisher and reader
TYPOFILE MAGAZINE: about the love (and use) of type..
THREE BEARS PRESS: bringing together the crafts of hand paper making, bookbinding and printing. 'Three Bears Press takes you back to a time when the process of creating was just as important as the quality of the finished product'
ELYSIUM DAVID DEISS: letterpress book publisher and printer with catalog both of his own and others' books ( Elysium Press was created in 1990 to print and publish letterpress books by authors whose works were either out of print or out of fashion in the contemporary book world. There is a particular focus on works by gay authors of the last century whose work has been neglected or overlooked by the commercial trade. The books are printed by hand on fine papers and are hand bound in limited editions. The book list that follows incorporates the editions of the Press, as well as many other books that may be of interest.)
TYPOGRAPHY AND CALLIGRAPHY: Jay Sekora's personal homepage.

PRIVATE PRESSES and TYPOGRAPHY, part II
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