fresh news from Ruscombe Paper Mill

above is a fresh notice on the Ruscombe website - the paper being revived is one I have bought for the next Electio book - but the background picture is of printed pages from RED SQUARE : the next word printed partly on Ruscombe's copy of Barcham Green's India Office and partly on a small supply I still had of the original Barcham Green - and about to be issued from Electio - the slipcases are currently being done while the printer morphs into binder over the next couple of weeks

more on Alessandro Zanella

visited Heavenly Monkey's excellent blog, to find notice (his entry on 27.11.12) of an obituary & online exhibition of Alessandro Zanella's work at the University of Utah J Willard Marriott Library - go to HM's blog to click thru to the show. . . 

and it's funny how the familiar can almost slide out of mind or knowledge or memory but, I had to reach recently for Richard-Gabriel Rummonds's Printing on the iron handpress from my bookshelf to be reminded that the photograph on the cover is of, of course, Alessandro Zanella - a fitting, if small, memorial to a great printer

in memoriam Alessandro Zanella, printer

early last July (I cannot find an exact date) Alessandro Zanella, handprinter, of the Edizioni Ampersand, Verona, Italy, died unexpectedly. I can find almost nothing online that registers this event, or honors him, or gives even a short story of his life – and I’m sorry to say I cannot make up that lack here – Alessandro Zanella has been in my mind as a printer for a long time, first as a colleague & fellow printer with Richard-Gabriele Rummonds, and then out on his own as Edizioni Ampersand – in part this attraction was one of those romantic & purely emotional “connections” in that one of New Zealand’s best known literary printers, Denis Glover (1912-1980) of Caxton Press used to write to me as ‘Dear Ampersand Alan’ (I used ampersands in my poetry, something he would never do) – and I once wrote an essay titled & the ampersand, which I printed in 1990 – but I knew he printed on a rare Stanhope iron handpress (the only one I had seen was given the late D F McKenzie and his Wai-te-ata Press at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand by Cambridge University), and I knew that he taught handpress printing, and at one time I seriously considered signing up but the costs were then prohibitive for me – rummaging about online I found a nice tribute of one his teaching classes by Marnie Parsons of Running The Goat – and here you can find a short account of the course and some fine pictures of the students in action, taken by Alessandro himself -

when I found out that he had passed away I contacted Vamp and Tramp Booksellers and I now have one of the most beautiful books in my collection, Persephone by Yannis Ritsos with woodcuts by Joe Tilson – exquisite printing, beautiful design, and a screenprinted paper over boards cover, the text printed in both Greek & English - Vamp and Tramp still have a few copies of a few of Ampersand’s titles –

I think the passing of a handprinter at Zanella’s level deserves some real acknowledgment and I hope to see something soon that keeps the profile & the spirit of the books of Alessandro Zanella alive. . . 

progress on RED SQUARE

the printed sheets for RED SQUARE are piling up - 5 sheets printed, 3 to go - and each sheet has up to 10 printings in up to 7 colors - at the current production rate I hope to have the work done by end of October - here's one sheet photograph'd, others will follow soon -

Bemboka handmade paper

I've now received the information I needed regarding Bemboka handmade paper, and will report later on the results of my enquiry - meantime, I'm interested to know how many books have been printed using Bemboka paper - if anyone has information, I'd be glad to have it, and I'll begin a list of them, with these to start with - 

William Shakespeare, The phoenix and the turtle, Escutcheon Press, Pearl Beach NSW 1991.

Donald Friend, An alphabet of owls, printed by Jim Walker at the Croft Press for Richard Griffin for Gryphon Books, Melbourne VIC 1981.

Sylvan Type Works

a note to say that the Sylvan Type Works of Nicholas Summers is still operating at full capacity, in spite of the fact that his website is, shall I say, a little less mobile than he is just now. He asks people not to be fazed by that, and to contact him as you need, and he will attend to your enquiry. For myself, I am beginning to realise that Nicholas is emerging as a significant local Australian maker & supplier of much basic ancillary equipment for letterpress and handpress printing. In the recent Adventure & Art exhibition at the University of Melbourne, one of his father's books, Robert Summers, How is a man: commonplace book, (Escutcheon Press, Pearl Beach NSW 1999), a beautifully designed & printed work, was on display, along with a lovely simple rendering of Shakespeare's The Phoenix and the Turtle, pictured here - the paper is the legendary Bemboka handmade paper, an enterprise long gone now, but about which I'd like to know more - SO, anyone with information about Bemboka Handmade Paper, when they operated in Australia, why they closed down, where is the equipment now etc etc - I'd be grateful to hear from you - in any case, here's the Shakespeare, printed by Robert Summers, 1991, in 55 copies. . . 

Codex Australia website

CODEX AUSTRALIA website is now up & running and the organisation itself is well & truly launched - check the site out - Codex Australia - one of the advantages of being a Sponsor is occasional visits to book artists' studios or to those with significant private book collections - the first of these is coming up on October 14 at the studio of Bruno Leti in Melbourne - and in November, the first of the Codex Bolton Lectures (open to everybody) will be held - check the Codex website for more precise details closer to the time of the events. . . 

another new book

another new book, well, perhaps, it's always a tricky question - am I repeating myself - we spend our lives repeating the same words - that we do so in different orders makes what, exactly, sort of difference - however, at least I can say I have begun work on another book - for many years I and I suppose countless others have admired the work of Hendrik Werkman, who made typographic prints at the handpress from materials, types, blocks, rollers etc that were to be found in his printery - he produced a periodical, in Dutch, tho the title is in English (never seen any commentator comment on that), The Next Call - now that I have ceased printing the work of others, I have picked up on the wish to in some measure emulate the unique Werkman (is it 'workman' in English, for that would suit me very well) and produce a printed periodical titled The next word - all my books now will have that title, plus a subtitle, which will relate to the title in different (ha! I keyed in "deferent" ways - which, is also, as someone said, 'of the matter' - the present book is The next word : Red Square - where 'Red Square' refers to the imaginary exhibition posited by Arthur C Danto (The transfiguration of the commonplace, 1981) which consisted of several visually identical paintings of red squares with very different captions. . . the work will be in many colors thruout, with a mix of wood & metal types, printed damp on Barcham Green India Office handmade paper & Ruscombe India Office handmade paper at the handpress - in 40 copies (Werkman's periodical was done in 40 copies) tho my books will likely be all 32 pages where his were of 8 pages only - in any case, the 'Werkman' text for this book takes all the Dutch words in his 9 issues that also spell out English words, and these have become my words for the book - I am indebted to Arthur Danto for permission to use his idea - I'll keep you posted on progress. . . for the fun of it, here are the Dutch/English words -

[the versos]

Dutch words in The next call that also spell English words

was         reeds        van         met         datum         die         rose         is         want         reveille         elk         mild         man         also         dag         door         stem         den         horrible         execution         immense         vent         moment         crier         art     aspiration         pour         diner         meditations         encore         plus         rend         smart         beer         over         toga         zoo         ex libris         cosmos         boulevard         leg         bent         president of         drift         wilt         program         punt         blank         Three cheers for the Fresco’s            Baedeker         span         ware         doctor         best         begin         machine         motor          hotel         reaction         rang         &         stand         cargo         radio         blue         band         en masse         dividend         effect         avant-garde         manuscript         burger         held         week         journalist         per         post         loudspeaker         past         auto         stank         detail         face         gladden         coefficient         credit         cyclostyles         offers         dogma         surplus         element         sport         war         mutter

nice double image

I cannot for the life of me remember where I found this image, or who made the work or who posted it online - if anyone can tell me I'd be very grateful - 

[a few days later] many thanks to Philip Gallo, who sent me the following information - 
Italian furniture and interior design company Saporiti has come up with a clever and unique concept for this wooden bookshelf. By playing around with the placement of the shelves within each box, they were able to visibly form the phrase “READ YOUR BOOKCASE.” Each individual shelf contains a different letter and can 
be stacked to form a complete word or stand freely on its own.

the Codex Australia invitation

Codex Australia to be launched

amidst everything else happening in this or any other neck of the woods ("the neck of the woods is everywhere" saith the poet) - the big thing happening for the book in Melbourne is the public launch of CODEX AUSTRALIA on Tuesday August 7 at the Leigh Scott Room at the University of Melbourne at 6pm for 6.30pm - Susan Millard, Acting Curator at the Baillieu Library and Alan Loney will be the speakers - a number of Australian books by contemporary book artists (Carolyn Fraser, Bruno Leti, Petr Herel, Peter Lyssiotis, Alan Loney) will be on display before being sent off to Washington DC to join the CodexMexico exhibition at the Mexican Cultural Institute in September/October this year - and various aspects of the organisation and its programs will also be announced on the night - most invitations will be sent by email (contact me if you want to get one) and a few handprinted invitations have been printed by 'the present writer' - and can be seen spread out to dry here - 

timeless 'ephemeral' printing

occasionally I am in the happy circumstance of printing something small - 2 day's work rather than 2 months' book-making - for a friend - it does not at all mean I'm available for jobbing printing - and right now I'm turning a calligraphic work into a an editioned print for Deirdre Hassed (see Calligraphic Works) - 50 copies on damped Twinrocker handmade paper, in 50 copies on the Albion - the text is a portion of the Bhagavad Gita in both Sanskrit & English, and the Sanskrit block is here locked into the press - 

a trial of inks is laid out - Handschy Copper and Fire Red (we decided against the Red. . . 

and printer & calligrapher set about using a time-honored measuring device to establish the positions of each magnesium block in relation to the other - 

today the second color will be printed - not the red but Handschy Cyan mixed with Opaque White. . . 

alphabeta series complete

for reasons of health, age, mortality, energy etc, I have closed the alphabeta series now, and will concentrate on printing my own work - it has been a hard decision, and I know in my own experience how disappointing for others this can be - the series got to number 3, and issued poems by Tony Green (New Zealand), Marion May Campbell (Australia), and Kyle Schlesinger (United States) - henceforth, all my printing will be focused on the series of 'own' works under the heading of The next word - & news of the first of these will be posted here soon - meantime, there are still 3 copies of Tony's book left, and 7 of Kyle's - here's a picture of them. . . 

Zukofsky found

many thanks to those who replied to my request for a reference to a specific quotation I posted last month - an exact quote was provided by Mark Scroggins, whose book The poem of a life : a biography of Louis Zukofsky (Shoemaker Hoard 2007) I am now reading with great pleasure. . . 

with deckles affix'd

not all deckles lopp'd - here's 2 views of India Office - light & dark = Barcham Green & Ruscombe - with bottom edge retain'd - more news on what the paper's for soon. . . 

and