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Look Yet Again / Objects Are Closer Than They Appear
Here in this dos-a-dos binding the students wrote stories inspired by a small object of some importance to them that each brought to typography class. Tales were woven without stating the object and the type sizes vary with most text running across the gutter. The Objects side is a pullout of 20 panels, each panel punctuated by a tiny cutout of various shapes on the bottom of each panel. The Look side is first a poem Bluebeard by Edna St. Vincent Millay and the rest is a 2-page popup of a star map and graphs. Inspiration came from Edward Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information and Visual Explanations, as well as by the structure of ancient maps and use of symbols there in. 84 copies, 2003.
$135
Limited Edition
After reading architect Maya Lin's book, Boundaries, eleven students came together to explore and push their own limits. Lin writes about the hierarchical decisions that must be made when designing a building, decisions that parallel the methodology of building a book. Taking their inspiration from Lin's title concept, the students added size constraints, looking at seventeenth-century printer Nicholas Kis' books and adopting his second smallest size. Further narrowing the field of play, since the book would be so small, the students decided to let text and illustration flow across the gutter. This dictated a glued, rather than sewn binding, which resulted in an unusually functional and visually intriguing book. The stories held within explore social, physical, political, and sexual boundaries and are illustrated with pochoir in a tertiary color system. Letterpress in various typefaces on Somerset Satin paper. The folios were glued to each other and then to a reinforced spine. Japanese cover paper is coated with acrylic gel medium for protection. The pages fold back quite easily. Stiffened by glue, but still flexible, the spine allows the pages to flare into a free-standing semi-circle. Housed in a slipcase. Edition of 81. (3w x 5l x 2d inches; 102 pp.) Spring, 2002.
$125
On the Impact of Expectations
In the course of overseeing the production of thirty books in fifteen years of teaching typography at Scripps, Professor Kitty Maryatt has "observed that students often write overly predictable first rough drafts. As a result, the specific focus of this book is unpredictability or surprise." The resulting artist book is evidence of an experiment conducted by six students under her guidance. Their working hypothesis was that expectations can be undermined. The stories, written for the edition, challenge reader expectations in both their content and their form. Varied page configurations serve to reveal the structure of each story. Six bound and unbound booklets include sewn, accordion, dos-à-dos, and puzzle piece constructions. Each 5 x 5-inch booklet is slipped neatly into specially designed "file folders" made from Rives Heavyweight paper (tan) and painted with pearlescent paint. The names of the authors/book artists are neatly arranged in plastic tabs at the top like files. Lifting the cover off the acrylic box and seeing the array of names, one may recall a recipe box, but that is only a trick of expectation. Unpredictable stories feature a character that diligently avoids the rain, a mathematical bisexual, a puzzle in a pouch, and the dark and light sides of charm. Letterpress from various typefaces. Illustrated with linoleum blocks, pochoir, and polymer plates. Signed edition of 70. (Pearlescent box is 6 x 6.25 x 2.5 inches.) 2001.
$160
Instant Coffee/Aging Wine
Written, illustrated, printed (as is the custom) by eleven Scripps typography students under the guidance of Professor Kitty Maryatt. In the introduction to this edition, which contemplates speed, its benefits and detriments, Maryatt writes: "Internet speed is a catchword today: download faster, get speedier access to all that information out there, get connected! At the Scripps College Press, we work at letterpress speed. That means we set type by hand, hand crank the Vandercooks, carve and draw images, sew hand-folded signatures and fabricate the bindings. This is all very slow. On the other hand, the deadline for finishing the edition is the end of the semester. That means moving along at a clip with our writing and idea-forming, running those presses at top speed, and making decisions about the binding in a timely fashion. This seems to go very fast." Students were asked to reflect on the idea of speed and develop stories that would illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of going fast or slowly. Original text, letterpress printed from various handset types (all twelve-point) and polymer-plate illustrations on Somerset Satin. Sewn boards binding. Numbered edition of 60. (6 x 8 inches.)
$125
Le Chevallier Tondal
Inspired by a pre-Dantean book, Les Visions du chevalier Tondal,
this medižval Latin text, originally written by an Irish monk at
Regensberg in 1149, is reinterpreted and re-visioned by the typography
students of Scripps College Press, under the watchful eyes of Professor
Kitty Maryatt. The text, discovered in a fifteenth-century Burgundian
book, details terrible punishments meted out to the wealthy knight,
Tondal, for numerous sins. Students were asked to choose excerpts
and write a commentary about modern sin and punishment, as a gloss
of the Tondal, keeping a sense of humor about them. A consummate
effort by students who themselves experienced the sins of over-committing
and suffered the torments of too many print runs. But each had a
vision and saw it through. Letterpress from handset type on Mohawk
Superfine Cover. Maroon wood covers laced on with gold thongs, sewn
with gold thread, held together with a brass clasp. Edition of 60.
(9.75 x 13 inches; 91 pp.)
$160
Sweet & Sour. Dialogues
At a small college press like Scripps, rarely is there enough handset
metal type in a single face to print an entire book. And rarely
is there enough time in a semester to set type, print, distribute,
and set more type to make that time-honored process feasible for
a printing class. So Professor Kitty Maryatt arrived at the idea
of a dialogue to give student printers the opportunity to explore
different voices through the various typefaces? This then became
the challenge of the semester for each of the six students in her
class: to create two distinctive characters who would have a dialogue.
Students employed typefaces to reflect the personalities of the
characters. Printed letterpress from Garamond, Ehrhardt, Optima,
Fournier, Centaur, Arrighi, and Scripps College Old Style. Imagery
produced from linoleum blocks and through experimental printmaking
techniques that used subtle inking to create misty illustrations.
Triptychs sewn together and housed in a cloth covered case. Book
can be displayed so that all of the characters in the stories can
be viewed at once. Edition of 60.
$125
CALQL8R (Calculate Her)
When
renowned type designer Frederic W. Goudy created the Scripps College
Old Style face, he neglected to design an Italic set of numbers
to accompany the Roman figures. Since noted typographer Sumner Stone
is currently digitizing the entire face, Professor Kitty Maryatt
took the opportunity to have her students work on the figures. Students
drew the Italic figures then scanned them into computers and used
the Fontographer program to help them with their task. In addition,
the book presented a "number" of technical difficulties.
The page layout called for four text areas per spread, so students
had to calculate the exact number of points to make sure their type
fit. Thus, numbers became the primary focus of the seven stories
(one per student) herein. Letterpress printed from the aforementioned
face with linoleum block illustrations. The large digitized Italic
numbers that they worked on are printed here from magnesium plates.
Exposed spine sewing. Bound in Asahi bookcloth over boards inlaid
with a 1.25 x 4 inch magnesium title plate that resembles a personalized
car license. (Go figure!) Edition of 55.
$100
Overflow
A kaleidoscope of original watercolors based on the themes and variations
of water. "It is the sustaining liquid of life. It refreshes,
revives, and drowns us. We pour ourselves into it, it washes over
us, we drown in laughter. It takes on the shape of anything it is
in. It sparkles, changes color and moves hypnotically." Hand
painted on Somerset Satin and printed damp with Centaur type. Bound
in chain stitches on the spine while soft waves wash over the blue
Japanese cloth cover. Edition of 60. (8.5 x 7.5 inches; 62 pp.)
$100
Speaking in Tongues
In the introduction to this collection of writings-by students of
typography at Scripps College-Professor Kitty Maryatt describes
these stories as "secret." Each of the seven tales is
printed in individual signatures with a translation into English
(or vice versa) from Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Japanese,
Irish, and German. Each signature contains some text that is hidden
either inside folds or under inserts of paper. Text is printed variously
from metal type and polymer and magnesium plates. Maryatt challenges
us to see if we can tell which language came first in each story
and what the process was. Printed on earthen colors of Ingres Antique.
Linoleum block illustrations. Signatures are sewn into Japanese
cloth-covered boards. Tabbed spine with exposed sewing. Edition
of 50 signed by the authors and Maryatt. Card stock folder with
illustrated cover has "secret" magnetic closures.
$95
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