Exhibition

Paper Type Image: Elements of the Fine Press Book. Checklist available.

The selections that make up this exhibit inevitably pose the same questions that arise whenever one attempts to determine the characteristics of a fine press work. Does such a printed item, for example, have to have a classic text (or at least one that has been deemed somehow an appropriate one)? Is it essential that it be letterpress-printed on a specialty stock in order to qualify for this assessment? Must it incorporate images that have been painstakingly rendered by hand or in a limited edition through a number of labor-intensive graphic arts processes? Is the manner of its sewing and binding alone a sufficient justification for regarding it as a fine press product?

The guiding principle in this particular exhibition has been to identify examples of relatively recent works, loosely deemed, within the holdings of the Special Collections Research Center that conjure up a sense of a cohesive book or print project in which the individual components have a unity that overcomes their disparateness. The publications that are displayed within these five cases in this foyer are, after all, largely collaborative efforts. It would have been extremely difficult for a single individual to accomplish all of the tasks that are associated with a book within this category. A successful fine press volume, it could be argued, must manage to convince us that a single vision of the work was effectively conceived, communicated, and executed, regardless of how many collaborators and production steps may have been involved in its creation. We invite you to explore for yourself how simple elements-type and paper, ink and image-can be variously combined into an artistic whole, a fine press book.

The exhibit was curated by William T. La Moy of Rare Books and Printed Materials.

Exhibition Checklist