Gruffyground Press Chapbooks available

In 2003, The Bieler Press was commissioned to produce one of the final chapbooks of The Gruffyground Press, The Phoenix and Turtle. Publisher, Anthony Baker, never did shut down though so this was followed by several other projects from Gruffyground, including the recent The Elegie (below). Both titles are available from Gruffyground.

The Phoenix and Turtle. The poem of ‘Truthes and Beauties doome and date’ by William Shakespeare. Based on a setting by Sem Hartz. Hartz, in an attempt to capture the look of the Secretary hand of Shakespeare’s period, chose the Enschedé foundry’s Lettres Françoise Civilité of Robert Granjon for his edition. The typeface used in this edition is a size-optimized and letterpress-configured version of Hoefler & Frere-Jones’ digital rendition.

The cover features a digitally reconstructed engraved ornamental initial originally designed by Richard Pynson (ca 1505). A capital S, with the head and elongated neck of a mythological bird extending out from the letterform. Designed and letterpress printed by Gerald Lange from photopolymer plates on Frankfurt Creme and Curtis Flannel (covers). Hand sewn by the publisher. The edition is limited to 220 copies. 11 pages. 4-1/8 by 6-1/4 inches. 2003.

Recently produced by Lange (November 2014) is An Elegie by Ben Jonson, whose production is patterned after the above The Phoenix and Turtle, but features a different Civilité (based on the original Saint Augustin) from the digital foundry P22. Papers (except for cover color) and sizing are otherwise similar. This is typeset by Baker’s bibliographer Mark Askam of Chestnut Press, who also created a similar cover image to fit this new publication (a composite from 15th century elements of Vérald and Malliet). This is considered the second issue in Gruffygrounds’ Shakespeare and His Contemporaries series.

As previously, designed and letterpress printed by Gerald Lange from photopolymer plates on Frankfurt Creme and Curtis Flannel (covers). Hand sewn by the publisher. The edition is limited to 220 copies. 7 pages. 4-1/8 by 6-1/4 inches. 2014.

New Goudy Broadside Available

The Appearance of the Work. A short quote by Frederic W. Goudy, designed and printed in four passes on mouldmade paper. Issued in a limited edition given to attendees of Gerald Lange’s lecture “The Photopolymer Plate Process and Refined Typography on the Letterpress Printed Page,” sponsored by the American Printing American History Association, May 4, 2013. Set by Lange in Trinité No. 3 from The Enschedé Font Foundry. 70 copies were kept for sale. 8⅞ by 10½ inches. $40.00.

Tiny chapbooks

In 2003, Lange was commissioned by type designer Jill Bell to print a small chapbook for presentation at TypeTechnica. Designed by Bell, Paradox uses her typefaces Adobe Bruno, Adobe Bruno Bold, and ITC Clover.

Cover of Curtiss Flannel printed in two colors. Text paper Frankfurt White mouldmade. 4-5/16 by 5-7/16 inches. 8 pages. 250 signed and numbered copies. 

The day before Jill was off to Heidelberg, Germany for her keynote presentation I had finished the printing and folding and asked her how she was going to bind the chapbook. She thought she'd grab a stapler somewhere. When she arrived in the morning to pick up the packages the chapbooks were all hand sewn. Long night. She was very appreciative. At the presentation Hermann Zapf caught her eye, held up the book, pointed at the sewn knot and gave her the thumbs up sign!

Available for purchase from The Bieler Press for $45.


Sex Education by Julie Becker, published in 1983, is a chapbook version of the very first publication issued under The Bieler Press imprint, a humorous broadside issued in 1975

The chapbook measures 4.5 by 7.25 inches but when opened the inner single sheet of Frankfurt White paper, containing the entirety if the poem spread out in six panels of a concertina fold, measures 26 inches long! The covers were issued in either pink or blue. Naturally!

I was reading through a recent catalogue by Nicholas Pounder, Rare Books (Australia), in which I was pleased to see the item described as “beautifully designed: both majestic and clever.” Intrigued, and looking through the physical inventory I discovered I had a few more than my regular stash. These are priced at $75.

Other publishers' broadsides of Gerald Lange

In the last several years, work by Gerald Lange has appeared in broadside form, printed by other publishers:

Incident
A poem published by The Bieler Press as a postcard size broadside, Incident was released in 1981, when Lange was working out of St. Paul, Minnesota. Thirty-three years following the Bieler Press printing!!! this was recently released by Carolee Campbell of Ninja Press in an letterpress printed edition of 75 signed and numbered copies. This is part of Ninja Press' Alphabet Broadside series. 2014. [Lange's Incident was originally published by The Fault magazine (#4) in 1973. Tip o the hat to Cheryll Fong at the University of Minnesota Library Archives for finding the bibliographic data, much appreciated.].

the new god
Available from Farida Sunada of the Ophelia Press is a letterpress printed broadside titled the new god, which is a revised excerpt from Gerald Lange's article “Edition Printing on the Cylinder Proof Press: A Historical Perspective,” originally published in Parenthesis: The Journal of the Fine Press Book Association, Number 3, May 1999. This was a limited edition of 200 numbered copies signed by the author; 110 of which were a contribution to the Vandercook Centenary Print Bundle [2009], the remainder for distribution/sale by Ophelia Press.

Duet-on-Mars
Illustrations of the two Mars Rovers by Lange using random droppings (to scanner) of identical, varied length pieces of clipped book binding wire (each rover treated individually, creating sexual posing). "Spark of life" electrical coloration by Lange with pencil. For broadside of a poem by John Updike (originally appeared in the New Yorker) letterpress printed by Eric Sunada. 2005.

Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design

I was recently invited to UTEP to help judge their Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design. UTEP is having a number of anniversaries this year and thought it might be a good idea to have the first recipient of the award (1991) over to help judge, if still alive. Amazingly, I still was. The co-judges were excellent as were a number of works submitted. They are notifying the winners but it would be presumptuous for me to mention these at this point. At any rate, I was amazed at how El Paso has changed in the last twenty plus years and how the University has grown. I can see this as the up and coming locus for the printing book arts. Stay tuned.

Oral History Interviews

Today, my oral history interviews at UCLA Library’s Center for Oral History Research were completed. That was kind of fun to do. Maybe I had too much fun! The complete transcript of the interviews will be available in their collection.

Bieler Press Roller Height Setting Gauge

I had always admired the long handled roller height setting gauges used on production platen presses and when a friend of mine offered to make a dead on accurate gauge for me at Jet Propulsion Laboratories, what could I say but yes.

They had made a bed plate for me a while before and it was dead on (I think they thought it was going to Mars or something). Well, he tested the other gauges I had, historic and present, and said that they were not, um, in anyway .918 (he was a bit of a stickler) so off we went, hand-polished to .91800+/-. Somehow we ended up with about four or five dozen of these before he got sick and tired of the hand-polishing thing. I kept a few and we sold the rest.

At any rate, I like to call it my magic gauge. Everything seems just so right when I use it. And that is just so, so reassuring on press. Specifications on it are: Gauge is 15-3/8 inches long. Shaft is 5/16 of an inch in diameter. Mirror-polished head is precisely ground to .91800+/-. Head is beveled and measures 3/4 of an inch wide. Weight is 7-1/4 ounces. Knurled tail. Made of 303 high-grade stainless steel. Highly resistant to corrosion. Non magnetic.

Forthcoming Otis College of Art & Design and APHA (So Cal) event

I will be giving a demonstration and lecture titled The Photopolymer Plate Process & Refined Typography on the Letterpress Printed Page for the American Printing History Association, May 4th at Goldsmith Campus, Otis Laboratory Press, Otis College of Art and Design.

Go to announcement.

A letterpress printed keepsake will be given to attendees.

Master Printer Workshop with Gerald Lange

Offered is a special advanced one-day workshop with me(!) at the Irvine Fine Arts Center.

From the announcement: This course is designed to expose participants to Gerald Lange's years of knowledge on the operation and maintenance of the Vandercook printing press. Explore the finer points of composition, typographic design, and presswork. Special attention will be paid to proper make-ready, press adjustments, ink and inking, preparation of printing surfaces, press editioning, and more [and I should add, the improbable stories will flow].
Saturday, November 17, 2012
9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Course #116234
$159
Register today at irvinequickreg.org or call us at 949.724.6880
IRVINE FINE ARTS CENTER
14321 Yale Ave Irvine, CA 92604
IrvineFineArts.org | 949-724-6880

Bieler tee-shirts

I have it on good authority that JJ Abrams (Bad Robot) was seen wearing one of our tee-shirts!!!.