Castles to trout streams ~ further adventures making books

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Books, history, James Bernard Gross, Letterpress, literature, Presentation bindings, reading, The LIQUORSTORE pomes, writing

Much has happened in the months since my last post including a trip to the Oxford Fair in December. In a couple weeks I venture forth once again for the 9th Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair and this time I will be bringing along the prototype for the newest book THE LIQUORSTORE pomes by James Bernard Gross as well as a couple presentation bindings to display before they go off to their permanent homes with collectors.

James approached me about his book well over a year ago and details around production finalized before heading to France last September so I could at least start on a couple of the wood engravings while overseas. In December, before and after Oxford, I was busy on my Linotype casting the text for the book. New acquisitions of logotype and diacritic matrices for one of the house typefaces, Garamond, have made typography on the machine equal to hand setting for letter fitment and it is always a joy to print from fresh type. The book will come in just under 100 pages for the 36 poems with an introduction from Toby Olson and will be printed on Hahnemühle Biblio paper in 12pt Garamond, an edition of 50 books in a 6.5 x 10 inch format. I’m still working on those wood engravings (the one shown below is a mere 2.5 x 2.25″) but the plan is for 3 or 4 within the book to illustrate. With luck the book will be in the bindery by June and will be available shortly after. Stay tuned here for more production pictures and details in the months to come.

Another commissioned binding for my edition of Kafka’s In the Penal Colony was recently completed for a collector in Australia. I’ve done five variations on this theme of a rugged leather coast with topographic features blind tooled into the sea for this book and I’m pleased with the way this one has evolved as well. A burgundy Sokoto goat hide for the spine and river grained goat on the boards which is heavily tooled. My usual treatment with thinly pared onlay and inlay work completes the scene. This closes the sale of the edition as well though I might be able to get a book or two from my co-conspirators on the project – Dellas Henke and Breon Mitchell (etchings and translator).

Oxford was a wonderful show and it was a pleasure to see so many of my European printer and binder friends gathered together just before the holiday. It was wonderful to hear so many impressions and stories about encounters with the work of Louis Jou from my European peers and even more encouraging for me to keep up my activities in Les Baux. The true highlight for me was spending time with one of my oldest friends who is currently teaching in Bath. “One cannot make new old friends” as the saying goes…

Finally, stretching back to last October in Les Baux at the Louis Jou Foundation, I taught a typography and linocut workshop for a couple students after the wood engraving class I brought Joanne Price over to teach. With both of them already possessing skills with lino cutting we dove in immediately to 2-color and reduction block work and in the period of 4 days the students came up with some very good broadsides! Working with Jou’s incredible typefaces and using his iron hand presses for production is an experience in itself. I spent a month in Les Baux last fall organizing Jou’s type, the leading and furniture and also breaking down old type forms lying around the studio gathering dust and being destroyed. While we have a supply of his type in book sizes the display type will never be able to be replaced so this was an important personal task for me to undertake. I’m pleased to say that our lovely museum is now a fully functional printing space. If Jou were to rise from the dead and return to his studio he could immediately begin production again.

And to conclude this foray into the world of Deep Wood Press I would like to invite all who can come to the 9th incarnation of the Manhattan Rare Book & Fine Press Fair on April 6th. Our usual location in the basement at The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, 869 Lexington Avenue just across the street from the ABAA New York Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory. Join me and 35 other private presses, book artists, makers and takers from around the world as we bare our souls in the city that never sleeps.

Wood Engraving and typography workshops in Les Baux-de-Provence!

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Foundation Louis Jou, Les Baux-de-Provence, Letterpress, wood engraving workshops

A year ago when I first visited Les Baux-de-Provence, France and the Louis Jou Foundation I had no idea at that time what has come to pass. After volunteering for a week of my vacation to help restore some of the presses to working condition and spending another week becoming friends with one of the board members at his incredible studio in Blieux I was asked to join that board and it was then that Jean-Louis Estève and I began a grand plan to bring world class instructors to teach workshops targeted towards international professional artists, typographers and graphic designers. Our goal is to bring awareness about Louis Jou and let students create as a private book printer did in the late 19^th and early 20^th century on iron hand presses using Jou’s proprietary type faces of his own design and exclusive use with illustration processes Jou used that still thrive today.

I am pleased to say that the first such workshop has been completed with great success! Joanne Price (Starpointe Studio) is the first instructor I selected to bring to France and she taught a wood engraving class to 9 students traveling from the USA, England, Scotland, Portugal and France for 4 days of intense work in Jou’s beautiful studio in the picturesque old walled village within Château des Baux. Due to the relative isolation of Les Baux we prepared and shared many meals together making the workshop even more intimate for those in attendance encouraging friendships and collaborations that will continue into the future.

I will let some pictures speak for themselves.

While the students were working I designed their “diploma” and created the layout of their wood engravings to be printed on the final official day on one of Jou’s three Stanhope iron hand presses, not an easy task utilizing American type high (.918) and French type high (.928) along with a self portrait of Jou that was somewhere around .96 inches. Compounded by needing to work in ciceros and millimeters instead of picas and inches!

The groups finished wood engravings printed as a broadside for all of them to take home and for the Louis Jou Foundation archives. The students also had the opportunity to edition their prints individually.

The “diploma” awarded on completion. The first of its kind! Composed in the type faces designed by Louis Jou in the 1930’s. Apologies for the miserable red press run – the ink was the consistency of maple syrup and resisted all my efforts.

Fall workshops in Les Baux-de-Provence, France

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Foundation Louis Jou, Joanne Price, workshops

As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, I was recruited to join the board of directors of the Louis Jou Foundation earlier this year. One of the duties I am tasked with is to bring instructors to France to continue Jou’s amazing legacy utilizing his workshop, tools and typefaces. I am pleased to announce that we will have two workshops this fall!

More information about the Louis Jou Foundation.

More information about beautiful historic Les Baux and the region.

There is a limited amount of space for students to stay, at no additional cost, and we often create and share meals together as well. A kitchen, dining room and a couple bed rooms with cots are available above the studio spaces within the old village of Les Baux which offers affordability, community and a unique opportunity to experience the ancient history of the citadel after the daily onslaught of tourists. Please inquire about availability and details.

For European students and those who prefer a bank wire transfer rather than paying by PayPal:

Bank: Banque Populaire Méditerranée (BPMED St Remy Provence)
BIC: CCBPFRPPMAR
IBAN: FR76 1460 7002 4500 4531 1510 266
ID Nationale: 14607 00245 00453115102 66

Account holder: Fondation Louis jou/ Chez Mme Danset
Account holder address: 37 B Bd Saint Jean de Dieu, Bat A2, 13014 Marseille

Wood Engraving
Instructor: Joanne Price, assisted by Chad Pastotnik
October 6-9th, 2023

$327

Link to register with Joanne here. Limited to 8 students.

Wood engraving is the perfect at-home print process – It’s portable, meditative, and no printing press is necessary.

Learn to cut a design into end-grain wood blocks through demonstration and hands-on practice. Instruction covers material basics, creating and transferring images, tool sharpening, engraving, DIY printing, plus pro tips and tricks. Most materials are included in the tuition cost. The Louis Jou Foundation provides the perfect venue for a wood engraving course with the advantage of viewing their extensive collections of engraving blocks, prints and museum collection that includes works by Dürer and Goya. Plus, the views from the high, rock of Les Baux in rural France are hard to beat. English and French speakers are welcome!

This is a great course for beginners and those with intermediate skill levels. No previous experience is necessary, but it is helpful to have some previous drawing experience. Instruction will cover materials, creating and transferring images, tool sharpening, engraving, proofing and printing on one of the Stanhope iron hand presses.

Link to Joanne’s website StarPointe Studio

Materials provided by the Louis Jou Foundation:

• sketch (tracing) paper
• printing paper, Arches or similar.
• some tools available
• printing ink, rollers
• Stanhope presses
• 2 end grain maple blocks for engraving will be provided by the instructor, additional blocks may be purchased subject to availability.

Students bring:

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Ideas or sketches for 5cm x 7.5cm (2 x 3 inch) images.
• small, portable desk light
• Reading glasses, if needed for detail work — or an OptiVISOR or other magnifier, if you have one and can bring
• If you have your own engraving tools, please bring them though some are available for use at the foundation. If you prefer to order your own basic set of engraving tools, I have provided a list of suggestions below. If you have a set of engraving tools, first check to see if what you have is the same – u-gouges and v-gouges will not work well on end grain wood.
• A minimum, basic set of 3 engraving tools is suggested:
  • #1 Elliptical Tint tool (Spitsticker)
  • #52 Round Graver (Scorper)
  • #54 Round Graver (Scorper)
  • #3 Elliptical Tint Tool (spitsticker) can be a good substitute for the #52 Round Graver

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Linoleum Cut and Broadside (type composition)
Instructor: Chad Pastotnik
October 20-23rd, 2023

$327

Link to register with Chad here. Limited to 8 students.

Linoleum cutting is a great introduction to relief printing. Learn to make your own linocuts and create a broadside (poster) to pair your image with words. Broadsides are a grand tradition in the printing arts that allow an artist to express themselves with imagery and words – Louis Jou did many such works. Students will learn how to use the tools, create a single color or multicolor image, setting printers type by hand, type compositional theory and printing on the iron hand presses. Students will have the unique opportunity to use the typefaces designed by Louis Jou and cast into hard foundry type for him in the early 20th century Spain, these types are not available anywhere else on the planet!

Materials provided by the Louis Jou Foundation:

• Sketch (tracing) paper
• Printing paper, Arches or similar.
• Some tools available
• Printing ink, rollers
• Stanhope presses
• Unmounted linoleum will be provided by the instructor, additional pieces may be purchased subject to availability.

Students bring:

• Pencil and eraser
• Ideas or sketches for 8x13cm (3×5″) and 12x20cm (5×8″) images
• Relief cutting tools if you have them, some tools will be available to use at the foundation. A cheap Speedball set is adequate for the beginner.
• Ideas for a short poem, recipe, statement, sign, etc. 
• * Try to keep it short, less than 10 lines or 200 words!
• If you are planning to set type in English beware that French has very few individual (sorts) in the typecase of the letter “w” among other unique characteristics of the French language and characters used.

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These workshops are designed for:

– the amateur who wishes to discover and understand by doing, rediscovering the manual characteristics of these rare and forgotten techniques.

– the more experienced – a professional artist who wishes to deepen their knowledge of this technique and the vocabulary of its history and use, with the goal of expanding their range of personal expression.

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The village of Les Baux-de-Provence, perched on a spur of rock, has an incredibly diverse architectural heritage including an extraordinarily beautiful citadel that towers over the surrounding countryside. The exceptional decor brings memories of the past back to life, upholds traditions, is home to the art of the people who lived here and plays host to prestigious events. Les Baux-de-Provence is a listed heritage site that has won titles such as “One of the Most Beautiful Villages in France.” There are no cars allowed in the village after morning deliveries.

Hotel Jean de Brion – Louis Jou Foundation

This 16th-century building was harmoniously restored by Master Typographer Louis Jou who, in doing so, played his part in the conservation and revival of the village.

The finest works of Louis Jou are exhibited alongside his furniture and collections -ancient books, engravings by Dürer and Goya, paintings, sculptures and ceramics – in the intimacy of the 6 rooms of the Renaissance Jean de Brion Mansion.

A talented artist, engraver, illustrator and publisher, Louis Jou exerted a decisive influence on contemporary books with his work combining creative power and perfect execution.

The person that the poet and publisher Pierre Seghers called the “architect of the book and of Les Baux” was close to artists such as Marquet, Picasso and, above all, André Suarès.

In 1939 Jou decided to settle in Les Baux-de-Provence in the heart of the Jean de Brion Renaissance Mansion that he restored from top to bottom and which since his death in 1968 had remained intact but closed until the formation of the Louis Jou Foundation in 2017.

Committed to creating an activity around books, the Foundation leases space to Atelier du Livre François Vinourd – famed for the quality of its restorations of precious manuscripts, archives and works – in place on the ground floor of the hotel Brion.

Upstairs there’s the library created by Louis Jou: 5,000 volumes going from the 16th to the 19th centuries, with a superb collection of travel stories, and a room reserved for exhibitions.

Opposite, there’s the Workshop with its three Stanhope presses in perfect working order, a wood framed intaglio press, type and other materials used at the time of courses, events and demonstrations.