Everything that I hear about the current gallery exhibit makes me love it more! Thanks for this great little explanation—even though I already liked the idea of letterpress printing, this helps me understand WHY it appealed to me.

Cool, Lissa. Yeah, it’s challenging to convey the value of something so superficially unnecessary, you know? I’ve noticed a growing appreciation of hand-made stuff since the advent of social networking, which spawned Etsy and other similar sites. I mean, why knit a sweater? Why knit socks? Why pay someone 3x the price of a scarf from Fashion Bug to make you one? The answers to these questions are similar to why I appreciate Letterpress. Even in the graphic design field, hand lettering is reasserting itself amidst generic, predictable font choices. A great example of this can be seen in Hand Job: A Catalog of Type (686.22 PER). Again, why labor over something that can easily be reproduced electronically?

Hm ... can’t seem to link to our catalog ... here it is on Amazon:

Hand Job: A Catalog of Type

Great article Heather. I think that’s what makes “Books Outside the Binding” such an interesting exhibit. We’re all familiar with books, but understanding the choices an artist makes when assembling these books—letterpress vs computer-generated type, handmade vs machine-made paper, etc.—allows us to appreciate these works of art on a whole new level.

Thanks, Brea! I was just thinking about writers and how letterpress allows them a chance to interect with their text (if they do the printing, or even just feeling it) so intimately. Words take shape two-dimensionally, how often does one think of text in 3D? I imagine a writer letterpressing his/her own work might be quite moving.

Come On! It’s not that hard of a sell. We still read Shakespeare, and Latin dictionaries are still available. Some college students still read . I can even still buy black and white film… and there are several companies still making top of the line mechanical film cameras. Imagine that! At what arbitrary point in the chronology of the history of the development of civilization do we start abandoning foundational disciplines?
  Learning and practicing craft is enriching to mind and body, and there are still plenty of people in the world willing to pay for the products of fine craft, so it can also be good for making a living (current downturn not withstanding).
  Letterpress has a different reason for being now, a different burden to bear, and a different audience to delight. But you don’t have to justify its existence any more than you need to justify a yoga class, small scale farming, or getting your vitamins and fiber from fruit instead of pills.

The space after read is supposed to have the word Chaucer in it. I don’t know why it’s not there, but I’m not trying to be funny. Of course College students read… though it was funny to read it that way at first.

Well said, Elias! And I like your original typo minus Chaucer.

It shouldn’t be a hard sell, but sometimes it’s a real struggle to remind people of the value in things that don’t produce immediate results or say, experiencing Shakespeare’s poetry aloud vs. hyper-focusing solely on his isolated themes via repackaged and minimized overviews.

I’m going to add yoga, small scale framing and vitamins to my analogy list!

Thanks for reading/responding, Elias. Much appreciated!