I think my favorite time to drop in at the SF Center for the Book is mid to late afternoon, maybe 3:30. Usually several people are letterpress printing in the front studio and there’s a quiet hum of activity. All sorts of projects get printed at the center: invitations, cards, wood block and linoleum prints, broadsides and even the occasional book. Last Friday Roger Snell was printing an 8×12 broadside for a reading December 4th at Moe’s bookstore in Berkeley, “a gift … to celebrate the new year 2008 and publication of the Collected Poems of Philip Whalen by Wesleyan University Press.” (That’s what it says on the back.) It’s printed on thick thick creamy stock, and has a blind embossed hit of wood type below the quote. Roger gave me one, and I’ve photographed it to share the quote, and maybe think about my own vices. (Read more about Whalen on wikipedia, but better to read Alastair Johnston’s reminiscences.)
Fantastic printing, and I love the sentiments of the broadside – yucky but true! Brilliant photograph, too – so tactile I wanted to touch it on screen.
(You’ll notice I haven’t got round to that post about altered books yet – probably won’t until after Christmas now – I can’t do anything that requires any thought right now – too many year-end deadlines looming and my head feels a bit like the one described above!)