Reverting to Type – New North Press London Exhibition

Exhibition: Reverting to Type
New North Press, London
Through 22 January 2011

 

Graphic Design © & courtesy New North Press, London

 

Reverting to Type is an exhibition of contemporary letterpress practitioners, showcasing how a centuries-old craft is being reinvented for modern day usage

The exhibition is curated by Graham Bignell of New North Press and graphic designer Richard Ardagh and features prints and publications by progressive practitioners from around the world.

Reverting to Type aims to highlight the pioneers at the helm of the current resurgence of interest in letterpress; from computer-based designers with a desire to ply a craft with a tactile immediacy that has been lost with modern technology, to traditional presses finding new ways to revitalise their design output.

Established in 1986 by Graham Bignell, New North Press is an artisan letterpress print studio, specialising in setting and printing by hand. Richard Ardagh is a graphic designer who has worked with New North Press to produce collaborative poster editions such as Oranges & Lemons and a 150th anniversary print for Wilton’s Music Hall.

To coincide with the exhibition, New North Press has published the first of an on-going series of collaborative prints by contemporary artists, designers and wordsmiths. The majority of the show’s unique exhibits are for sale and the gallery also host a working Adana press to hand-print your own personalised cards.

Contributers
Black Stone CAN / Brad Vetter USA / Carl Middleton UK / Dafi Kühne CH / Flowers&Fluerons UK / Hand & Eye UK  / Hatch Show Print USA / Hi-Artz UK / IMPO$T AUS  / Jens Jørgen Hansen DEN / Marcus Müller CH  / Mark Pavey UK / Mr Smith UK / Occasional Print Club UK / Prensa La Libertad ARG / Rosa De Carlo UK / Team Nerd USA / Typoretum UK / Yee Haw! Industries USA

Collaborators
Catherine Dixon / David Peason / Fraser Muggeridge Studio / OPX design / Peter Aston Jones / Phil Baines / Stevey Scullion / Vikram Seth

NEW NORTH PRESS / Standpoint Gallery
45 Coronet street
LONDON N1 6HD, UK

www.new-north-press.co.uk

10.12 - 24.12.2010 / 04.01 - 22.01.2011

Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig

Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig

Front View of The Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig

(c) The Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig - All rights reserved

A part of the exhibition

(c) The Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig - All rights reserved

Museum Shop (c) The Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig - All rights reserved

Facts about the museum

In today’s information society, museums act as knowledge repositories and thus form a bridge between history and the present day. This is certainly true of the Leipzig Museum of the Printing Arts, where the production of print media can be experienced with all the senses. A very special experience awaits those who are able to visit the Museum of the Printing Arts in Leipzig. By combining a working print shop and a museum, it provides a close-up view of five hundred years of printing history. In this unique setting, more than 200 working machines and presses demonstrate the techniques of copperplate printing, lithography and letterpress. The museum’s four floors are devoted to manual and mechanical typesetting and the various printing processes. A type foundry in full working order shows visitors how lead type is cast either by hand or by machine – a genuine rarity.

Visitors become acquainted with the ‘black art’, as printing has always been known, which is vividly brought to life in this ‘hands-on’ museum whose motto is “see, smell and touch”. Guided by the specialist staff, visitors can set lines of text themselves or have various motifs printed on the platen presses as they tour the exhibition. In addition to printing machines, the Leipzig Museum of the Printing Arts has some forty tons of lead type, matrices and steel dies in its collection, for a wide variety of typefaces of European and oriental origin. It also houses a fully equipped bindery where books can be bound by hand. Visitors can watch modern graphic prints being produced and can purchase them in the museum shop, together with samples of lead type, cards, ex-libris folders and small graphic artworks. Artists often come to the museum too in order to produce woodcuts, lithographs and etchings on historic machines.

The Museum of the Printing Arts holds regular workshops and courses on the use of historic printing techniques. Under the expert guidance of artists, participants can produce their own etchings and lithographs, and print them by traditional means. Traditional typesetting, letterpress printing and bookbinding techniques can also be learned at workshops run by the Museum. The annual festival, known as ‘Leipziger Typotage’, exhibitions on special topics and numerous other events complete the museum’s attractive programme.

http://www.druckkunst-museum.de/