Penn Libraries: Across the Spectrum: Color in American Fine & Private Press Books, 1890-2015 |
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February 23, 2016, Volume 62, No. 24 |
The Penn Libraries are pleased to announce the opening of Across the Spectrum: Color in American Fine & Private Press Books, 1890-2015. Across the Spectrum explores the establishment of a fine and private press movement in America through its various uses of color.
The exhibition celebrates the recent acquisition by the Penn Libraries of The Jean-François Vilain and Roger S. Wieck Collection of Private Presses, Ephemera and Related References. While many collections focus on one or even a handful of fine or private presses from one period or another, the Vilain-Wieck Collection gives the Penn Libraries the broader history of this movement in the United States, from its beginning in the late nineteenth century through to the present day. Color was used not only to enhance the page visually, but also to convey important information. Techniques employed to impart color to the page varied, from hand-coloring printed outlines to colored woodcuts and engravings, from applying color through stencils (pochoir) to color lithography, from silkscreening to typographic color.
The collection contains books, pamphlets and broadsides from hundreds of presses, including well-known presses such as The Arion and Grabhorn Presses, along with a number of short-lived endeavors that may have only produced a few minor works but are important in telling a larger story.
Kislak Center Senior Curator Lynne Farrington worked closely with Jean-François Vilain, the driving force behind the collection, to create a visually rich and inviting exhibition focused on the use of color to enhance the reader’s experience of the work over time. According to Ms. Farrington, “This has been an opportunity for me to broaden and deepen my knowledge of the fine and private press movement in this country. Jean-François is himself an amazing resource. Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about the books and their creators, he has also developed close relationships with many contemporary artists and printers, enthusiastically supporting their work over the years.”
On Friday, February 26 at 5:30 p.m., the keynote address will be delivered by Mark Dimunation, chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, with a reception and formal exhibition opening to follow. On Saturday, February 27, from 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m., the Muriel Pfaelzer Bodek Fund for Library Events will sponsor the symposium, The Arts of the Book: Fine Printing in North America in the 21st Century, in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.
The symposium will explore the work of contemporary fine presses from different perspectives. Speakers will discuss everything from the creation of fine press books to teaching book arts to a new generation.
Registration is required; see http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/spectrum.html
The exhibition and symposium are free and open to the public.
The catalogue, Color in American Fine & Private Press Books, 1890-2015: The Jean-François Vilain and Roger S. Wieck Collection (at left), was designed by Jerry Kelly and includes essays by Lynne Farrington, Russell Maret and Jean-François Vilain as well as an exhibition checklist and a list of presses in the collection. The catalog is illustrated in full color, 132 pages, soft-bound in a letter press printed cover, $25; available online. For more information, visit: www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/spectrum.html
Across the Spectrum will be on display in the Kislak Center’s Goldstein Gallery, located on the sixth floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, now through May 18.
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