Drive By Press at WNYBAC

Drive By Press visited WNYBAC this week. Last night we all enjoyed viewing their work and watching them do what they do. Check back for additional images and comments on a great experience.

Drive By Press at the WNY Book Arts Center

Drive By Press at the WNY Book Arts Center
A special one -day exhibit/reception
Western NY Book Arts Center
468 Washington St.
Buffalo NY 14203
Friday April 9 7-10pm
Admission: Free

Following a week-long residency at the WNYBAC Printshop, Drive by press will display a special one-day exhibit of highlights from their traveling collection and the work created during their week at WNYBAC!

Drive By Press was created to educate and share the contemporary practice of printmaking with students and art audiences across America. DBP has visited well over 100! Universities, Colleges,and public schools, traveling over 100,000 miles!
During each stop DBP collects prints from area artists, amassing the largest collection of contemporary prints from across the country! DBP is a self- funded endeavor solely surviving on small visiting artists honorariums from schools and from the sales of printing wood blocks on paper and t-shirts. Many blocks have been graciously donated from some of the greatest wood cut artists in the country to support and perpetuate the the endeavor of Drive By press!!

Eat Your Words

This hybrid pot-luck dinner meets art show returns to WNYBAC for a second year and will push the limits of what defines a "book". Participants are encouraged to create something tasty and ponderous...bordering on preposterous.

From the festival website: "April 1st is the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), famous for his book Physiologie du goût, a witty meditation on food. April fools' day is also the perfect day to eat your words and play with them as the "books" are consumed on the day of the event. This ephemeral global banquet, in which anyone can participate, is shared by all on the internet and allows everyone to preserve and discover unique bookish nourishments. This festival is a celebration of the ingestion of culture and a way to concretely share a book; it is also a deeper reflexion on our attachment to food and our cultural differences."

entry and attendance details plus images from last years event can be found here:

Hacking woodtype

In the digital age when designers don’t bother hand kerning by nudging the option arrow keys because it is too much trouble, it's heartening to look into old type cases and see what real kerning was...the cutting away of the space on a character to fit pairs together better. One can see in woodtype cases how a Cap A is notched at the top so out can fit into the T whose bottom has been notched. This was the sign of a craftsman printer who cared about how letter looked on the page.

Another woodtype artifact that is more rare but can be found in old cases, is modified characters. The limit of only a few of each letter in a woodtype font would often necessitate the sacrifice of some other letter to make the missing letter. An E turned into an F is easy to hide, but here are a few clever solutions to letter modification that have been discovered in the last few days at WNYBAC.


A number 8 has been frantically turned into an S.

This tiny 3 line woodtype C had been made into a G my inserting a type high lead shim

This V is now an A with the insertion of some solid material that will print at the same height as the rest of the letter (as found in the extensive woodtype collection at Massey College Toronto.)

Introducing Mohawk Press

The WNYBAC Print studio (newly named "Mohawk Press") is now available for custom letterpress design/printing work.

WNYBAC has printed wood type for the Grammy award winning Woody Guthrie Live Wire CD package, and innovative designers looking to break out of digital confines as well as limited edition letterpress work for Just Buffalo's Big Night event series posters, Elmwood Festival of the Arts, Neglia Ballet and individuals looking for truly unique calling cards. WNYBAC's work is the subject of an exhibit at the Hamilton Woodtype Museum in Two Rivers Wisconsin (Feb 1- Mar 15)

If you have a special exhibit, concert, or other event that needs a one-of-a-kind visual commemoration/promotion in the form of a limited edition poster or broadside, this is the place to go. In the tradition of Nashville’s Hatch Show Print, Mohawk Press uses regional historical printing materials to produce timeless and contemporary limited edition prints.

Unlike traditional designer/client/printer relationships, you leave the most of the design decisions to our designer-printers after your initial consultation of what you would like. We do strive to create unique, tactile and memorable work from a finite selection of options. We have hundreds of metal and dozens of wood type fonts plus thousands of image cuts. Rates are quoted on a per job basis.

If you would like to print your own work, the criteria is relatively simple: A. become a member of WNYBAC, and B. Take an intro to letterpress workshop (plus log in a number of hours shadowing/assisting an in-house printer to establish a crash course apprenticeship). If you already possess sufficient knowledge and skills to work in a letterpress shop, then all you have to do is become a member and sign up for time. A nominal charge for press time is required but setup and prep time carries no fees.

Mohawk Press continues the mission of WNYBAC by promoting the arts of hand printing and the aesthetic of historical materials put into contemporary use. All proceeds go to support the mission and education programs of the WNY Book Arts Center.

For more information on custom letterpress work from Mohawk Press email

Hero Exhibit at WNYBAC Jan 13-Feb 20 2010

Pulled to the Limit.
Hero Design Studio Retrospective Exhibition at WNY Book Arts Center
Wednesday Jan 13- Sat Feb 20, 2010
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In a relatively short time, Hero Design Studio has become a fixture in the Buffalo music and design scene. Hero is husband and wife team, Beth Manos and Mark Brickey. The screen printing, illustration and design duo have created hundreds of hand printed posters and art prints since starting as Hero in 2003 and expanded their presence via their Allentown studio/shop.

Pulled to the Limit at the Western New York Book Arts Center's gallery will feature the most comprehensive exhibit of Hero's silkscreened works to date. Along with limited edition prints and posters, the exhibit will feature one-of-a-kind prints, experimental work and works-in-progress that will help explain the creative and production process.

An artists' reception with live printing will be held mid-Exhibit on Friday, January 29, 2010

An additional Demo day, free and open to the public will be presented February 17th 6-8pm

For more details

The Way They See It

I took each of my three eight-year-old daughters out for a "camera adventure," looking for letters. Here's what we ended up with.

Winchell Factor +1

Artist, Poet, Canal Boat Pilot and WNYBAC member Chris Fritton has embarked upon a major woodtype project using the digital version of the Winchell font (a font digitized exclusively for WNYBAC members), shellac, maple wood and "lasers". This ambition project is documented in great detail on his blog

Last minute gift buying panic marketplace

Starts today!

At the main gallery, 1st floor of the Western New York Book Arts Center 468 Washington St at Mohawk in Downtown Buffalo
Friday Dec 11, 4-8pm
and
Saturday Dec 12 12-6pm
Free admission and open to the public
Artists, craftspeople, printers, & other handmade/self published/locally produced items. Perfect gifts for giving or hoarding.

This year's Vendors include:

• Elizabeth Leader
Paintings & Drawings
• Crowbiz
"...funk for the old soul..."
• Hero Design Studio
Screen Printed Posters & Cards
• Donald Trainor/ Shiny Object Media
• Where to Roam
Buffalo, NY themed wearables
• Amy Greenan
paintings, drawings, prints, collage, handmade books
• Rene Hoover
Letterpress cards, & coasters +handmade ornaments
• Jan Nagle
Upcycled and Vintage Jewelry
• SunnyOutside Press
Independent Small Press
• Queen City Gallery
Buffalo Books & original Photo Prints
• Buffalo Heritage
Books about Buffalo
• Amanda Maciuba
Intaglio & releif Prints
• The Hall Family Woodworkers
• Theresa Barnack
handmade jewelry & cards
• Dennis Piatkowski
Origami Man
• Kate Parzych
• UB Deprtment of Print Media
Prints, printed ephemera
• WNY Book Arts Center Shop and More!

Old Brother Hubbard

Elbert Hubbard and the Roycroft were highly influential and important in the American Arts & Crafts Movement and a fixture in WNY printing history. The Roycroft Press is what started the ball rolling for all other areas of activities at the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora. A new PBS documentary has recently premiered and can be seen online. No survey of WNY Book At History can be complete without a major chapter dedicated to the Roycroft.

Buffalo Type

Check out "Buffalo Type" on Flickr. With over 50 members, the image pool is a great place to discover and share the many typographic treasures found in and around Buffalo. Signs, posters, architectural details, tattoos and metal type photographed while locked in the Book Arts Building - there's a little bit of everything found in the 700+ image collection. Take a look. Think about adding a find of your own.

B->F->T

WNYBAC Blog posts now auto-feed to Facebook. Facebook posts auto-feed to Twitter. So if this works, it will be tweeted.

The Western New York Book Arts Collaborative
Presents a new Exhibition:

WRITING PICTURES
Art/Text Works from the Gerald Mead Collection

September 11 – October 3, 2009

Text and image have frequently intersected throughout the history of art and design, for example, during the Pop Art and Concrete Poetry movements and in disciplines such as editorial cartooning and graphic design. A number of contemporary artists associated with Western New York have created work that fuses the visual arts and text in intriguing ways, often using words or letters as much as a visual tool as a conceptual one. This exhibition of prints, paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures have been selected from the extensive collection of Gerald Mead, a noted Buffalo artist and educator, to demonstrate the range of approaches and techniques that artists have used to explore the interconnectedness of written language and imagery.

Opening Reception Sept 11, 2009 6-9pm

Discovering James Joyce - Last chance

There is just over one week left for the James Joyce Exhibit at UB's Anderson Art Gallery. The University at Buffalo's Joyce collection is the largest Joyce Collection in the world. The Exhibit is a rare opportunity to see rooms of Joyce printed and written material including stack of notebooks from Finnegan's Wake and an astounding collection of artfacts. Ends Sept 13th 2009.

A collaboration between the Poetry Collection, the UB Art Galleries, and the School of Architecture and Planning, Discovering James Joyce: The University at Buffalo Collection presents rarely seen items from the James Joyce Collection. Covering the span of his entire artistic life, the Joyce archive in the Poetry Collection is the largest and most distinguished in the world. Discovering James Joyce features a substantial selection of the writer’s notebooks, manuscripts, letters, publications, photographs, family portraits, and other significant Joyceana.

UB Anderson Gallery
One Martha Jackson Place, Buffalo, NY
Hours: Wed. - Sat. 11am-5pm; Sunday 1pm-5pm

Elmwood Festival of the Arts

WNYBAC is near the Lafayette avenue stage at the 10th annual Elmwood Festival of the Arts. Stop by and print a piece you can take home on our tabletop platen press and our brochures can be hand bound on the spot also. Stop by and say hello.

Turkish Paper Marbling at the Fair

from the website of the Erie County Fair:

Artisan John Bielak will demonstrate the ancient art form known as paper marbling. See how pigments become paint, how the paint can "float" on water and how it is then absorbed onto special paper in stunning designs. Marbled paper has many uses including decorative note writing paper, book binding and box making. See daily demonstrations at the Historical Building.

John is a very nice guy and set up daily outside the Historical Building. Stop by to see him demonstrate. He also sells marbled sheets and mini blank journals.

Richard Rockford Exhibition

As mentioned in the Buffalo News and Buffalo Rising:
WNY Book Arts Center presents:
A selection of assemblage work by
Richard Rockford


"I try to create art that causes the viewer to start seeing old things, discarded things, items around them everywhere, as having beauty of color and texture. I take old surfaces - wooden panels, ink-stained blocks, deconstructed household furniture - and without changing their color and texture, I make them part of something colorful, genuine and beautiful."
-Richard Rockford

With clear influences of Joseph Cornell, Duchamp and Malevich, Rockford's assemblages focus on disused industrial artifacts. The Exhibit at the WNY Book Arts Center will showcase a selection of work which reinterprets artifacts from the printing industry and Buffalo’s colorful past.

August 7-September 5 , 2009
Opening reception Friday Aug 7, 6-9 pm


WNY Book Arts Center
468 Washington St
Buffalo NY 14203

Just Buffalo moves to the WNY Book Arts Center

Just Buffalo Literary Center (JBLC) has announced the move into the 2nd floor of the WNY Book Arts Center. Artistic Director Michael Kelleher spoke with Joyce Kyzak on NPR station WBFO about the move. JBLC will now have dedicated space to offer workshops, readings, performances and meetings. JBLC has been lacking dedicated space but now will be working more closely with the WNY Book Arst Collaboratiev on joint programming and complimentary events on all aspects of the art of the "book". The joint efforts of WNYBAC & JBLC in one (previously blighted) location will act as a beacon for further downtown quality of life improvement.

Stencile on Main Street

WNYBAC secured permission from the owners of 477 Main St in downtown Buffalo to transform their in-progress construction site storefront into a hybrid sanctioned graffiti canvas and signage pointing people towards the WNY Book Arts Center around the corner at Mohawk & Washington St.
We started with a blank press board façade and then added a layer of newsprint and laser printed pieces that were joined up in rough approximation with wheat paste cooked up in our state of the art printshop/kitchen. We added some ceremonial chinese papers but left ample space for artists to add their own work. We encouraged stencil and wheat pasting artists to showcase their work in this highly visible forum. After a couple weeks only one addition (and some fading from the elements) appeared...a brilliant Tromp l'oeil of an apparent 5 year old expressing his opinion of formalized education. This addition has been already damaged and we hope the anonymous artists will be able to restore it to the state you see below. We invite an encourage other artist to add to our mural (disclaimer...we do not sanction any graffiti on buildings or otherwise, if you do it, you are on your own)

Infringement at the Book Arts Center

The Western NY Book Arts Center will be one of the host sites for the Buffalo Infringement Festival

The show will run July 23 until August 2 2009

The Opening reception at WNYBAC will be Saturday July 25 from 6-9pm
At WNYBAC - 468 Washington St.

Included in the exhibition will be visual artists:
- Laurie Tanner
- Creative Edge Art Studio
- Tom Van Deusen
- Salvatore Scianda
- Madeleine Cutrona
- Victoria Sieminer
- John Kindelan
- Amanda Maciuba
- Jessica Rauche
with live music at the opening by:
- Pat O'Keefe
- Noah Gokey
- Amanda Nuguery

Please RSVP if you are on facebook:

We hope you will visit this exhibition and other infringement events around town.

Best of WNY Award

The WNY Book Arts Collaborative has won one of the Buffalo Spree Best of WNY Awards for Best Art Classes. We humbly accept the award.

Iranian Typography

Last Spring as we were planning Typecon in Buffalo, I was fortunate enough to get to York University in Toronto to see the ‘50 Years of Iranian Typography’ exhibition in person. The exhibit was originated in Basel Switzerland in 2007. We didn't have the resources to bring the exhibit to Typecon and be the first to show it in the US, but I truly wish we could have. The range and inventiveness of the work seen in the exhibit and the accompanying book is breathtaking. Similar no doubt to Americans seeing works from the Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland and the Czechoslovakia at the fall of the iron curtain. Being able to see the expressive graphic art of "the enemy" may just help to de-demonize, and even *gasp* humanize a culture that has been kept at arms length. Below are a few on my favorite posters from the book. Several other images can be seen here.

The Golden Ticket

The WNYBAC shop is now stocked with dozens of papers, books, hand printed cards, prints, and book arts supplies (including bone folders, linen thread, headbands, screw posts, wheat paste, book cloth & more). If for some reason you stop by for a gift for Graduation or Fathers day and something amazing doesn’t jump out at you, you can get one our Gift certificate (of course letterpress printed in our printshop on gold paper with a matching gold envelope).
The WNYBAC shop is open Wednesday-Saturday 12-6pm at 468 Washington St in Downtown Buffalo

Summer Worshop Series

WNYBAC is pleased to announce its Summer 2009 workshop series. This series at its new home at 468 Washington Street in downtown Buffalo covers some basic intro classes in printing & book binding. As facilities & demand increase, we will offer additional and more in-depth classes. We have kept the fees reasonable (plus WNYBAC members receive a 20% discount on all workshops). We welcome your feedback and hope you will join us for one or more of these workshops.

WNY Book Arts Center
468 Washington St
Buffalo NY 14203
www.wnybookarts.org
info@wnybookarts.org

Summer 2009 WORKSHOPS

June 10 & 11 - Clam Shell Portfolio Box workshop

June 13 - Miniature and Wearable Books

June 17 & 24 - Intro to Hand Typesetting and Letterpress Printing

June 20 - DIY screen printing workshop

July 11 - A-Z Pressure Printing!

July 15 & 16 - 2 Color Gig Poster Workshop

July 23 - Basic Book Binding

August 1 - Altered Books

August 8 & 9 - Letterpress Animal ABC

August 22 -Intro to Hand Typesetting and Letterpress Printing

WNY Book Arts - Good press week

WBFO - NPR Podcast May 22, 2009

"The printed word is fading rapidly in a society obsessed with the disappearing ink of mediums such as Twitter and Facebook. But on the other side of the spectrum are die-hards who want relief from the cyber world of printing. Actual relief that is"

Buffalo News May 22, 2009:

"With a full complement of printing technology—some of it more than 100 years old—a roster of workshops in printmaking, letterpress printing and bookbinding and a book shop, the center is poised to establish itself as a serious presence on the city’s arts scene. It’s also in a good position to foster collaborations among disparate art groups and bring together the concerns of poetry, literature and the visual arts under one roof."

Artvoice v8 #21:

"Asked what traditional printing adds to art in this day and age, Kegler equates book-making and artisanal printing to the slow food movement: “You could go out to McDonalds and Burger King to get a meal, or you can grow your heirloom tomatoes and have a meal that has seasons of planning behind it. It may not take much longer to consume, but the preparation and what has gone into it has a value to people that is worth something.”

Buffalo Rising

Stop by, smell the ink, become a member, help this fledgling organization soar!