28 West 27th St, 3rd Flr
New York, NY 10001
Gallery Hours
Mon-Fri 11am-6pm
Sat 10am-5pm
Click here for holiday closings
home
| more photos |
exhibition archive
Village Life English Language
Kathy Walkup
1998
letterpress printed, with found cuts
letterpress printing
4 3/4 x 6 1/2 in
number 1
edition of 1
"Village Life English Language" was conceived in the 13th century barn studio of Alembic Press in Marcham, Oxfordshire, England, in the summer of 1998. The book grew from several parallel experiences while my family and I were living in a medieval farmhouse in a village outside the city of Oxford: the discovery of an entire two-thirds case full of letterpress cuts in the studio housed in the high-ceilinged barn adjacent to the house; the compelling need simply to work in this marvelous environment; an unavoidable fascination with the veryday language of England; and the invitation to spend Friday evenings in the church tower room watching the Marcham bell ringers rehearse for the Sunday service.// The rules for the book were that the images had to come from cuts already available in the studio, and that the type had to be handset. The four themes for "Village Life" are History, Piety, Fealty, and Fecundity. The Briticism which inaugurated my interest in the language all around me was found in an advertising letter in the household recycling pile: A sinkful of Professional Fairy Suds will get through a massive amount of work. I'll let you work out what it means.
|
©2014 Center for Book
Arts, Incorporated 1974
A 501(c)(3)
not-for-profit organization |