Interesting article on printing 1960’s literary journals.
It’s a pretty interesting account of the work that went into printing underground literary mags back in the ‘60’s:
http://realitystudio.org/bibliographic-bunker/printing/letterpress/
Lately I’ve been thinking about the ephemeral nature of design, and somewhat worrying about the risk of letterpress printing following the path of avocado green refrigerators.
This article gives me a bit of hope, since it clearly shows the small press, craft-printing era beginning in the 60’s and lasting well into the present day.
Does anyone know more about Loujohn Press?
There’s a DVD on Loujon Press by Wayne Ewing. Check out:
www.loujonpress.com
There’s also the excellent “Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and Loujon Press” by Jeff Weddle, a professor at The University of Alabama
Bob Walp
www.chestercreekpress.com
Oh, and there’s a preview of Ewing’s DVD on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d18vEgYIIUA
Bob Walp
www.chestercreekpress.com
Weird, this last week a typographic design job came in where the client wanted the Loujon look, based on his enthusiastic reading of the book that was mentioned, and the fact that he has a bunch of Loujon materials for sale. He’s a book dealer.
At one time I had a number of the Loujon works, my favorite was the issue of the Outsider dedicated to Kenneth Patchen, a personal favorite.
There is a ton of material on the little mags and small literary presses of the late 50s and 60s and early 70s, if you look around for it. Yes, I’d agree, these were the impetus for the dramatic change in the publishing world of their age. Not necessarily for letterpress though, that was more a cheap access point for those who chose the technology. Loujon was quite unique and highly valued. One of a kind.
I’ve always thought of late 20th century letterpress printintg/publishing as a form of outsider art and Loujon and others are the stellar primal examples.
Gerald
http://BielerPress.blogspot.com