The nine prints in Ten Views of Florida are inspired by the titles of books that are banned in Florida public schools. In an effort to situate myself in an imagined future where the book banners have succeeded and the lists of banned titles are all that remain, I specifically chose to work with books that I had not read. Now that I have finished printing and the sheets are on their way to the bookbinder, I am reading the nine books on whose titles my prints are based, and posting my thoughts on them along with process descriptions of the prints. You can read about the first print/book, Fade, here.

There is a new post on my blog about my forthcoming book, Ten Views of Florida. I am making the book as the 2024/25 Coffey Resident in Book Arts at the University of Florida. The image above shows both a color test and a proof of one of the images from the book. The initial test, on left, used the same color on all six layers. This resulted in a dramatic decrease in visual separation between each successive layer of blue. To achieve the results I wanted, on right, I had to add small increments of pigment from one layer to the next. I also used three different blues, starting with phthalo, adding milori on the 3rd and 4th passes, and ultramarine on the 5th and 6th. This heightened the layer separation by making each succeeding layer both darker and slightly more red.

I’m happy to announce the sixth volume in the Artless Lemur series, Book Selling for Book Artists. The text covers questions of edition size and pricing, web-based promotion, ephemera and prospectuses, articles and talks, book reviews, visits to librarians and collectors, dealer relationships, choosing the right book fair for you and what to do when you get there. Like all Artless Lemur titles, Book Selling is available for a mere ten bucks plus shipping! Buy your copy here!

Copies of Robert Bringhurst’s dynamic essay, This Wisp of a Thing Called Civilization, are now available for purchase. You can also see the book in person, along with many others, at the CODEX International Book Fair, February 4–7, at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland, California. I will be exhibiting along with two hundred other book artists from around the world. Don’t miss it!

Artless Lemur #5, Papers Printers Use, is now available for the same low price as all other Artless Lemur titles: $10. Buy your copy today!

I will be giving two talks this week at the Boston Athenæum in connection with their exhibit Materialia Lumina | Luminous Books. On Thursday the 23rd I will be giving an evening lecture titled, “The What, the How, and the Why: Craft as an Extension of Thought,” at 6pm. The lecture can be attended in person or online, both of which require tickets. On Friday I will be giving a less formal presentation called “Colored Objects in Process, in Procession” in which we will look at the preparatory work and various iterations of my newest book, Colored Objects, within the context previous books of mine that involve color printing. The event takes place in person at 12 noon and also requires tickets.

I’m excited to exhibit at the inaugural Tropic Bound Book Fair in Miami this coming February 16–19. I will have the first copies of my newest book, an interpretation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Colored Objects” from his Theory of Colors. You can see an animation of the book’s contents on my Instagram page @alphabetishist. I’ll also have a fun assortment of other books, including some rare early works. I will be joining an impressive roster of fabulous artists who will be exhibiting as well. Hope to see you there!

The phrase “Script Type” is an oxymoron: letterforms are either script, ie written by hand, or they are type, ie. cast from a matrix. This disparity has not prevented people from trying to create typefaces that mimic the form, if not the function, of written scripts. Some of these types have succeeded at capturing the qualities of handwritten forms, others have failed miserably. With the advent of digital type design’s seemingly endless character sets, the temptations of script types have only increased, with similarly mixed results. Join the Newberry Library’s Jill Gage and I for an online discussion of the creation, use, and inherent perils of script types, past and present. Register here.

On November 17th, I will be giving a talk at the Center for Book Arts about the remarkably complex typeface used to print the Theuerdank in 1517. The event is part of the Legacy press Series, and it is free and open to the public. More information here.

The facsimile edition of Dispatches from the Lizard Brain: A Descriptive Bibliography of Ninja Press, is now available in two editions. Take a look!