The Vandercook 100: Celebrating 100 Artisans and 100 Years of Letterpress Printing on the Vandercook Proof Press

by Heather Mitchell

The Vandercook 100 celebrates 100 years of printing on the Vandercook proof press (1909-2009) and showcases 100 of today's most significant letterpress printers who use the Vandercook press. The selected printers are internationally respected teachers, practitioners and designers, recognized for their diversity of design and printing processes, their passion for letterpress and their love of the Vandercook proof press.

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2012

Reviews

[Linda]

This was interesting (although it could have been a lot better). In celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Vandercook proof press, the editor asked 100 printers to write about their Vandercooks. Results vary (did they pay to get into this project as a promotional tool, I wonder?). There was an editor on this book! but there is no uniformity in what was submitted from the presses. Some text is obviously just the press's standard promotional description from their website. Some are written in first person, some in third person, some switch back and forth between the two within the same description, some wobble out to a bizarre omnicience that I have never seen before in anything (I should take a photo of that page, it's something else). Then each press has a first person narration of an event surrounding their Vandercook. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of people who moved Vandercooks into basements, which, as one printer wrote, "not recommended." Right. An alarming number are in basements. Also- yet again, in a book at least tangentially about design, the type is tiny! 10 point? And on some pages, it is slender white type on a bright chartreuse background, which is almost unreadable. WTH.