Women and Letterpress Printing 1920-2020

by Claire Battershill

This Element analyses the relationship between gender and literary letterpress printing from the early 20th century to the beginning of the 21st. Drawing on examples from modernist writer/printers of the 1920s to literary book artists of the early 21st, it offers a way of thinking about the feminist historiography of printing as we confront the presence and particular character of letterpress in a digital age. This Element is divided into four the first, 'Historicizing' traces the critical histories of women and print through to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The second section, 'Learning,' offers an analysis of some of the modes of discourse and training through which women and gender minorities have learned the craft of printing. The third section, 'Individualizing' offers brief biographical vignettes. The fourth section, 'Writing,' focuses on printers' own written reflections about letterpress. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

112 pages, Paperback

Published June 23, 2022

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this worked really well as a good introduction to the history of letterpress through a feminist lens. I think it's approachable for people who have little knowledge of printing or printing history; seasoned printers might find themselves skipping over explanatory sections but will still be able to find the reading intriguing. There are certain areas that I found myself wishing that Battershill went into further because I was left wanting a little more, but overall felt it was a good survey.