|
In September 1999 The Grolier Club will open its 116th
season of free public exhibitions with A Century for the
Century: Fine Printed Books 1900-1999, a survey of
beauty and excellence in book production during the 20th
century. On display will be more than one hundred books from
distinguished private and commercial presses of England,
Europe, and America, recording the development and progress
of fine printing in our time.
A variety of work from Britain, including books from the
renowned Doves, Ashendene, and Curwen presses, to name a
few, will be on display. From France there will be
magnificent livres de artiste, illustrated by Bonnard,
Picasso, Matisse, and others. Germany will be represented by
the great Bremer, Cranach and other presses, along with
seminal books from designers such as de Beauclair and Zapf.
Books from Italy, Holland and Switzerland will round out the
European survey. The United States will be represented by
many notable designers and presses, including DeVinne,
Merrymount, Grabhorn, Overbrook, Plantin, Windhover, and
Gehenna.
The 19th century ended with a great revival of interest in
fine printing, spearheaded by the protean figure of William
Morris and his Kelmscott Press. This influence spread
throughout the western world, and by the turn of the 20th
century, there was a burgeoning fine printing industry which
has flourished until today. The change from handset metal
type to modern printing technology, which developed
throughout the period, has necessarily brought sweeping
changes in book production. The evolution the of Arts and
Crafts style, as well as the effect of two global wars, have
all contributed to further change. In the face of shifting
aesthetic values, and at a time when emergent rival
information technologies appear to challenge traditional
print culture, the eternal question of what is beautiful and
significant in the printed book is a central focus of this
exhibition.
The Grolier Club has had a long and distinguished history of
presenting printed books of great interest and beauty. Some
of these exhibitions have focused on individual presses and
practitioners. In this survey an attempt has been made to
cull the best of the beautiful books of the entire century.
The exhibition will curated by Martin Hutner, former
President of The American Printing History Association,
collector, author and lecturer, and Jerry Kelly, vice
president of the Stinehour Press and noted book designer and
calligrapher.
A fully
illustrated catalogue of the exhibition will be
available, and may be ordered through
The University Press of New England (UPNE).
Funding for the catalogue was provided
by
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
The Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation
|
