|
Organized by Dr. Robert Bertholf,
Curator of the Poetry and Rare Books Collection at the State
University of New York, Buffalo, Walter Hamady & The
Perishable Press Ltd surveys the output of this unique
private press. Founded in 1964 by Walter S. Hamady, the
Press has produced a wide-ranging series of titles including
poetry by Paul Blackburn, Robert Creeley, and Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, illustrated by artists such as Sam Gilliam,
Ellen Lanyon and John Digby, in forms that defy
categorization. Noted for their fine hand-made paper,
distinguished typography, and unique colophons, the
Perishable Press challenges traditional notions of the book.
Hamady has said that the name of the Press "reflects the
human condition which is both perishable and limited," yet
its creativity indeed seems limitless.
Papermaker, printer, artist, poet, photographer, teacher and
publisher of handmade books, Walter Hamady established his
Perishable Press Limited in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin in 1964.
As an undergraduate, Hamady had become interested in the
relationship between poetry and the visual arts, and his
first printed works-such as Robert Creeley's Words
(1965), Robert Duncan's Six Prose Pieces (1966)
and his collaboration with Aris Koutroulis on Consenting
Shadows (1966)-combined the two.
Meanwhile, Hamady had begun to craft fine handmade papers at
the Cranbrook Academy of Arts, eventually developing his own
"Shadwell" paper: an artisanal, textured sheet in many hues,
named for Thomas Jefferson's birthplace. These were
incorporated into works such as Ephemeral Genesis &
difficult meanderings in the quest of that that is called
grand Paradise (1965) and Six Poems and Pictures
(1965) as well as The Plumfoot Poems: A Summer
Sequence (1966). These works brought together
distinctive aspects of Perishable Press production: fine
presswork, distinctive handmade papers, collaboration with
binder Elizabeth Kner, and a combination of the Palatino and
Michelangelo types (always hand-set) designed by Hermann
Zapf for Stempel.
Over the years, the Press has produced a body of work highly
sought after by collectors, books prized for their
meticulous and complex physical structures, quirky colophons
and inventive collaborations between typesetter, binder and
illustrator. Joseph Blumenthal noted that Hamady's
"craftsmanship is nothing short of brilliant, especially in
the sometimes witty and playful ephemera." Hamady himself
describes the book as "a living, dynamic possibility-a
meeting place for whole worlds of divergent elements of
human expression to melt and flow, to meld into excess
beyond the limit of its parts. It is not merely bound pages
to be sold and shelved and checked out."
The exhibition will be accompanied by a checklist, available
for sale at the Grolier Club.
|
