The early twentieth century saw great waves of reform, standardisation and professionalisation move through the European and American print industries. However, the period is also of great consequence for the breaking down of formal and orthodox barriers, with artists, authors and designers finding new senses of ‘authorship’ in the production of the printed word. Exploring this historical context, workshop participants were given the opportunity to better appreciate the practical and aesthetic considerations at play in the creation of modernist texts, through hands on experience of traditional technologies and the creation of their own new printed material.

Held in the Caseroom, Glasgow School of Art this workshop gave participants an experience of how independent printers such as the Hogarth Press found new forms as they grappled to combine language and aesthetics with the practical restrictions of letterpress printing. Over the course of the day each participant moved through the roles of Editor, Designer, Printer and Binder to produce their own unique edition of Virginia Woolf’s short story ‘Ode written partly in prose on seeing the name of Cutbush above a butcher’s shop in Pentonville’.

Workshop led by Edwin Pickstone, Co-Investigator, Imprints of The New Modernist Editing with assistance from Ruth Kirkby: Letterpress and Bookbinding specialist and Pip Osmond-Wallace: project administrator.