Richard’s detailed description of the Werkman book from the Poltroon Press website:
Poltroon Press recently completed an edition of Willem Sandberg’s poem about Hendrik Nicolas Werkman for Star Thistle Press of Sacramento. There are 100 copies for sale from Richard Press. This was one of the most exciting projects I have worked on in years.
Sandberg wrote the poem about his old friend in 1970 while teaching at Harvard, and it appeared in the Harvard Library Bulletin. From my study of Sandberg’s work I suspected he would have enjoyed the grander, more expressionistic treatment I gave it in the form of this book, the first separate printing of the poem. I could sense he was constrained by the octavo format of the Bulletin and felt the poem was a continuing onrush of ideas. He cadenced each verse as a series of running indents but I imagine he thought of the whole poem as continuing on this way, like running down a grand staircase.
I had Pat Reagh set the book in Monotype Gill Sans, and then reworked the text in the typestick to get the visual flow I wanted. As I started work I began to experiment with transparent papers and different kinds of rough and coloured paper that were the stock-in-trade of Sandberg’s book design. I thought about a raw boards cover, but this has become a cliché in graphic design circles and is also usually acidic. I also abandoned Kraft paper for the more elegant mould-made papers Frankfurt Cream and Nideggan Sand.
I abandoned my original idea for the title-page (large wood type) and decided to go with a cinematic narrative that operates over several page-turnings. I started layering colour with brayers, friskets and stencils, working in a state of wakeful dreaming. After about 13 runs I decided I had gone far enough. A green human-like figure had emerged and this became the “life force” as I saw it and was repeated on the cover. It was made from an acetate stencil brayed directly onto the paper with a small roller which then completed its circuit and picked up a ghost image. This added a heart-shape in the torso, as if by magic.
I also put a splash of yellow over it by braying directly onto the image and lifting the brayer’s edge as I went.
Sandberg wrote the poem about his old friend in 1970 while teaching at Harvard, and it appeared in the Harvard Library Bulletin. From my study of Sandberg’s work I suspected he would have enjoyed the grander, more expressionistic treatment I gave it in the form of this book, the first separate printing of the poem. I could sense he was constrained by the octavo format of the Bulletin and felt the poem was a continuing onrush of ideas. He cadenced each verse as a series of running indents but I imagine he thought of the whole poem as continuing on this way, like running down a grand staircase.
I had Pat Reagh set the book in Monotype Gill Sans, and then reworked the text in the typestick to get the visual flow I wanted. As I started work I began to experiment with transparent papers and different kinds of rough and coloured paper that were the stock-in-trade of Sandberg’s book design. I though about a raw boards cover, but this has become a cliché in graphic design circles and is also usually acidic. I also abandoned Kraft paper for the more elegant mould-made papers Frankfurt Cream and Nideggan Sand.
I also put a splash of yellow over it by braying directly onto the image and lifting the brayer’s edge as I went.
The next images that emerged came from playing with wood type. I thought of “XX” as representing the Twentieth Century as well as two men. I had another idea for a transparent page that showed how the XX was really a “W” with its reflection. The W stood for Willem and also for Werkman.
For me it was a great privilege to work with this material: Two of my typographic heroes in one book. I have been experimenting with Werkman’s “hot printing” techniques for years since I saw a retrospective of his work at the LA County Museum of Art in 1979. I am always trying to figure out how he got certain effects. But I had to restrain the printmaking urge into the larger context of making a book
When I took the finished book to Arnold Martinez, my long-suffering binder of South San Francisco, he was wryly amused. There were no straight edges as I wanted to retain the deckles of the paper. The book was not standard size so he would have to set up his sewing machine specially. There were three papers, including brittle vellum in the middle of the first signature where the thread would have to go, and the second signature had two shorter leaves as I had also borrowed the idea from Sandberg of using a narrower page for the introduction. However, Arnold did a fabulous job of getting it all bound.
Early responses have been encouraging: R. Russell Maylone of Northwestern University Library (where there is a great collection of Dutch Underground printing) wrote, “It seems less a book about Werkman than one done by Werkman himself. It is a fitting and worthy tribute in every respect. It really is glorious; rather, when one is finished, there is a glory of Werkman in one’s imagination.
For more information on Werkman, Yale University Press has just published a cheap paperback book by Alston Purvis with a short introduction to his tragic life and many illustrations of his wonderful prints and publications, including the Turkenkalendar and the works he published as The Blue Barge.
In 2004 Poltroon Press printed a book by Dutch designer Willem Sandberg for Star Thistle Press, Sacramento (Editioned Artist book of 100, Richard L. Press, publisher.
Poltroon Press may be virtually visited at: http://poltroonpress.com/