I just saw this PBS documentary from 2020 this evening, and I was just blown away completely by the creativity and dedication of these people who are designing and physically making books, sometimes using old technology (linotype and hand-binding) and sometimes incredible new forms and formats and unbelievable ornateness of structure. I wanted to stop the film about every other minute so I could talk more to the person who was on screen about what they were doing. For example, one guy (if I understood correctly) made a 6-sheet book about the poisoning of the earth by industry, out of lead sheets (i.e. made of poison). He only had 6 sheets in the book because that’s all that anyone could lift at one time.
A book historian made an excellent point near the end about the interaction of digital information and physical books. She said (paraphrasing) that now books have been lifted of the burden of printing information that is so much more easily available in digital form, like encyclopedias and telephone books that are obsolete before they are sold, and now books have room to explore and expand what they can be.
A lot of the activity in this world of hand-made books is happening here in my town, San Francisco, including the world’s biggest book fair for this kind of thing, called Codex. I had no idea.
So I thought I would bring this documentary to folks’ attention, if they haven’t seen it. I don’t know if you can buy a copy of it anywhere, I haven’t had time to check, If you like books, it’s totally worth it.
linotype is a new (20th century) hot-metal typesetting system used to print newspapers. Incunabula were made using metal movable type and a printing press.
I do know what linotype is, I started working for a newspaper back in the 70’s when they were switching from linotype to phototypesetting systems. Linotype was patented in the U.S. in 1884, nearly 140 years ago. As far as technology goes, that’s practically ancient history. If you want to call that new, go ahead. I doubt there are many who would agree with you. Your point is beside the point anyway.
Ages ago I saw a film, about a half hour, of books being made by hand as an art project. Harvard(?) had been given a collection of Mirriam-Webster’s tiny illustrations for their dictionaries, some 2,000 of them. The artist picked the 800 or so of the most interesting ones, used a Linotype to make a caption for each one, and arranged them in a press bed to make several signatures.
The signatures were folded and sewn into a spine about an inch thick, then bound in leather. He even marbled paper to use for the endpapers. About a dozen copies were made.
I have seen people put pamphlets together with all kinds of schizo tech, like woodblocks + typewriter + giclée printer. Flexible electronic circuits. A Linotype is what it is—maybe it does not matter exactly how old it is because we are not talking about the old school, and all the available tools are kosher.