More Events! And a Beloved Institution!

This newsletter, Jessica Spring of Tacoma runs away with the prize for bookish event-gathering. Several of these will be around for a few months, so those of us who don't live in the Seattle-Tacoma still have a little time to plan our getaways. . .

Exhibit #1 is at the Experience Music Project in Seattle through July 16, 2009.



From the EMP Website:

American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print illustrates the fascinating fusion of art with popular culture and music history. Featuring the work of one of the nation’s oldest operating printing shops—Nashville, Tennessee’s Hatch Show Print—the exhibition highlights the uniquely American posters produced to advertise everything from vaudeville shows, state fairs and stock car races to the Grand Ole Opry, Elvis Presley and Herbie Hancock. Founded in 1879 in Nashville, Tenn., Hatch Show Print is still a working letterpress and design shop, creating posters today using the same letterpress methods as yesterday. American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print features historical and contemporary posters and original wooden print blocks—some never before seen by the public.

There's also an exhibition of the illustrator-author David Macaulay entitled David Macaulay: The Way He Works at the Tacoma Art Museum through June 14, 2009. Looks highly intriguing. Lots of special events and direct involvement from the artist in putting together the show.

And let's not forget the fifth annual Small Press Month Wayzgoose at King’s Books, Tacoma, March 1, 12–4pm. Jessica shared some great photos of this event with us last year (steamroller printing! how could we forget?) and it just looks like way too much fun.

If you can get to Berkeley February 8-11, you can do your best to take in the second biennial Codex International Book Fair. The Codex Foundation website boasts:The fair is rapidly becoming the “world’s fair” of the book as art and artifact. Over 110 artists from around the globe will be exhibiting what amounts to “a staggering panopoly of riches.” The accompanying symposium is sold out, but maybe you can pencil it in for 2011.

Or, if you're a PBI junkie, or have ever longed to become one, I bring the following tidings: The PBI Schedule is now on-line. In its 26th year, Paper Bjook Intensive (PBI) announces its return to Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, Michigan May 17-28, 2009. The schedule of the forthcoming event is now on the PBI website. Please check it out. (Thanks, California Chapter Newsletter).

Last but not least, Jessica Spring reminds us of the beloved institution promised in my headline: "Wessel & Lieberman is an amazing antiquarian bookstore in Seattle's historic pioneer square. They have ongoing exhibits on all things books, from photography to fine press plus a terrific blog of interest to bookish folks: http://www.wlbooks.com/cgi-bin/wlb455.cgi/index.html
If you're in Seattle, the store has a loft full of artist books and broadsides while the main floor has lots of Pacific Northwest history plus great books on typography, children's books, art and design and other ephemera. If you have to shop on line, the website is frequently updated and very navigable." (Ah, but even more enticing in person...)