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An interview with letterpress artist Paul Moxon, Fall 2004.
Can you tell me about the classes you taught along the East Coast this summer? (Steve Miller)
NYC and Boston actually. It was crazy. I taught nine days in a row. Seven days at the Center for Books Arts in New York: two one day workshops "Vandercook Maintenance" and "Classical Book Design," and a five day workshop "Letterpress I." (I've done this two or three times a year since 2001.) After that I took a train to Boston and repeated the Vandercook Maintenance workshop at Montserrat College on Saturday and at Mass Art on Sunday. I hadn't been to Boston before and it all ran smooth thanks to my host Katherine McCandless Ruffin of the Letterpress Guild of New England.Then in early August I gave the "Vandercook Maintenance" workshop again at Indiana University. That was a blast. IU has a great shop and Prof. Paul Brown and his GTA David Wolske were terrific hosts. They printed a cool 3-color wood type poster to advertise the event. Among the ten participants were printmakers, designers, and arts faculty from around the state including Purdue and Notre Dame. On the way back to the airport we spent about two hours rummaging around at Dave Churchman's [printing equipment supplier] where I found some scarce Vandercook parts.
You now live in Birmingham, Alabama, and have a wonderful letterpress studio. What kinds of work are you doing?
I was hired in February to set up and run a printshop for a man who owns a design firm. I print work the firm does for clients -- all high-end design. I print from polymer plates The owner also has an art gallery for which I print exhibit opening announcements, But his impetus for hiring me is to design and print fine press books for his imprint "R. Boozer Press". I am the sole employee of this unit, which is housed in a small brick building covered in ivy. Quiet and quaint and away from the main office.What is it like to be a book artist and printer in the South?
I'm not from the South, but it's growing on me. I've made a couple of small books inspired by living here. I enjoy the weather most of the year, though summers are too hot for me. While Alabama is remote from much of what is happening in the book arts I do get out of state a bit. That helps a lot. And of course it's easy to stay current via the Internet.The history of type and typefaces is important to you. What is it about type and its development that turns you on?
Above all I love the beauty of letterforms. Their simple elegance is all the more awe inspiring because I don't have the gift of calligraphy or even nice handwriting. So I'm a typographer who loves setting straight matter and tweaking the small details. I consume as much information as I can about type and printing. The more I learn the more inspiration I can draw from.What are some of your upcoming projects and challenges?
For work I'm now planning a big book: selections from "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A Kempis" -- a 15th Century treatise on how to live a virtuous life. This title is a favorite of the owner.
I do my own work (http://www.famorshame.com) evenings and weekends. Right now I have a broadside and an anagram book I hope to complete this Fall. I contribute info to a Vandercook website (http://mwilden.com/vandercook/), and I have a number of book covers in progress for the University of Alabama Press as a freelancer. So that's what's cooking. I love to travel and will go back to CBA in the Spring, but also expect to do the maintenance workshop elsewhere, but nothing is set yet. I'm going to my first Oak Knoll Fest in October, I'll probably buy too much.A summer 2004 interview with book artist Marion "Betsy" Cluff.
