Category Archives: Louis Jou

Fall workshops in Les Baux-de-Provence, France

08 Saturday Jul 2023

Posted by in Broadsides, Education, France, Letterpress, Louis Jou, PR and Media releases

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, ,

As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, I was recruited to join the board of directors of the Louis Jou Foundation earlier this year. One of the duties I am tasked with is to bring instructors to France to continue Jou’s amazing legacy utilizing his workshop, tools and typefaces. I am pleased to announce that we will have two workshops this fall!

More information about the Louis Jou Foundation.

More information about beautiful historic Les Baux and the region.

There is a limited amount of space for students to stay, at no additional cost, and we often create and share meals together as well. A kitchen, dining room and a couple bed rooms with cots are available above the studio spaces within the old village of Les Baux which offers affordability, community and a unique opportunity to experience the ancient history of the citadel after the daily onslaught of tourists. Please inquire about availability and details.

For European students and those who prefer a bank wire transfer rather than paying by PayPal:

Bank: Banque Populaire Méditerranée (BPMED St Remy Provence)
BIC: CCBPFRPPMAR
IBAN: FR76 1460 7002 4500 4531 1510 266
ID Nationale: 14607 00245 00453115102 66

Account holder: Fondation Louis jou/ Chez Mme Danset
Account holder address: 37 B Bd Saint Jean de Dieu, Bat A2, 13014 Marseille

Wood Engraving
Instructor: Joanne Price, assisted by Chad Pastotnik
October 6-9th, 2023

$327

Link to register with Joanne here. Limited to 8 students.

Wood engraving is the perfect at-home print process – It’s portable, meditative, and no printing press is necessary.

Learn to cut a design into end-grain wood blocks through demonstration and hands-on practice. Instruction covers material basics, creating and transferring images, tool sharpening, engraving, DIY printing, plus pro tips and tricks. Most materials are included in the tuition cost. The Louis Jou Foundation provides the perfect venue for a wood engraving course with the advantage of viewing their extensive collections of engraving blocks, prints and museum collection that includes works by Dürer and Goya. Plus, the views from the high, rock of Les Baux in rural France are hard to beat. English and French speakers are welcome!

This is a great course for beginners and those with intermediate skill levels. No previous experience is necessary, but it is helpful to have some previous drawing experience. Instruction will cover materials, creating and transferring images, tool sharpening, engraving, proofing and printing on one of the Stanhope iron hand presses.

Link to Joanne’s website StarPointe Studio

Materials provided by the Louis Jou Foundation:

  • sketch (tracing) paper
  • printing paper, Arches or similar.
  • some tools available
  • printing ink, rollers
  • Stanhope presses
  • 2 end grain maple blocks for engraving will be provided by the instructor, additional blocks may be purchased subject to availability.

Students bring:

  • Pencil
  • Eraser
  • Ideas or sketches for 5cm x 7.5cm (2 x 3 inch) images.
  • small, portable desk light
  • Reading glasses, if needed for detail work — or an OptiVISOR or other magnifier, if you have one and can bring
  • If you have your own engraving tools, please bring them though some are available for use at the foundation. If you prefer to order your own basic set of engraving tools, I have provided a list of suggestions below. If you have a set of engraving tools, first check to see if what you have is the same – u-gouges and v-gouges will not work well on end grain wood.
  • A minimum, basic set of 3 engraving tools is suggested:
    • #1 Elliptical Tint tool (Spitsticker)
    • #52 Round Graver (Scorper)
    • #54 Round Graver (Scorper)
    • #3 Elliptical Tint Tool (spitsticker) can be a good substitute for the #52 Round Graver

Linoleum Cut and Broadside (type composition)
Instructor: Chad Pastotnik
October 20-23rd, 2023

$327

Link to register with Chad here. Limited to 8 students.

Linoleum cutting is a great introduction to relief printing. Learn to make your own linocuts and create a broadside (poster) to pair your image with words. Broadsides are a grand tradition in the printing arts that allow an artist to express themselves with imagery and words – Louis Jou did many such works. Students will learn how to use the tools, create a single color or multicolor image, setting printers type by hand, type compositional theory and printing on the iron hand presses. Students will have the unique opportunity to use the typefaces designed by Louis Jou and cast into hard foundry type for him in the early 20th century Spain, these types are not available anywhere else on the planet!

Materials provided by the Louis Jou Foundation:

  • Sketch (tracing) paper
  • Printing paper, Arches or similar.
  • Some tools available
  • Printing ink, rollers
  • Stanhope presses
  • Unmounted linoleum will be provided by the instructor, additional pieces may be purchased subject to availability.

Students bring:

  • Pencil and eraser
  • Ideas or sketches for 8x13cm (3×5″) and 12x20cm (5×8″) images
  • Relief cutting tools if you have them, some tools will be available to use at the foundation. A cheap Speedball set is adequate for the beginner.
  • Ideas for a short poem, recipe, statement, sign, etc. 
  • * Try to keep it short, less than 10 lines or 200 words!
  • If you are planning to set type in English beware that French has very few individual (sorts) in the typecase of the letter “w” among other unique characteristics of the French language and characters used.

These workshops are designed for:

– the amateur who wishes to discover and understand by doing, rediscovering the manual characteristics of these rare and forgotten techniques.

– the more experienced – a professional artist who wishes to deepen their knowledge of this technique and the vocabulary of its history and use, with the goal of expanding their range of personal expression.

The village of Les Baux-de-Provence, perched on a spur of rock, has an incredibly diverse architectural heritage including an extraordinarily beautiful citadel that towers over the surrounding countryside. The exceptional decor brings memories of the past back to life, upholds traditions, is home to the art of the people who lived here and plays host to prestigious events. Les Baux-de-Provence is a listed heritage site that has won titles such as “One of the Most Beautiful Villages in France.” There are no cars allowed in the village after morning deliveries.

Hotel Jean de Brion – Louis Jou Foundation

This 16th-century building was harmoniously restored by Master Typographer Louis Jou who, in doing so, played his part in the conservation and revival of the village.

The finest works of Louis Jou are exhibited alongside his furniture and collections -ancient books, engravings by Dürer and Goya, paintings, sculptures and ceramics – in the intimacy of the 6 rooms of the Renaissance Jean de Brion Mansion.

A talented artist, engraver, illustrator and publisher, Louis Jou exerted a decisive influence on contemporary books with his work combining creative power and perfect execution.

The person that the poet and publisher Pierre Seghers called the “architect of the book and of Les Baux” was close to artists such as Marquet, Picasso and, above all, André Suarès.

In 1939 Jou decided to settle in Les Baux-de-Provence in the heart of the Jean de Brion Renaissance Mansion that he restored from top to bottom and which since his death in 1968 had remained intact but closed until the formation of the Louis Jou Foundation in 2017.

Committed to creating an activity around books, the Foundation leases space to Atelier du Livre François Vinourd – famed for the quality of its restorations of precious manuscripts, archives and works – in place on the ground floor of the hotel Brion.

Upstairs there’s the library created by Louis Jou: 5,000 volumes going from the 16th to the 19th centuries, with a superb collection of travel stories, and a room reserved for exhibitions.

Opposite, there’s the Workshop with its three Stanhope presses in perfect working order, a wood framed intaglio press, type and other materials used at the time of courses, events and demonstrations.

Spring 2023 – France, NYC & more presentation bindings

22 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by in France, Future Projects, Letterpress, Louis Jou, Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair, The Wind in the Willows, Workshop

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

France:

The past year has been a full one. A vast amount of my time has been spent working on presentation bindings, a few of which as yet still backlogged on my bench. In addition, I spent a month in the fall in France where I made a connection with the Foundation Louis Jou in Les Baux de Provence. That connection led to an invitation to join the Foundation board and I am honored and pleased that I was elected by fellow members this spring to help guide the organization forward.

Louis Jou (1881-1968) was a prolific fine book printer, wood engraver, type designer and book binder. He was born in Catalonia but moved to Paris in 1906, attracted by the growing artistic scene and by 1921 he was designing his own proprietary typeface, having it cast in Spain and releasing his first imprint – Machiavelli’s The Prince. In 1939 with most of his staff leaving to join the war, Jou moved his studio to Les Baux where he began the restoration of the Hotel de Brion, though he could not move the presses to the location until after the war. Of the 167 books he created, 95 were printed on his iron hand presses. In 2017 the Foundation was created and work began to restore the workshop, museum and make Jou’s work more accessible to the public. I immediately felt a kindred relationship with Jou as I too do every step of the book creation process “in house” and am drawn to the classical ideal of a fine press book.

The studio is well equipped with three Stanhope iron hand presses, a wood framed intaglio press, book presses, Jou’s gravers and other tools. The composing room doubles as a workshop space and the walls are lined with type cabinets full of Jou’s proprietary types. Upstairs is an apartment for workshop students and staff with a small kitchen, dining space and 3 bedrooms. Across the street is Atelier du Livre where François and his daughter Marie Vinourd, book and paper conservators, ply their trade. As you can imagine, I immediately felt right at home despite the frequent language barrier.

My partner, Madeleine Vedel, lived in this region of France for 20 years before we met in Northern Michigan. She and her former husband had a noted cooking school and B&B in Arles and after their separation the opportunity to establish a goat farm creamery and make cheese brought her back across the ocean with her sons. Her goat adventure behind her, she has recently created a small but thriving chocolate business. Madeleine concurrently taps her connections with artisans and locations in France to offer specialized tours (often centered around food and wine) through her Cuisine Provencale. All this back story is a lead-up to the individual who in fact made the connection for me with the Foundation: Madeleine’s friend and goat mentor Claudine, now retired from cheese making, is a docent at the Jou Foundation and encouraged us to visit. Not expecting much from this visit I was blown away by the legacy of Jou and the possibilities the space had to offer. I immediately made contact with the Foundation offering to make some needed repairs which turned into a brilliant working holiday where I became good friends with another board member and was introduced to many other printmakers, bookbinders and printers during my stay.

Madeleine and I somewhere in Provence

From my position on the board I am tasked with developing international programming for a workshop series, helping restore the equipment and composing room and to be “ambassador for the book.” Other goals include creating a book with some of Jou’s unpublished wood engravings (in his type) and bringing graduate level book arts students to Les Baux for extended workshops and internships. More information to come on these latter goals in future blog posts.

I am pleased that for this inaugural year I have lined up two instructors so far. Richard Wagener (Mixolydian Editions) will be teaching wood engraving in September and Joanne Price (Starpointe Studio) will also teach a wood engraving class in October. I will teach a type composition class in October as well. When the schedule is set I will offer more information here but if you are interested in any of these workshops and want to travel to an amazing location this fall in the South of France mark your calendar now!

Book binding:

Before and following the release of my last project, The Wind in the Willows, I have been inundated with the creation of presentation bindings for that book as well as a back log of special bindings, slip cases and solander boxes for some of my earlier editions. I will confess, I’ve never had a best seller before where special bindings were sold out in advance, these usually trickle in at a manageable pace. This is solitary work, each binding is a work of art in itself and – they take time. I’m not complaining, I’m thrilled that my bindery work has achieved such recognition and desire but I am ready to get back on the press again and create new books! Below you can see some of the bindings I have completed in the recent months.

Forthcoming:

Work on The Machine Stops and my Mad Parrot imprint with James Dissette is progressing slowly and I have another commission for a book of poetry, The Liquor Store Pomes (not a typo) by James Bernard Gross who had an earlier book (Fingerings for Words: selected poems) produced by Chester Creek Press in 2016. Along with a couple other small projects that need to get on the press it will be another busy year in leather and ink.

I (and Madeleine too!) will be at the eighth annual Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair next month on Saturday, April 29th from 10 AM to 5 PM. Our event is at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, 869 Lexington Ave at 66th Street across the street from the NY Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory.

I hope to see you there!

Before I left for Europe I had a visit from Dave Seat who helped me replace all the heaters on my Linotype machine with modern solid state controllers. A little more work and the machine will once again be producing beautiful type for future books.