A year ago when I first visited Les Baux-de-Provence, France and the Louis Jou Foundation I had no idea at that time what has come to pass. After volunteering for a week of my vacation to help restore some of the presses to working condition and spending another week becoming friends with one of the board members at his incredible studio in Blieux I was asked to join that board and it was then that Jean-Louis Estève and I began a grand plan to bring world class instructors to teach workshops targeted towards international professional artists, typographers and graphic designers. Our goal is to bring awareness about Louis Jou and let students create as a private book printer did in the late 19^th and early 20^th century on iron hand presses using Jou’s proprietary type faces of his own design and exclusive use with illustration processes Jou used that still thrive today.

I am pleased to say that the first such workshop has been completed with great success! Joanne Price (Starpointe Studio) is the first instructor I selected to bring to France and she taught a wood engraving class to 9 students traveling from the USA, England, Scotland, Portugal and France for 4 days of intense work in Jou’s beautiful studio in the picturesque old walled village within Château des Baux. Due to the relative isolation of Les Baux we prepared and shared many meals together making the workshop even more intimate for those in attendance encouraging friendships and collaborations that will continue into the future.

I will let some pictures speak for themselves.

While the students were working I designed their “diploma” and created the layout of their wood engravings to be printed on the final official day on one of Jou’s three Stanhope iron hand presses, not an easy task utilizing American type high (.918) and French type high (.928) along with a self portrait of Jou that was somewhere around .96 inches. Compounded by needing to work in ciceros and millimeters instead of picas and inches!

The groups finished wood engravings printed as a broadside for all of them to take home and for the Louis Jou Foundation archives. The students also had the opportunity to edition their prints individually.

The “diploma” awarded on completion. The first of its kind! Composed in the type faces designed by Louis Jou in the 1930’s. Apologies for the miserable red press run – the ink was the consistency of maple syrup and resisted all my efforts.