{"id":26,"date":"2021-12-28T13:53:22","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T18:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/?page_id=26"},"modified":"2022-02-07T09:19:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T14:19:02","slug":"about-pwp","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/about-pwp\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"col-12 offset-0 col-lg-10 offset-lg-1 col-xl-10 offset-xl-1 pl-0 pr-0 pl-sm-0 pr-sm-0 pt-3 d-flex justify-content-between\">\n<div class=\"leftSignet\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/testsite\/wp-content\/themes\/wpbstarter-child\/images\/PWPlogoGray640_2.png\" class=\"img-fluid \" alt=\"Pressmark\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"container p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-12 offset-0 col-lg-10 offset-lg-1 col-xl-10 offset-xl-1 pl-0 pr-0 pl-sm-0 pr-sm-0 pt-3 mb-5\">\n<div class=\"accordionWrap\">\n<div class=\"accordion\" id=\"PWPaccordion\">\n<div class=\"card\">\n<div class=\"card-header\" id=\"headingOne\">\n<h3 class=\"mb-0\">\n              <button type=\"button\" class=\"btn btn-link\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#collapseOne\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-circle-down\"><\/i> About Plain Wrapper Press Redux<\/button><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"collapseOne\" class=\"collapse show\" aria-labelledby=\"headingOne\" data-parent=\"#PWPaccordion\">\n<div class=\"card-body\">\n<p class=\"author-credit\">By Patrick Tilcock<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"col-12 offset-0 col-md-10 offset-md-1 col-lg-8 offset-lg-2\">\n<figure class=\"figure\">\n  <a href=\"\/testsite\/wp-content\/themes\/wpbstarter-child\/images\/hands-on-press.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/testsite\/wp-content\/themes\/wpbstarter-child\/images\/hands-on-press.jpg\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid\" alt=\"Working on a printing press\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"no-indent\">Mark E. Fischer conceived Plain Wrapper Press Redux as a way of reviving a long-standing interest in and passion for creating books in limited editions \u2013 books that honor pre-industrial methods of production and that are capable of stirring the heart by their beauty. As a teenager, Fischer had the opportunity to learn from master printer Gabriel Rummonds at the Plain Wrapper Press (PWP) in Verona, Italy. Fischer\u2019s enchantment with the craft grew as he observed and assisted Rummonds with his press work. By age 14, Fischer had established his own press, the Stamperia Ponte Pietra, which published four limited editions before he turned 19.<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">Fischer\u2019s career took a different direction, but his friendship with Rummonds continued. Four decades later, in search of an enterprise that engaged his creative impulses, he thought of the legacy of the PWP and began exploring the possibility of creating book editions in the tradition of that work. PWP had ceased operation in 1988. Surveying the current range of publications in the \u201ccontemporary book arts\u201d domain, Fischer perceived that, while there is abundant creativity and experimentation, the level of craft in service to the text that PWP exemplified was less in evidence. Fischer took the occasion of Rummonds\u2019 90th birthday to suggest to him the idea of a \u201cPlain Wrapper Press Redux.\u201d Rummonds was enthusiastic and had recommendations of authors and of book arts specialists who could execute the vision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">For Fischer, that vision embraces limited-edition books like those he first encountered in the 1970\u2019s, with excellent typography and sensitively integrated artwork, all the elements \u2013 the texture of the paper, the subtle impression of letterpress, the binding and overall design \u2013 conveying a sense of wholeness and rightness that quicken the&nbsp;heart.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"card\">\n<div class=\"card-header\" id=\"headingTwo\">\n<h3 class=\"mb-0\">\n              <button type=\"button\" class=\"btn btn-link collapsed\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#collapseTwo\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-circle-down\"><\/i> In Praise of the Original Plain Wrapper Press<\/button><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"collapseTwo\" class=\"collapse\" aria-labelledby=\"headingTwo\" data-parent=\"#PWPaccordion\">\n<div class=\"card-body\">\n<p class=\"author-credit\">By Decherd Turner, Director of the Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas-Austin (1980-1988)<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"col-12 offset-0 col-md-10 offset-md-1 col-lg-8 offset-lg-2\">\n<figure class=\"figure\">\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Alessandro-Gabriel-1200x921.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Alessandro-Gabriel-1200x921.jpg\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid\" alt=\"Alessandro Zanella and Gabriel Rummonds\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Alessandro Zanella and Gabriel Rummonds. <span class=\"photo-credit\">Photo courtesy of Robert Mahon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"no-indent\">I make no claim to clinical detachment insofar as the work of Gabriel Rummonds is concerned. I have the profoundest admiration for the publications of the Plain Wrapper&nbsp;Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">When a private press offers its products to the public, the private quotient comes to reside in those qualities that set apart the items printed as distinct, identifiable even when shelved with hundreds of other volumes, possessing qualities in text and visual dress so clearly personal that the book bears two names: its own title and the name of the press from whence it came. Thus, the basic question each private press must address is: \u201cWhat makes your products different from the products of other private&nbsp;presses?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">The Kelmscott-Doves-Ashendene classic heritage offers such inclusive rubrics that perhaps as much as 98% of all Twentieth-century private press work can find shelter in this ample tabernacle. Stylistically and textually repetitive, they inspire the question: \u201cWhy was most of this work done?\u201d There are lots of answers: the experience of production, new collectors and resultant new collections, keeping alive for each new decade the concept of the \u201cfine\u201d book, etc. All these answers are proper, but with a few exceptions, the private press in our century just did not fulfill its potential.<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">I noted in this hurried overview of the private press that there were a few exceptions to the general pattern. Use both hands, ten fingers \u2013 you won\u2019t need all ten to count the exceptions. But clearly one of them is the work of Gabriel&nbsp;Rummonds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">Rummonds\u2019s selection of art liberated the texts used. The art in a Plain Wrapper Press book refuses to be dated \u2014 thus assuring the viewer of a Plain Wrapper Press book a century from now an almost equal opportunity to come to the pages of text and rejoice in the feast of meaning. The same conclusion can be hoped for in Rummonds\u2019s selection of type, although prediction as to the nature of the visual word of a century from now is less sanguine. Who knows what a century of computer-ugliness will do to the form of letters?<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">To Morris and his circle we all owe an incredible debt for his insistence upon quality of materials and the articulation of certain canons of book design. Mr. Rummonds, while entirely different in perspective, has paid full dues in these matters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">Up until 1993, my relationship with Plain Wrapper Press publications was one of sheer hedonistic enjoyment. Another side of the story, the production side, first was made known to me in reading the [then] unpublished text of Rummonds\u2019s memoir, <em>Fantasies &amp; Hard Knocks: My Life as a Printer<\/em>. I was unprepared for this text, having assumed, I guess, that the PWP books just appeared out of the ether of Gabriel Rummonds\u2019s genius. There was genius there and lots of it. But there was also blood, sweat, and tears, and anger, frustration, disappointment, and Job-like trials. With rare exception, the production of a PWP book came at a monumental physical and psychic cost. The search for the right paper, or the delay of months between placing an order and its delivery; the varying needs of different types of paper for dampness; the tedium of spacing letters, etc. &#8211; all add up to a chorus of crushing woes seeking to abort almost every project at hand. For some books, the troubles were years in duration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">Surely the highest psalm of praise should go to the man whose attitude could be described as \u201cI\u2019ll get it done when I get all things right,\u201d rather than the stance of \u201cLet\u2019s get it done and over with\u201d of we lesser mortals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">Every bit of Rummonds\u2019s makeup throbs with Theater. It\u2019s part of his blood and breath. Thus, he is a master of exits. The two pieces announcing his exit from printing will remain long in memory. One small card paying respects to the academic rat race will bring wonderful joy whenever it is rediscovered by generations in the future. The other piece \u2013 <em>Seven Aspects of Solitude<\/em> \u2013 is one of the most beautiful packages of genuine tragedy I\u2019ve ever encountered. Friends and the supporters of the press remain hopeful that he will once again resume his place in the field of printing. I bet Rummonds could bring off a return that would put his famous exits in the shade!<\/p>\n<p class=\"author-credit mt-3\">(Condensed from the foreword to <em>A Sampler of Leaves,<\/em>&nbsp;1996.)<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"card\">\n<div class=\"card-header\" id=\"headingThree\">\n<h3 class=\"mb-0\">\n              <button type=\"button\" class=\"btn btn-link collapsed\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#collapseThree\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-circle-down\"><\/i> Historical Note<\/button><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"collapseThree\" class=\"collapse\" aria-labelledby=\"headingThree\" data-parent=\"#PWPaccordion\">\n<div class=\"card-body\">\n<p class=\"no-indent\">Gabriel Rummonds founded the original Plain Wrapper Press (PWP) in Quito, Ecuador, in 1966. PWP\u2019s first book was a selection of Rummonds\u2019s own poems. The following year in Buenos Aires, Argentina, PWP printed and published a book of Rummonds\u2019s short stories. In 1967, Rummonds moved the PWP to New York City, where he first met the Italian handprinters Giovanni and Martino Mardersteig and he purchased a cast-iron Washington handpress.\nIn 1970, Rummonds moved his publishing venture and printing equipment to&nbsp;Verona, Italy, where he remained until 1982. Alessandro Zanella joined Rummonds at the PWP in 1976, and he became his business partner in 1978.<\/p>\n<p class=\"para-indent\">During this period in Verona, the PWP printed one of the great treasures of Twentieth-century fine-press publishing: <em>Siete Poemas Sajones\/Seven Saxon Poems<\/em> by Jorge Luis Borges with impressions by Arnaldo Pomodoro. Other editions featured texts by Anthony Burgess, Italo Calvino, C.P. Cavafy, John Cheever, Brendan Gill, Dana Gioia, Luigi Santucci, Vittorio Sereni, Jack Spicer, Laure Verni\u00e8re, and Paul Zweig. Illustrators included Antonio Frasconi, Mirek, Ariel Parkinson, Ruggero Savinio, Roger Selden, Fulvio Testa, and Joe Tilson.\nIn 1982, the PWP moved to Cottondale, Alabama, where it was eventually reborn as Ex Ophidia Press without Zanella\u2019s participation. In 1984, in Verona, Zanella founded Edizioni Ampersand, which continued to print and publish handprinted limited editions until Zanella\u2019s untimely passing in&nbsp;2014.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"card\">\n<div class=\"card-header\" id=\"headingFour\">\n<h3 class=\"mb-0\">\n              <button type=\"button\" class=\"btn btn-link collapsed\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#collapseFour\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-circle-down\"><\/i> Collections<\/button><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"collapseFour\" class=\"collapse\" aria-labelledby=\"headingFour\" data-parent=\"#PWPaccordion\">\n<div class=\"card-body\">\n<p class=\"no-indent\">The original Plain Wrapper Press editions are in the collections of the following institutions.<\/p>\n\n<h4 class=\"mt-3\">UNITED STATES<\/h4>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-6 \"><span class=\"aboutList\">Brigham Young University<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Columbia University<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">The Grolier Club<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Harvard University<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">The Library of Congress<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">The Museum of Modern Art <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">The New York Public Library <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\"> Princeton University <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Rochester Institute of Technology<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">The San Francisco Public Library <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Southern Methodist University<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Stanford University <\/span><span class=\"aboutList\">University of Alabama<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-md-6\"> <span class=\"aboutList\">University of California, Berkeley<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">University of California, Los Angeles<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">University of Georgia<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">University of Kentucky<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\"> University of Michigan <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\"> University of North Carolina <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">University of Oregon<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\"> University of San Francisco<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">University of Texas, Austin<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">University of Utah<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">University of Virginia <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">The Whitney Museum of American Art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h4 class=\" mt-2\">EUROPE<\/h4>\n<span class=\"aboutList\">Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Biblioteca Civica di Verona <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Biblioteca di Milano <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\"> Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France<\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">Rijksmuseum Meermanno-Westreenianum, The Hague <\/span> <span class=\"aboutList\">The Victoria &amp; Albert Museum<\/span>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About Plain Wrapper Press Redux By Patrick Tilcock Mark E. Fischer conceived Plain Wrapper Press Redux as a way of reviving a long-standing interest in and passion for creating books in limited editions \u2013 books that honor pre-industrial methods of production and that are capable of stirring the heart by their beauty. As a teenager, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-26","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plainwrapperpress.com\/testsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}