6,000,000 Impressions: Handcrafting the Book Experience

A pioneering project from Tara Publishing, India, is the creation of books made entirely by hand, from the paper to the printing and binding.

Event Venue :

Exhibition Room
St Bride Printing Library
Bride Lane (off Fleet Street)
London EC4Y 8EQ

Exhibition Dates and Times :

Wednesday 9 May to Thursday 14 June 2007
Tuesday–Thursday 12:30–5:00 pm
Wednesday 12:30–9:00 pm
Entry to the exhibition is free.

Illustrated Lecture & Exhibition Preview :

7:00pm Tuesday 8 May 2007
Preview : 5:30 pm
Lecture : 7:00 pm : £5, £3 concessions, on the door.

The Lectures :

Our speakers are Gita Wolf and Rathna Ramanathan.

Gita will be speaking on Visual Dialects, focusing on Tara's experiments in changing the form of the book. Rathna will contribute a designers perspective on the output of Tara publishing.

Gita Wolf: : Tara Publishing, Chennai, India.

Trained in English and Comparative Literature, Gita Wolf left her academic profession to start Tara Publishing in 1994, to explore her interest in visual and literary communication. She is now the director. Over the years, Gita was joined by other writers and creative professionals who were drawn by Tara's vision, of bringing a variety of marginalised voices and perspectives to the reader, while continually playing with the form of the book. The publishing house is now run as a collective, creating its own books, as well as collaborating with a range of unusual talents - from signboard painters to tribal and textile artists. Tara is specially known for its visual arts list, offering art and argument across a variety of sites: from children's books to tribal art, photography, cinema and popular culture. Varied in form, these books are united by the central vision of combining experimentation with communication, content and politics. Tara is especially known for pioneering the book made entirely by hand for the general reader.

Rathna Ramanathan : Minus9 Design.

Rathna Ramanathan is from Chennai, India and is currently based in Reading, UK. She has recently submitted her PhD in the History of Graphic Communication and Typography at the University of Reading. A practising designer, Rathna splits her time between India and the UK. Rathna has helped steer the design philosophy of Tara Publishing since the very beginning, working on several titles, as well as creating distinctive catalogues and exhibitions. Her work has received a number of international design awards. Rathna has taught design and typography in India and currently teaches at Central Saint Martins. Her main interest is in typography—as showcased in many of Tara's titles—as well as in the changing form of the book. She is ATypI's Delegate for India. Rathna is keen on framing the visual work of India against its own particular cultural context and has presented papers and written articles along these lines.

The Exhibition :

A pioneering project from Tara Publishing, India, is the creation of books made entirely by hand, from the paper to the printing and binding. Content, design and craft: all of these come in to our play with the possibilities of the book. Inspired by older forms, we enjoy transforming the richness of Indian visual arts traditions—through contemporary design and artisanal expertise—into fine bookmaking.

So author, artist and book designer work closely with an organised community of book craftsmen. Whether screen printed by hand on handmade paper, or letter-pressed with tipped in pictures, beaded strings and special boxes, each book is individually made, yet matches the price and quality of a mass produced title. The challenge lies in how many times a book has to be handled, while still maintaining quality and perfect printing.

Today our printing unit is a bustling workshop, run on fair trade practices, employing 12 skilled printers and binders. We have so far created a total of 120,000 handmade books worldwide. Our publishing partners range from museums like the Paul Getty Trust in the US, to design houses like Corraini in Italy. Since each page of every book we have ever made is an original print—screen-printed individually this works out to about 6,000,000 impressions in the service of handcrafting the book experience.

The idea is a daring one, and we believe our success is largely due to the dialogue we encourage between experiment and communication, creativity and manufacture. Ours is an alternative vision of what is possible.

More Info :

St Bride Library
Bride Lane (off Fleet Street)
London EC4Y 8EQ

We would recommend that you do call beforehand to check accessibility to the exhibitions, especially if making a long trip.
T : 020 7353 4660
W : http://www.stbride.org