Regional Chapters > Southern California
The Southern California Chapter
APHA's Southern California Chapter sponsors lectures, fields trips and other opportunities to meet fellow members on an informal basis.
Current Officers
Kitty Maryatt, President
Nina Schneider, Interim Program Chair
Richenda Brim, Secretary
Vicke Selk, Interim Treasurer
Upcoming Events
Thursday, September 24, 2009, 6:30 pm
Nineteenth-Century American
Designers and Engravers of Type
William Andrews Clark Library
2520 Cimarron St.
Los Angeles, CA 90018-2098
Lecture by Alastair Johnston on the newly-published book, Nineteenth-Century American Designers and Engravers of Type by William E. Loy, edited by Alastair M. Johnston and Stephen O. Saxe.
Thursday, October 22, 2009, 2:00–4:00 pm
Early Printing in Asia
Smith Room, Special Collections
Young Research Library, UCLA
Presentation of artifacts illustrative of Asian printing by Toshie Marra and Hong Cheng of UCLA's East Asian Library. For more information contact Kitty Maryatt at twohandspress@earthlink.net.
Early November
Visit to UCLA Conservation Laboratory
Saturday, December 5, 2009, 1:00 pm
Southern California Chapter
Annual General Meeting
Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California
For more information contact Kitty Maryatt at twohandspress@earthlink.net.
August 2009 Newsletter
The Southern California Chapter of APHA has several events planned for this Fall, after a summer hiatus. We did not plan any events for the summer since Kitty Maryatt was going to be in Japan for two months. We also had two unexpected resignations from the SoCal Board: Program Chairman Steve MacLeod resigned due to job pressures, and Treasurer Deborah Whiteman resigned due to a job change to Northern California. We have appointed Nina Schneider as interim Program Chair and Vicke Selk as interim Treasurer; we are so grateful to them for filling in at this time.
Future events for the SoCal Chapter include an informative lecture on by Alastair Johnston on the newly-published book, Nineteenth-Century American Designers and Engravers of Type by William E. Loy, edited by Alastair M. Johnston and Stephen O. Saxe. This talk will be held at the William Andrews Clark Library at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24.
During 2008, our chapter focused on the theme of the history of the book, organized around Frederick G. Kilgour’s The Evolution of the Book. In 2009, we have tried to concentrate on early printing efforts, both in the West and in the East. To that end, we have planned an exciting event involving UCLA’s East Asian Library in October. We will meet in the Smith Room in Special Collections at UCLA. Items will be shown from the collection reflecting early printing in Asia and other fascinating artifacts. In early November, we have planned an afternoon at the UCLA Conservation Laboratory. Further planned events include a book club meeting to discuss Kilgour’s chapter on Gutenberg and a workshop at the Scripps College Press using Dale Guild’s B-42 type.
Our Annual General Meeting will be in late November where we will hold elections for the next SoCal Board members. All of the positions are available; the Nominating Committee of Susan Allen and Richard Wagener are currently arranging a slate. We hope that the groundwork that we have laid for the last three years will prove fruitful in the coming years.
Submitted by Kitty Maryatt
Past Events and Communiqués: Southern California Chapter
Welcome and Invitation to Join APHA SoCal
Dear American Printing History Association Members, Southern California Chapter and potential APHA members:
We are pleased to announce that we have recently revived the inactive APHA Southern California Chapter and are planning some very special events for our members and for potential new members. The new officers for the next two years are Kitty Maryatt, President; Steve MacLeod, Program Chair; Richenda Brim, Secretary; Ryan Hildebrand, Treasurer. Contact information is below.
We are also very interested in emerging artists and expect to highlight work from printing and book arts programs in our wide- ranging area. Other exciting activities are being planned, and we would love to have you join us at these events.
We want to hear from you about programs that you would like us to organize. Feel free to contact any of us. Also, please let us know if you are interested in giving a presentation for the APHA Chapter. We are also actively looking for a coordinator for our Master Calendar as a benefit to members who would find such a calendar useful for planning attendance at the many book arts activities in our area.
The cost of membership to join the national American Printing History Association is $45. Please consider joining the newly active Southern California Chapter of APHA for an additional $15. Our area includes all of Southern California from the southern border up to and including San Luis Obispo County. Please visit printinghistory.org for a membership application and detailed information about this vibrant organization.
We are excited about the possibilities for intellectual stimulation and forming new friendships through our common interest in printing history and look forward to hearing from you.
Warmly,
Kitty Maryatt, President of the Southern California Chapter of APHA
Director of the Scripps College Press
Business: Scripps College, 1030 Columbia Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711
Business Telephone: (909) 607-3866
Business e-mail: KMaryatt(at)ScrippsCollege.edu
Studio: 5350 Playa Vista Drive Unit 12, Playa Vista, CA 90094
Studio Telephone: (310) 439-2135
Studio e-mail: twohandspress(at)earthlink.net
June 4, 2008
APHA Book Club conversations: The Evolution of the Book
The book which gives us a structure for the meetings is Frederick G. Kilgour’s The Evolution of the Book, which you can find used on Amazon for about $30. We have made a limited number of photocopies of the next two chapters, which you can request from Richenda Brim.
We discussed the first three chapters in Kilgour on the Dynamics of the Book, Incunables on Clay, and Papyrus Rolls at the recent meeting. The next chapters we will concentrate on are The Greco-Roman World, and the Codex 100-700, which includes pages 34 to 56.
We will meet again at Kitty Maryatt’s studio in Playa Vista at 7:00 p.m. If you didn’t attend the first Book Club meeting, you are still entirely welcome. And if you cannot find time to read Kilgour, you will still find illuminating conversations at our friendly gathering.
We are also planning a series of visits to collections which house artifacts which we are discussing at the Book Club. Please look for the next announcement of the upcoming visit to USC.
May 3, 2008
USC Archaeology Research Collection
In conjunction with our discussion on cuneiform tablets at the recent APHA Book Club gathering, we have arranged a visit to the Archaeology Research Collection at the University of Southern California to view cuneiform tablets. We will be led by Hannah Marcuson, a USC senior, who knows a good deal about the collection and who is an enthusiastic interpreter of tablets. These clay tablets, which are around 3000 years old, are fascinating for their use in recording all kinds of information in Sumeria, site of present-day Iraq.
The date is Saturday, May 3, at 1:15 p.m. at the USC campus in the Ahmanson Center West. Exact instructions as to parking and the building location will be sent to you upon confirmation of your reservation. We encourage carpools. Please let Richenda know if you can either drive or would like a ride to the event. You do not need to have attended any Book Club meetings to join us at this event. Reservations are limited, however.
2008 Annual Report
During the past year, our chapter has focused on the theme of the history of the book, organized around Frederick G. Kilgour’s The Evolution of the Book. We had our first Book Club meeting in March with subsequent meetings in June and August, with a final meeting planned for November but re-scheduled for early next year to complete the reading of the book. Our vision for the next year will build on this foundation of studying scripts and manuscripts from various parts of the world in order to grasp the significance of the beginning of printing in the West. Early printing in the East will be a fertile area to explore as a precursor to Gutenberg’s achievements.
We organized collections visits around subjects in the book, including a visit to UCLA’s Fowler Museum in February to view African scripts, to USC in May to view cuneiform tablets and a visit to Los Angeles County Museum of Art in September to view their splendid Islamic collection. Docent Chris Jameson led us on a fascinating tour of LACMA’s Islamic collection in September. We had mentioned our interest in lettering and books and the fact that we were reading Kilgour. She actually took the time to find and read a copy of The Evolution of the Book in order to target artifacts that would be especially germaine to our studies. Sinuously beautiful calligraphy adorned every kind of surface in the gallery and ranged from very early fritware pottery to contemporary expressive calligraphy. One repaired binding on display, removed from its book block, showed its case construction with flap, exquisite leatherwork with intricate inlaid colored leathers and delicate gold tooling. Chris even brought paper samples of geometrical constructions for tiles and examples of five different ways an Islamic calligrapher could write the same phrase. This is the gold standard for a museum tour.
Two movies rounded out our reflections on the long history of bookmaking, the famous Helvetica movie and the NOVA presentation on the decoding of the Mayan script. In the near future, we will show the new Gutenberg movie made by Wavelength Films for the BBC, The Machine That Made Us. Stan Nelson was in the film showing us how to shape a punch for hand-casting letters, Alan May built a press for the film, and Kitty Maryatt typeset a page of the Gutenberg Bible from B-42 type made by Dale Guild Typefoundry and sent it to England for use in the film.
We held a reception in August at the California Rare Book School at UCLA for our members and prospective members of APHA and RBS participants. A panel of rare book dealers presented insights about the state of bookselling today followed by lively discussions. It was an excellent way to visit with RBS participants from various parts of the country. For our Annual General Meeting in December, we will visit the remarkable William Andrews Clark Library again to view incunables from their exemplary fine printing collection. APHA member Nina Schneider will present landmarks of early printing, including a Gutenberg leaf, which is always a fascinating experience, no matter how many times you’ve see one.
For our immediate future, we have organized a papyrus-making workshop for members only at the Getty Villa in Malibu on January 31. Apparently the previous workshop planned for the public last summer sold out in a day, so we are quite fortunate that they have agreed to give a special workshop for our members. On February 28, E. M. Ginger will give a lecture about her exciting endeavors in digitizing rare and important works at her company 42-Line in Oakland, California. A recent project was to create a digital catalog for San Francisco rare book dealer John Windle, who apparently is at the leading edge of bookselling. He even carries around a Kindle to read books as he takes the Bart to work.
One challenge for the new year is to encourage our members to renew their membership and to bring in new members. Our mandate is to serve all of Southern California, and we intend to try harder to hold events in other areas of our far-flung jurisdiction. We hope that the promise of intellectually stimulating subjects presented for members and a friendly atmosphere for socializing will continue to make our Southern California chapter a vital part of the national APHA organization.
The current chapter membership is 67, down from the 2007 total of 76.
We have created a chapter member contact list covering 2007 and 2008.
Kitty Maryatt, President, Southern California Chapter
Richenda Brim, Secretary, Southern California Chapter
Summer Newsletter 2008
The Southern California Chapter has been active this year with our long-term plan of holding a series of salons, book club events, collections visits, lectures, receptions, and performances.
We met in January to view the Helvetica movie at the CenterPointe Club. A particularly lively discussion followed, so we will be planning further discussions on sans serif typefaces.
We took a tour of African scripts in February at UCLA’s Fowler Museum led by co-curator Polly Nooter Roberts. We also hosted a table at the Antiquarian Book Fair in February (with a lottery to give away three copies of the Helvetica movie as a promotion for APHA). Members were encouraged to attend the Frederic W. Goudy Lecture at Scripps College given by Don Glaister and Suzanne Moore.
In March we started our new Book Club by reading the first part of The Evolution of the Book by Frederic Kilgour, which concerns the beginnings of writing on clay, papyrus and other substrates. We’re tentatively planning a workshop on making papyrus in the next few months. Members were encouraged to attend the Stephen Kanter Lecture on Fine Printing at the William Andrews Clark Library in April, given by Graham Macintosh, interviewed by Linda Benet.
We visited the cuneiform tablet collection at USC in May in connection with our discussion of Kilgour’s book. USC student Hannah Marcuson brought out a dozen three to four thousand-year-old examples along with ownership rolls.
In June we meet for our second Book Club, discussing the rise of parchment and the codex as outlined in Kilgour. We plan to visit UCLA’s fine collection of Coptic books to fill out this discussion.
Our first salon of the year will convene in July at the CenterPointe Club to further our ongoing discussion of sans serif typefaces.
In August, we will hold a reception for members and participants at the California Rare Book School at UCLA. We will also meet for our third Book Club event and discuss Kilgour’s chapter on Islamic books.
September will take us to Special Collections at UCLA to view some examples of early Coptic books and Islamic books. In early September, members will be encouraged to attend the Frederic W. Goudy Lecture given by Susan Share at Scripps College and opening of the exhibit Performing the Book at the Williamson Gallery. Susan Share will also give a performance with her books.
The national APHA Conference will be held in October, and we are encouraging our chapter members to attend. At the end of October, E. M. Ginger from Oakland will give a lecture about her fascinating work in digitizing rare and important works at her company 42-Line.
November will bring our yearly Annual General Meeting with a business meeting and special presentation, to be announced.
We may be able to squeeze in a party in early December.
Kitty Maryatt, President, Southern California Chapter
May 19, 2007
Jeffrey D. Groves
(Auto)biography of a Press: The R. Ritchie & Son Columbian Hand Press at Honnold Library
A lecture by Jeffrey D. Groves, Professor of English, Harvey Mudd College, Glennis Rayermann and Alex Hagen about the Columbian hand press which is located in the Honnold Library at the Claremont Colleges. They have been examining the Columbian in detail and will give a "thick description" of the press based on what the physical state of the press has been able to tell them about its history and operation.
April 28, 2007
Typecasting with Mark Barbour!
International Printing Museum, 315 Torrance Blvd., Carson. Presentation by Mark Barbour at the International Printing Museum. Barbour, Executive Director of the International Printing Museum, will give a presentation on typecasting on the linotype and monotype machines, and will even cast some Chinese characters. The International Printing Museum was founded in 1988 by David Jacobson and Ernest A. Lindner and features The Lindner Collection of Antique Printing Machinery.
January 27, 2007
Reception at Scripps College
APHA SoCal will again co-host a reception with Scripps College Press at an exhibition and symposium on the long-ranging effects of Mallarmé's extraordinary poem Un Coup de Dès on the artists' books movement. The Symposium addresses the thesis that the French poet Mallarmé instigated the artists' books movement of the 20th century. Noted scholars Betty Bright, Johanna Drucker, Judd Hubert, Clifton Meador, and Buzz Spector will discuss the ramifications of his ideas. Judd Hubert in collaboration with Jackie Dooley at UC Irvine has organized a remarkable exhibition in the Clark Humanities Museum. With Denison Librarian Judy Harvey Sahak, Judd selected books from the Scripps College Artists' Books Collection for exhibition at Denison Library.
December 13, 2006
Presenting Our First Salon
Type We Love, Type We Hate:
Individual Response to Typefaces
Kitty Maryatt's Studio, Two Hands Press. SoCal APHA's "Salon Series" will be informal, social, and stimulating events that will occur on an irregular basis and at a variety of locations. And, like the celebrated gatherings held at the homes of worldly and gracious hosts and hostesses in the 18th and 19th centuries, we aim to bring together a variety of people to discuss designated topics in an informal, participative environment. Therefore, we will encourage widespread participation in lively discussions, led by Cristina Favretto, sharing of materials and experiences, and the formation of new friendships as well as the acceptance of new ideas and modes of thinking about the printed word.
Our first Salon topic will center around individual responses— positive and negative—to typefaces and type styles. Participants are encouraged to bring examples of printed items that appeal to them, as well as of typefaces that negatively impact our reading/viewing experience. We will discuss fashions in typefaces through the ages, and bring in our collective knowledge and experience to think about our dream matches of type and content. Bring snacks and beverages to share.
November 11, 2006
Annual General Meeting
Getty Research Institute. Please join us for the Annual General Meeting of the Southern California Chapter on Saturday, November 11 at 1 p.m. at the Getty Research Institute. At this meeting, the chapter officers will present reports on the activities of our revitalized group and lead a group discussion about future plans. In addition, our special guest Joyce Ludmer, Curator of Artist’s Books at the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, will make a presentation of selected books from the Research Library’s remarkable collection. We encourage you to join us to celebrate, socialize, and share your ideas for our future.
October 28, 2006
Reception at Scripps College
Exhibition “Too Much Bliss: Twenty Years of Granary Books.”
The reception, co-sponsored by the Scripps College Press, will be followed by the Frederick W. Goudy Lecture by Granary Books publisher Steven Clay. Granary Books has produced over one hundred outstanding publications as an independent publisher for the past twenty years. Publications include artist books, books on poetry and music, and scholarly writing about the art and history of books.
September 16, 2006
Gregory Graalfs
Opposites Attract: Remembrances of Studies with Jack Stauffacher & William Everson at U.C. Santa Cruz
UC-Irvine, Langson Library, Holden Room. Gregory Graalfs has worked in the publishing industry for a numbers of years and is currently writing a history of California fine printing. This lecture will be on his experiences as a student at UCSC working with Jack Stauffacher and with Bill Everson at the Lime Kiln Press on his landmark book Granite & Cypress by Robinson Jeffers.
APHA’s 34th Annual Conference, “The Book Beautiful,” meets in Newport, Rhode Island, October 16th–18th, 2009, during our 35th anniversary year. The program has been published and registration is now open. William S. Peterson, emeritus professor of English at the University of Maryland and editor of APHA’s journal, Printing History, will deliver the keynote address.
The recent issue of the Newsletter contains an announcement of the upcoming annual conference in Newport, Rhode Island; various notices of interest; chapter news from across the country; articles by Paul Moxon on the Vandercook and by Frank Romano on the typographic point; and a trustee profile of Russell Maret. Download it in PDF form here.
You'll read in the summer newsletter that from the fall issue 2009 (number 172) onwards the Newsletter will only be available in electronic form on this website. It will no longer be printed and mailed to members, a significant cost savings that may have an unexpected benefit: going electronic will make it possible for us to produce more newsletters each year. For the time being the design of the newsletter will remain the same, so those who wish to print it out will have the recognizable and familiar object to hold. Soon though we will reformat it somewhat for easier reading on your i-Phone or Blackberry. Of course we will continue to archive the newsletter on the website, so that all back issues will be available. We are also investigating ways to feed the publication to interested subscribers.
The excellent Brian Frykenberg is stepping down from the editorship of the Newsletter after the next issue and we need are seeking an active and well-connected member to replace him. The new editor will come just as we are migrating from print to electronic, a great opportunity for a creative, web-savvy person to expand and enhance our beloved workhorse. Contact Martin Antonetti, the VP for Publications, at mantonet@smith.edu if you are interested or know of someone who might be.