After finishing this I had hundreds of prints left over, and wasn’t sure what to do with them. I played around with them for awhile before decided I would make three different boxed sets of the entire text, which would be loose sheets, so they could be read or displayed in any order, and then a few different books which would reorder different sections of the text. I was excited to see all of the prints out on the table and they’re lovely to play with.

I liked being able to reconfigure the text and see it in different ways.  It took about two weeks to put them all together; there’s a video here of the binding process:

Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate?

Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?

This Informational Pamphlet aims to help introverts research and enjoy New Leisure Activities. Included are a wide variety of possible New Leisure Activities, as well as an outline of the habits of Introverts, and a centerfold map representing introversion in the U.S., suitable for framing.

This latest pamphlet is the fourth in a series,  started in 2010. I began printing informational pamphlets as a way of making something useful, or at least educational, that I could distribute freely to a chosen audience. Most of each edition is sent in the mail to a list of recipients, including friends, family acquaintances and strangers, as an unsolicited gift. There are many things I enjoy about them, including the element of surprise, complete editorial freedom, a guaranteed audience, and the way it helps me keep in touch with people near and far. There’s a host of people who’ve passed through my community at work, and while I am generally terrible at keeping in touch, pamphlets make that a little easier. I like using the postal service to deliver something other than junk mail. I like making someone’s day.

They’re labor intensive, but in the way that throwing a good dinner party is labor intensive; it’s an opportunity to show off and share your skills with a group of people you like.  Your guests are helping you do something you enjoy.

(Psst: If you’d like a copy, there’s a few left and they’re available here.)

love, mom.

Organized by Betty Bright and Jeff Rathermel, Minnesota Center for Book Arts

The practice of letterpress printing incorporates craft standards and the book’s haptic character, along with art world strategies, materials and content. With Fine & Dirty, the curators will assemble work that represents the best in letterpress books today, created by established and emerging artists. In so doing we hope to explore the forces that are reshaping the meanings of craft in letterpress printing in the twenty-first century, and that may shed light on the larger craft world’s relationship to art and to life. The exhibition will also investigate other influences on current letterpress work. These include DIY (Do It Yourself) and its playful organizational spin-off for letterpress, ILLSA (Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts); Asian influences such as wabi sabi; international influences such as, from the UK, Ken Campbell’s improvisatory approach and Ron King’s theatrical presentations, and, from Germany, a heightened focus on design and on a wide use of papers seen in work by Viktoria Schäpers and other Germans, and in work by Barbara Tetenbaum.

Which is as it should be. I’ve been collating a year’s worth of prints, too:

There’s going to be several fun results coming out of that.

As well as mailing out a new Informational Pamphlet:

And running as much as possible in this relatively pleasant winter season. I’ve also been neglecting some things: my cats (one of whom is wandering around the apartment right at this moment trying to play with the ball-on-a-stick toy by herself, which is sad and pathetic.) Also, this blog. Whoops! Hoping to rectify that, just as soon as I’m done making the cat chase the ball-on-a-stick.