Pshaw!

(30 Years of Poltroonery)

We marked our 30th anniversary as a press with a new book, Pshaw!

In some respects it’s a “Greatest Hits” anthology as we have recreated some of our favorite items from the press and tipped them in, but in addition there are some new works created just for this book. It contains check-lists of literary broadsides, posters and other ephemeral items we have printed over our first three decades. The book is 44 pages, printed on Hahnemuhle paper: there are three shades of Hahnemuhle used, as well as one sheet of pink Canson mi-teintes — or “flesh-colour (Caucasian)” as Walter Hamady would style it — and it measures 10 and three quarter inches wide by 15 and a half tall.

The type is set in Monotype Bell and printed letterpress. The headings are calligraphed by Frances Butler and have been colored by pochoir. In addition there are three pages created for the work with pochoir illustration. In all there are 8 pages with pochoir color. The samples have been recreated by a variety of means: letterpress, inkjet prints, and even Xerox and crayon (for the Acute Actualism poster). There are 28 ephemeral items glued into each copy of the book.

There are two essays in the book, one each by Frances Butler and Alastair Johnston. As usual the book took about four times as long to produce as we anticipated. Arnold Martinez bound the 100 copies.

• Saved in: Bibliography, cultural writing, Poetry, Typography