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At certain points during the trip, I luck out because stops are clustered together in a way that allows me to visit a ton of shops in a short period of time. The area around the Tampa Bay region was like this – in addition to the Tampa Book Arts Studio and the University of Tampa, I was able to visit the Letterpress and Book Arts Center at Ringling College of Art and Design and The Southern Letterpress (both run dutifully by the imperturbable Bridget Elmer). LBAC at Ringling was fantastic for a number of reasons – but the one that stands out the most was a surprise: it houses the majority of the collection of the late Harold (Hal) E. Sterne (1929-2010). Now, I’m sure you’re saying – who the hell is Hal Sterne. Hal was a lifelong printer that was prescient enough to preserve letterpress printing for future generations, even through the dark times of the 60s, 70s, 80s, & early 90s, when things looked bleak for relief printing in general. In 1978 he published the Catalogue of 19^th Century Printing Presses and the Catalogue of 19^th Century Binding Equipment – but not all of the preservation work was dedicated to scholarship – Hal also did his utmost to preserve the equipment as well. In 1992, Hal and friend Tom Bell formed N.A. Graphics with the purchase of ATF (the largest American type foundry), Cowen Pressroom Products, and in 1993, Vandersons – the successors to Vandercook. N.A. Graphics was subsequently sold to Fritz Klinke who still currently runs the operation many of us know and love.LBAC @ Ringling houses Hal’s Vandercook SP15, C & P, over 500 cases of foundry type, and hundreds of cuts and blocks. In addition to Hal’s collection, LBAC boasts two other Vandercook proofing presses: A Universal 3 AB and another SP15. It was an honor to use Hal’s type – I selected 30pt Lilith – and his press, the SP15. As if that wasn’t enough, at the Meet and Greet event Bridget hosted, I was able to chat with and thank his wife Judi.

When I first began reading about itinerant and tramp printing, I was struck by the sometimes biblical lineage that travelers would attribute to presses, equipment, buildings, newspapers, magazines – really, everything related to printing. They would go to great lengths to dictate where things came from, where they went, who used them, etc. I didn’t understand at first. I knew why lineage and provenance might be important – but it’s a whole other thing to experience it. When working in these shops and using this equipment, I’ve come to recognize that something of the spirit of a person gets inside the machines, insinuates itself into the objects, in a way that’s very visceral. It means something that my hands are touching the same things someone else’s hands touched; it means something that we remember who they were when we do that work.

Enough of the heavy stuff – I have to say Bridget was the perfect host and let me have free reign of the space – but I was only there for a day before it was time to move on The Southern Letterpress in St. Petersburg, FL. So – more on her when we get there.

After wrapping up in Boca Raton, it was time to head North & West to Tampa. I had no idea what to expect; I’d only been to Southern Florida, and people kept telling me “the farther North you go, the farther South you get.” Ominous. But I took the overtures with a grain of salt – I knew from the start that not everywhere (and everyone) I visited would share my political or social values. At any rate, I reassured myself that I was headed to the Tampa Book Arts Studio at the University of Tampa, and if anything, I’d have a little refuge on campus.

Upon my arrival, I was greeted by Richard Mathews, professor, veteran printer, and Captain of the TBAS ship. Richard is a very interesting man – he walks fast, talks fast, and his rapidity belied a depth and breadth of knowledge that readily became apparent. Here was someone that had seen and done much more than me – but our interests dovetailed so wonderfully: artist’s books, FLUXUS, performative and avant-garde works, small press, and of course, printing. Richard got involved in printing decades ago when he ran a magazine called Konglomerati (also an art collective that shared the printing equipment), and since that time has been stewarding a massive amount of printing equipment. And when I say massive, for what I’d seen in the South so far, it wasn’t an exaggeration. Rounding the bend into the studio, which resides in a low-lying, unassuming building on the gorgeous UTampa campus, I encountered over 300 cases of foundry type, a working Intertype from 1925, a Monotype display caster, a Monotype composition caster, an electric Ludlow, two Chandler & Price platen presses, a Vandercook 4, a Vandercook 219AB, a Miehle Vertical, a Hoe Washington hand press c. 1865, and the coup de grâce: a Hoe Washington hand press from 1848 that belonged to esteemed artist J.J. Lankes. Lankes produced illustrations and woodcuts for the works of Robert Frost, among others. Here’s the kicker: EVERYTHING WORKS.
I wandered around stupefied, and was actually a little relieved when Richard and I retired to the office to discuss writing, books, and where my travels would take me next. Richard was careful to mention Carl Nudi, a retired printer who helped around the shop and kept most of the equipment running smoothly. Carl was a member of the International Typographical Union, and the more we talked about it, the more excited I got to meet him.

Flash forward to the following day, when I had my chance – I met Carl in the early afternoon, and we hit up a place on campus for lunch. We talked printing, history, tramp printers, and more as we walked through the drizzle (as an aside, I’d still been sorely disappointed by the weather in FL). When we got back to the shop, Carl showed me cases full of cuts that were rescued from the defunct M.A. Donohue & Co., a publisher that specialized in children’s books, some dating from the late 1800s. Richard and he had discussed it, and they thought they would be the perfect cuts to use for an Itinerant Printer project; they were definitely right. Just check out the pics.
Working on the Vandercook 219AB was a dream, and I used it to demonstrate letterpress for two classes before getting to work on a postcard and a poster. When I wasn’t working, I explored Tampa, which is having a bit of a downtown resurgence – they’re building a boardwalk along the river to connect a few museums and create an “arts corridor,” all of which is visible from the UTampa campus. I didn’t stay in downtown, however – I was more intrigued by Ybor City, traditionally the Latin Quarter, and one of the oldest neighborhoods in Tampa. I wasn’t disappointed – Ybor City had everything I’m always looking for: skate shops, music venues, great bars and restaurants with great beer. I’d almost forgotten that Tampa had a deep skate culture rooted in the annual Tampa Am contest held at the Skatepark of Tampa. Many of the bars and restaurants had decks hanging on the walls, or were playing skate videos on tvs behind the counter.

I spent more time with Carl over the next two days, and we got to be good friends, so I ventured to ask him about running a stanza on the Intertype with me for the final color on the postcard. He happily obliged. We spent our last day together working on that until late in the evening – the machine was acting up, and I got to see a great, belligerent, honest side of Carl as he cursed the machine while deftly and quickly repairing it. In the end, we cast a great poem together – a collaborative work based on the number of matrices in the Intertype (we kept running out of t’s so we discussed changes to the poem), Carl’s input, and my original lines. Carl and I said goodnight that evening, but don’t worry, he shows up later in this story too. This was definitely the highlight of the trip – I was sad to not get more time with Richard, but Tampa was a wonderful surprise, a learning experience, and a little victory.

After leaving Ft. Lauderdale, FL, (where, like Miami, they can turn anything/anywhere into a nightclub), I made my way north to Boca Raton, FL (where, like Beverly Hills, there are more luxury cars than there are people). Boca Raton is home to Florida Atlantic University, which has housed the Jaffe Center for Book Arts since 1998 – the JCBA hosts the 6,000 volume Arthur and Mata Jaffe Collection (primarily artist’s books), as well as a letterpress printshop featuring two Vandercooks, a Wesel hand press, a Potter proof press, and an assortment of metal type, wood type, and cuts. I’d been looking forward to this early stop because I have a few works in the Jaffe Collection, and I’d heard great things about Arthur Jaffe – that he was a tireless advocate for book arts and print, that he was spirited and joyful, full of humor and life. Unfortunately, I landed at a bittersweet time – just over a week after 93 year old Arthur passed away peacefully in his sleep. From what I’m told, he asked for a bowl of chocolate ice cream around 8-9pm, then quietly went to bed. I can’t think of a better way to go.

Upon my arrival I was greeted by Director John Cutrone, who humbly showed me around and then explained that the task for the rest of the day was to erect the “Contemplation Tent” that Arthur had requested in the event of his passing. The Contemplation Tent consisted of two dozen aluminum poles and 17 hand-sewn quilts – once the framework is put in place, the quilts are hung from the poles, creating a soft room that features a rolling landscape of myriad colors on the interior. The exterior is adorned with a more nebulous landscape, punctuated by the gesturing figures of people headed into the small slit that acts as a door. Only one instruction adorns the tent: Please Enter One at a Time. And when I say there’s only one instruction, I mean it. John and I, as well as Office Manager Eric Bush, along with students Brooke, Will, Charles, and Ilana, spent about 2 hours putting the small tent up, using logic to discern where the pieces went. Apparently Arthur wanted us to not only contemplate inside the tent once it was up, he wanted us to contemplate prior to that, and work as a team. And that we did. Until we realized it would probably have to come apart to be moved into the appropriate room.
Either way, I was honored to be a part of something that Arthur thought would be an integral part of his memorial, and it helped me learn a lot about the key people that keep JCBA running.

The following days I spent cleaning the shop, printing, and on Thursday, Feburary 5th, I gave a presentation about the history of itinerant printing and the early stages of the TIP project. We moved from the library to the printshop later in the evening, and I guided participants through the printing process, adding the last color to a 12 x 18 poster that featured maps of Boca Raton, clip art cuts, and dozens of signatures culled from local business letters. I loved that I was able to find things in the collection at JCBA that were representative of Boca Raton and Florida without being ham-handed about it.

In addition to printing, I got to experience JCBA’s “Real Mail Fridays,” an event staged in the late afternoon once a month on Friday – all manner of raw materials are provided to facilitate letter-writing, postcard making, and any other mode of correspondence art. Too perfect for the TIP project!

I was honored to spend time at the JCBA, and although I never got to meet the man himself, I hope that he’d appreciate the project’s spirit of adventure coupled with its desire to make printing and book arts a central component of community building.
Huge thanks to the entire team at JCBA: John, Eric, Will, Brooke, Ilana, Charles, and Seth. Check out the pics below to see more of the space, and get a peek of the fantastic Edward Gorey exhibition that was up while I was there – John explained to me that the show’s timeline was extended after Arthur’s passing because Gorey was one of his favorites.

I left Buffalo early on a chilly Monday morning – January 26th – and hopped a lucky non-stop flight to Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale airport. When I landed, it was 59 degrees and pouring rain. Talk about bringing the weather with you. Never fear for this intrepid traveler, however, fickle Florida soon revealed itself, the skies broke, and I got to soak up a little vitamin D.

I had initially wanted to start The Itinerant Printer tour in Miami, but I had a hard time finding letterpress shops that weren’t doing exclusively commercial work, so the first stop ended up being IS Projects in Ft. Lauderdale, and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to kick off the project. IS Projects is run by Ingrid Schindall, a graduate of MICA (2012); she started her love affair with letterpress while acting as the coordinator of the Globe Collection at MICA. She’s a native of southern Florida, and returned after graduating with the intention of starting a space focused on letterpress printing and book arts. IS is located in the burgeoning Flagler Arts Technology Village (FAT), a small neighborhood with a concentration of galleries, studios, shared workspaces, and retail outlets. The space opened September 27th, 2014.

Her shop boasts a 30″ Challenge paper cutter from 1909, a Vandercook SP 15, a Craftsmen Superior 6″ x 10″, a C & P 10″ x 15″ with Kluge Feeder (that needs a little TLC), and a huge Praga etching press with a 32″ x 72″ bed. In addition to all the printing equipment, Ingrid has been able to dedicate one half the studio to bookbinding, and that area features a smaller Challenge 193 guillotine, a saddle stapler, a corner rounder, book presses, and an SAS leather skiver. She has a growing collection of wood type, metal type, and cuts as well.

The Itinerant Printer visit was synchronized with a FAT Village Art Walk that happens once a month – a wildly successful event that brings out thousands of people; they open all the studios, bands and djs play music, food trucks line the streets, and there’s also an artist market. Hundreds of people came through IS Projects that night to learn about IS Projects the TIP tour.

Ingrid is an amazing person – young, sanguine, optimistic, but simultaneously methodical, realistic, and patient. She’s pulled the space together with the help of family and friends, and she barters with other artists and craftspeople in town in order to build out the community that supports her space. She’s active in every aspect of the FAT Village community, and in a karmic way, it’s helping her space grow and blossom. Learn more about IS Projects here, check out Ingrid and her work here, and don’t forget to browse the gallery below for shots of the shop.