Please join us Saturday, March 7th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM for a very special afternoon with Bruce Licher and Karen Nielsen Licher of Independent Project Press & Records as we celebrate the release of Savage Impressions with a book signing, one-day exhibition and sale of printed matter, and a musical performance at 5:00 PM sharp by SR2. If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a copy of this exquisite new limited edition book, please place your order here!

Savage Impressions is the first extensive monograph on Bruce Licher's Independent Project Records and Independent Project Press. With the current explosion of interest in letterpress, many are looking to see how new work can be influenced by the past. Active since 1982, Bruce Licher’s Independent Project Press is a contemporary studio that has bridged technological eras and produced an unparalleled body of work. It has culled from the past while simultaneously turning it on its head with a distinct visual vocabulary that continues to influence current aesthetics. 

For the first time, a comprehensive overview of Independent Project Records and Independent Project Press has been compiled into a monograph published by P22 Type Foundry, produced in a quality that displays their  limited edition, hand-made work in over 200 pages of full color, from mechanical process work (for clients such as REM, Stereolab, and Camper Van Beethoven) to finished works of art with insights into the creative process along the way. The text includes an essay by Karen Nielsen Licher as well as material from Rudy Vanderlans’ Emigre magazine that featured the work of IPR & P. Co-designed by Bruce Licher and Jim Greishaber at P22, Savage Impressions is a 12 x 12-inch hardcover book that displays in full color the diverse range of art and design produced by Independent Project Records & Press. 

This first printing is an edition of one thousand copies, with three-hundred and fifty of those being a now-sold out Deluxe Edition that includes a 12” vinyl record and other letterpress-printed ephemera. This book is a profound reminder of the value of the hand-made and how it can interface with the mass-produced. It will stand as major documentation of one of the most influential letterpress studios currently in existence.

 

Book of the Day > Hilma af Klint: Visionary. Published by Bokförlaget Stolpe. “The 2018 exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, introduced the general public to the abstract mystical masterpieces of Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862–1944). Based on a seminar held at the Guggenheim Museum at the opening of this acclaimed exhibition, this volume compiles the insights of the seminar’s contributors alongside reproductions of works, archival photographs and images from af Klint’s journals. Hilma af Klint: Visionary explores the social and spiritual movements that appeared at the turn of the 20th century, inspiring the pioneers of modernism and abstract art: Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevich and af Klint. What was the zeitgeist that inspired such an eruption in abstract art? What were the conditions that created Hilma af Klint? Academics and experts Julia Voss, Tracey Bashkoff, Isaac Lubelsky, Linda Dalrymple Henderson and Marco Pasi each take a different approach. Voss analyzes af Klint's biography, pinpointing five important events in her life; Bashkoff presents her connection to Hilla Rebay and her plans for the building of a temple; Lubelsky traces the origins of theosophy in New York; Henderson examines the occult and science; and Pasi considers esotericism’s changing role in culture.”

Book of the Day > Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects – Revised Edition. Published by Steidl. “First published in 1987 to critical acclaim, the seminal American Prospects has been likened to Walker Evans’ American Photographs and Robert Frank’s The Americans in both its ability to visually summarize the zeitgeist of a decade and to influence the course of photography following its publication. This definitive edition of American Prospects contains sixteen new pictures, most of which have neither been published nor exhibited. Freed from the size constraints of previous editions, Sternfeld includes portraits and portraits in the landscape which elucidate the human condition in America. The result is a more complex and rounded view of American society that strongly anticipates Sternfeld’s “Stranger Passing” series (1985–2000) and links the two bodies of work.”

Book of the Day > Alison Roman: Nothing Fancy. Published by Potter. “An unexpected weeknight meal with a neighbor or a weekend dinner party with fifteen of your closest friends—either way and everywhere in between, having people over is supposed to be fun, not stressful. This abundant collection of all-new recipes—heavy on the easy-to-execute vegetables and versatile grains, paying lots of close attention to crunchy, salty snacks, and with love for all the meats—is for gatherings big and small, any day of the week. Alison Roman will give you the food your people want (think DIY martini bar, platters of tomatoes, pots of coconut-braised chicken and chickpeas, pans of lemony turmeric tea cake) plus the tips, sass, and confidence to pull it all off. With Nothing Fancy, any night of the week is worth celebrating.”