![-4](http://spaceworkstacoma.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/4.jpg?w=300&resize=300%2C234)
St. Bartholomew is known as the patron saint of bookbinders. In Tacoma, a town with an unusual number of fine letterpress artists, Jessica Spring may be seen as the Patroness of Paper Artists for co-founding the popular, annual printmakers’ festival, Wayzgoose (named after a medieval guild celebration that took place on – surprise! – St. Bartholomew’s Day).
The founder of locally-based Springtide Press, Spring creates her own exquisite style of art using vintage foundry type, printing presses and bindery equipment, much of it more than a century old. But she brings a clean, modern sensibility to a body of work that, on the surface, appears nostalgic because of the tactile richness of its imprinted images, and the use of luxurious papers that exalt the printed word.
![10_spring](http://spaceworkstacoma.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/10_spring1.jpg?w=300&resize=300%2C200)
Take Bit Map, an installation for Spaceworks Tacoma opening March 17 at the Woolworth Building. This work resembles a curtain of hundreds of floating paper circlets, each composed with multiple graphic elements. Each circlet is letterpress printed on one side with vintage images known as “printer’s flowers” or “ornaments”; the reverse is embellished with end papers taken from antique children’s books. As the strands of circlets twist and turn, they create a spinning narrative of story and image, color and texture. While densely encoded with information from days past, Spring notes that as a whole, Bit Map should be read “like a constant flow of data composed of binary zeroes and ones, potential chaos controlled by pattern.” This art of “nostalgic touch points” is not as innocent as it looks.
![09_spring](http://spaceworkstacoma.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/09_spring3.jpg?w=300&resize=300%2C200)
“There’s a tension there, no doubt,” she says. “I’m grabbing the last century as hard as I can, and it’s slipping away. There’s also some design tension – mixing ornate Victorian ornaments with polka dots and bright colors…It’s also unavoidable to mention all the discussion around the end of the printed book. So here’s a response, a memorial.” Springtide Press produces small, finely-crafted editions of artist books, broadsides and ephemera incorporating letterpress and handmade papers. Check out the (ultra) fine print at www.springtidepress.com. Bit Map, at the Woolworth Building, 11th & Broadway, March 17 through July 1.
0 thoughts on “In Praise of Print”