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virginiabookarts.bsky.social
Virginia Book Arts
@virginiabookarts.bsky.social
210 followers 680 following 11 posts
Member-run book arts collective based in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Successor to the membership of the Virginia Humanities Center for the Book Book Arts Program membership, which was defunded in Spring 2025.) Email: [email protected]
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Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · 3d
We're reopening soon! Lots of info on joining as a member or donating to help us become sustainable & accessible, upcoming workshops, & free public events this Nov 7 & 8: mailchi.mp/ccb542e70408... Also see our Insta (www.instagram.com/vabookarts/) & website (vabookarts.org) to learn more.
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virginiabookarts.bsky.social
Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · 2d
10 days 'til open house! Busy calibrating presses, readying makeready, building new ways to explore our huge type collection. All (nonmembers welcome!) are invited to visit 11/7 5-7 (Cville 1st Friday) & 11/8 10-4. See our new space+learn how you might dig book arts w/us! mailchi.mp/ccb542e70408...
Closeup photo of someone's hands adjusting part of a Vandercook printing press after changing out the tympan paper Photo of several racks of wood blocks organized according to size; these are "furniture", use to space and hold movable type in place on a printing press One of our many racks of "leading" organized according to size; these are thin strips of metal of varying lengths and thickness, used to space and hold movable type in place on a printing press Photo of several cans and jars of machine oil and lubricants sitting on top of a Vandercook Universal printing press (a large grey metal floor press). A brick wall and print drying line ar evisible in the background.
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virginiabookarts.bsky.social
Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · 3d
We're reopening soon! Lots of info on joining as a member or donating to help us become sustainable & accessible, upcoming workshops, & free public events this Nov 7 & 8: mailchi.mp/ccb542e70408... Also see our Insta (www.instagram.com/vabookarts/) & website (vabookarts.org) to learn more.
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literaturegeek.bsky.social
Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 3d
Today we changed the tympan paper (sheets covering cylinder that holds paper you're printing onto) on @vabookarts.bsky.social's 2 Vandercook presses. Beautiful layers of folks' past printing (including lots of mine, between being one of the most frequent printers & getting sloppy when testing 😂)
Closeup photo of a used Vandercook printing press tympan sheet, which goes around the press cylinder where you wrap the paper you're about to print on. It's got multiple ghost and inked impressions from past printers' projects, including a green inked lined and polka dotted design, and in black ink parts of the words "scholarship", "students", and ABCDEFG Photo of a used Vandercook printing press tympan sheet, which goes around the press cylinder where you wrap the paper you're about to print on. It's got multiple ghost and inked impressions from past printers' projects, including "may the stars light your way!) in teal ink, part of my name in dayglo orange, and many layers of barely visible light tan words that are uninked impressions Closeup photo of a used Vandercook printing press tympan sheet, which goes around the press cylinder where you wrap the paper you're about to print on. It's got multiple ghost and inked impressions from past printers' projects, including "*except nazis" (from my "libraries aren't/haven't been, but could be/should be for everyone" print) Closeup photo of a used Vandercook printing press tympan sheet, which goes around the press cylinder where you wrap the paper you're about to print on. It's got multiple ghost and inked impressions from past printers' projects, including "envision trans futures" from a past print of mine
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 8d
UVA employees, there's an option for pursuing your book arts learning & projects @virginiabookarts.bsky.social designed toward fitting restrictions on what UVA's professional development funding can pay for: vabookarts.org/uva-employee...
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 8d
Charlottesville's printshop, type collection, & book bindery @virginiabookarts.bsky.social (previously @ Center for the Book) reopens this November in the old train station. Read for an admirable # of train puns 🚂 (not by me?!) & info on joining as a member, free events 11/7-8, upcoming workshops:
Photo of the location of the soon-reopening Virginia Book Arts printshop and book, a with an arrow pointing to a frosted door in a red brick old former train station building on Water St, with a green trolley bus across the street at the central bus station. A caption says "All aboard Virginia Book Arts! now in the old train station building (across from central bus station € end of downtown mall)"
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 28d
Hoping to print with this at the printshop as soon as the presses are available again.
Photo of a hand holding up a 3"x3" acrylic square that's been lasercut to resemble the grid of a letterpress typecase. A light is shining through the translucent acrylic; the acrylic is transparent in 3 cells of the grid, where the lowercase letters v, b, and a are stored (it's Virginia Book Arts' logo)
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 28d
Lasercut a printing block of @virginiabookarts.bsky.social's new logo (a letterpress typecase, with the places v, b, & a go highlighted) #DHmakes
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Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 28
Our drying line (and rubber chicken!) is up, & our steering group has been hard at work pecking at various other infrastructure needs toward filling that drying line with our community's prints again.
Photo captioned "The drying line is up!" showing a wire art-drying line covered with wooden clothespins, hung in the air with a few paper prints attached. The drying line is in the new Virginia Book Arts shop; you can see an exposed red brick wall and various book arts supplies (like an organizer holding wooden blocks: wooden furniture for letterpress). Photo captioned "The drying line is up!" showing a wire art-drying line covered with wooden clothespins, hung in the air with a few paper prints attached that say show a specimen of Gill Sans type in teal blue ink on white paper. A small yellow rubber chicken hangs at the end of one wire. The drying line is in the new Virginia Book Arts shop; you can see an exposed red brick wall and various book arts supplies (like an organizer holding wooden blocks: wooden furniture for letterpress). Photo captioned "The drying line is up!" showing a wire art-drying line with a small yellow rubber chicken at the end of one wire. The drying line is in the new Virginia Book Arts shop; you can see an exposed red brick wall and various book arts supplies (like an organizer holding wooden blocks: wooden furniture for letterpress).
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virginiabookarts.bsky.social
Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 24
Drop in anytime at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library (JMRL) downtown Charlottesville branch, in the 3rd floor Madison Room.
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Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 24
Cville folks, tonight 5:30-7:30=our weekly BookMakers gathering! Free+open to all. Mix of old+new attendees, book artists+folks just getting started. Many bring projects to work on, but there's often short demos & equipment you can experiment w/too (wood letterpress type+BookBeetle press tonight!) +
virginiabookarts.bsky.social Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 15
#Cville region folks, missing (or excited to learn more about) book arts? Drop in for BookMakers: every Wednesday 5:30-7:30pm (downtown JMRL Madison Rm) for friendly, free printing, bookbinding, zine, etc. text art community. Open to all: bring your own project, or try out the BookBeetle press! +
Photo of a table of BookMakers attendees with various bookish art implements spread in front of them, including a colorful cascade of craft-foam letters, paper, bone folders, in-process print and bookbinding work. Composite of three photos of BookMakers attendees; two are showing off colorful prints they made on the BookBeetle press next to the press, and the 3rd photo shows a table full of folks and book arts supplies smiling at the camera
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virginiabookarts.bsky.social
Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 23
In "case" you weren't sure what our new logo was referencing...it's a California job case (particular layout for organizing moveable type for letterpress work) with the cells for letters V, B, A highlighted:
An image titled "logo inspiration" showing an old drawing of a letterpress type case in the "California job case, now almost the universal type case" layout style, with the cells where the lowercase letters V, B, and A go highlighted. Caption: "the inspiration for VBA's new logo!" The Virginia Book Arts Logo, which says VBA's name followed by "create / collaborate / teach / preserve", next to a rectangle broken up into a grid of different-sized cells that looks like a letterpress California job case for moveable type; the places where the lowercase letters V, B, and A (for VBA) would go are highlighted.
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · Sep 15
Thanks to @virginiabookarts.bsky.social's @josefbeery.bsky.social for keeping our book arts community not just alive but growing by leading a weekly public+free time to craft in camraderie, carrying on & expanding our Block Night/Open Studio tradition after our Book Arts printshop+bindery closed.
virginiabookarts.bsky.social Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 15
#Cville region folks, missing (or excited to learn more about) book arts? Drop in for BookMakers: every Wednesday 5:30-7:30pm (downtown JMRL Madison Rm) for friendly, free printing, bookbinding, zine, etc. text art community. Open to all: bring your own project, or try out the BookBeetle press! +
Photo of a table of BookMakers attendees with various bookish art implements spread in front of them, including a colorful cascade of craft-foam letters, paper, bone folders, in-process print and bookbinding work. Composite of three photos of BookMakers attendees; two are showing off colorful prints they made on the BookBeetle press next to the press, and the 3rd photo shows a table full of folks and book arts supplies smiling at the camera
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Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 16
Next stop, printshop (& bindery)! Our new space is in Charlottesville's former railroad station, near the downtown bus center & east end of the pedestrian Downtown Mall. We're full steam ahead on getting the space ready to open for community art & learning.
Photo of an open set of double, frosted-glass doors on the outside of a red brick building, showing a room with a concrete floor in the process of being cleaned and painted for move-in. Two Virginia Book Arts members stand in the door gesturing in welcome. Photo of the red brick building that used to house Charlottesville's train station, with an arrow pointing out the east end room as "our new home". It has three windows on the street, and frosted glass doors opening on the side into the morning light. Atmospheric photo down Water Street in Charlottesville, showing the C&O restaurant, downtown bus station, and Charlottesville's former train station building (red brick and white columns) in the sunset light.
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Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 15
We've folks at all levels of experience—you *don't* need to feel "good at" art to come enjoy making something. We've had folks working on miniature artist books, ceramic(!) book covers; papermaking, marbling, bookbinding; craft & common press letterpress & image printing, zines, lino carving & more!
Closeup photo of a hand holding a miniature book, jsut under 1" tall, open to show a tiny binding, handdrawn art, and the title "twenty-two bugs" Photo of a BookMakers attendee working on bookbinding, with an array of equipment including a bone folder and container of paste, and array of notebooks in the process of being bound Photo of two BookMaker attendees engaged in printing work, with one showing off a blue-paper print of the words "1963 to 2022" they've made using craft-foam letters and the BookBeetle press Photo of a BookMakers attendees lifting a print off the BookBeetle press (a small, wooden tabletop screw press) to show both the printed blue ink arrows design and the craft foam shapes inked and used to print them.
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virginiabookarts.bsky.social
Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 15
#Cville region folks, missing (or excited to learn more about) book arts? Drop in for BookMakers: every Wednesday 5:30-7:30pm (downtown JMRL Madison Rm) for friendly, free printing, bookbinding, zine, etc. text art community. Open to all: bring your own project, or try out the BookBeetle press! +
Photo of a table of BookMakers attendees with various bookish art implements spread in front of them, including a colorful cascade of craft-foam letters, paper, bone folders, in-process print and bookbinding work. Composite of three photos of BookMakers attendees; two are showing off colorful prints they made on the BookBeetle press next to the press, and the 3rd photo shows a table full of folks and book arts supplies smiling at the camera
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virginiabookarts.bsky.social
Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 15
The Vandercooks have landed! 🛬Volunteers have been hard at work cleaning, painting, & moving our printshop & bindery equipment into our new space. Next up: unpacking & planning everything up through reopening (membership, open house, workshops...). Sign up at bottom of vabookarts.org for updates!
Still from a video of a Vandercook printing press (a large, grey metal floorsize proofing press roughly shaped like a kitchen island with a crank attached) being moved on a large cart, outside a red brick building. Photo of Virginia Book Arts Exec Office Kevin McFadden clapping while looking at a sucessfully moved Vandercook printing press (a large, grey metal floorsize proofing press roughly shaped like a kitchen island with a crank attached). It's in a room in the process of having equipment moved into it, with grey-painted concrete floor and red brick and white-painted wood walls. Virginia Book Arts members clean the new printshop and bindery space before move in, scrubbing windows and using a long yellow pole to change lightbulbs in the high ceilings. It's in a room with no equipment in it yet, with unpainted concrete floor and red brick and white-painted wood walls, one window in view, and lit by natural lights from other windows and door outside the photo edges. Photo from inside the new printshop space through frosted glass doors to the outside; natural light glows through, and a tree, grass, and Water St are visible. Someone is crouched behind the frosted glass working on cleaning the door.
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Virginia Book Arts @virginiabookarts.bsky.social · Sep 1
We're delighted to share we're now a member-run non-profit w/a new Cville location, + our new Insta (www.instagram.com/vabookarts/) & website (vabookarts.org)! Scroll to the bottom on the latter for listserv signup, to hear when we're ready to open & offer events, & ways you can help.
Virginia Book Arts – Creating, Collaborating, Teaching, and Preserving Book Arts and Letterpress Printing
vabookarts.org
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · Aug 4
Letterpress typecase handles & labels are their own little bits of art:
Closeup photo of 3 metal drawer-pulls on wooden letterpress typecase drawers; one is a brown metal that says "Hamilton Mfg. Co." in raised letters; another is a painted olive green with the same raised text; and the third is brown metal with raised images of leaves, lines, and circles Closeup photo of 3 metal drawer-pulls on wooden letterpress typecase drawers; they are copper-color-tinged with ornate raised abstract curlicue designs, and some bright red paint is in the concave areas amid the designs Closeup photo of a label on a wooden letterpress typecase drawer; it's a thin metal rectangle that's black with a muted gold border, with muted gold text that says "RICHMOND TYPE AND ELECTROTYPE FOUNDRY DEALERS IN PRINTERS MACHINERY AND ELECTROTYPERS RICHMOND, VA." Closeup photo of a label on a wooden letterpress typecase drawer; it's a thin metal rectangle that's shiny chrome-colored with a muted orange rectangle under its text, which says in shiny chrome "HAMILTON MANUFACTURING Co. Composing room equipment TWO RIVERS WISCONSIN"
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · Aug 4
Working on photographing @virginiabookarts.bsky.social's type collection yesterday with @josefbeery.bsky.social, I realized there's a plain-looking type cabinet where someone had painted just the insides of each typecase/drawer a different bright color 🌈
Photo grid showing photos of a variety of letterpress typecases each painted a different bright color; they look like wide shallow painted-wood drawers with 60+ different small niches for various pieces of type Photo of a letterpress typecase painted bright yellow; it looks like a wide shallow painted-wood drawer with 60+ different small niches for various pieces of type Photo of a letterpress typecase painted deep red and olive green; it looks like a wide shallow painted-wood drawer with 60+ different small niches for various pieces of type Photo of a letterpress typecase painted bright red and steel blue; it looks like a wide shallow painted-wood drawer with 60+ different small niches for various pieces of type
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Reposted by Virginia Book Arts
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · Aug 2
Lets us see % wood vs metal type, counts of the various typefaces, frequency of various point sizes. Going to work w/@josefbeery.bsky.social to document the type's use history, quirks, condition. Hoping to add photos of prints made w/as much of our type as I can, to show what to expect.
Screenshot of a webpage showing various colored charts and stats that summarize the Virginia Book Arts' large type collection. The stats are: "Total type count (Discrete typeface + size + variant): 374" [note that this is only the type in numbered cases, not the huge collection of additional type in various other drawers and galleys, such as a collection of European wood type, and a huge amount of unopene foundry type packs], "# of unique type families (e.g. Caslon, Bodoni, etc.): 72", "Photographed types (I.e. a photo of this type in its case is in the database): 43", "Photos of type printed (Examples of how type at this size appears when printed): 2". There is a pie chart showing "Proportion of type materials in collection" with 85.9% lead type, 13.9% wood type, and 1 3d-printed item. A bar chart shows "Common Variants (For the most common variants in our type collection, # of types with that variant)", with different lines for how much italic, bold, etc. variants of type the collection contains, with around 25 variants listed. A bar chart for "Collection type: sizes (# of typefaces in the indicated size)" shows that 18pt type is the most common lead type size in the collection, and 15 pica is the most common wood type size in the collection. A screenshot of part of an Airtable database (looks like a spreadsheet with color-pill entries) documenting some of the details for some of Virginia Book Arts' type collection, such as type family and variant, point size, and type material. A screenshot of part of an Airtable database (looks like a spreadsheet with color-pill entries) documenting some of the details for some of Virginia Book Arts' type collection, so zoomed out to show all ~30 metadata columns that it's difficult to read anything. There is still a lot of info to fill in, but there are places for photos, documenting the history of how VBA acquired and used the type, and other social info as well as many details about particular typefaces (what they are, how they look, how well they print)
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · Aug 2
I'm making a database+photo gallery for @virginiabookarts.bsky.social's big (370+!) wood+lead letterpress type collection, before it's packed up: pull out+photo each case, add descriptive data to Airtable db based on others' existing typeface+variant+pointsize list+I added 27 more metadata fields 🙀+
Screenshot of a grid photo gallery of drawers of wood letterpress type, with around 30 drawers of brown and black and yellow wood type, sans and san serif, varius typefaces shown Photo of a letterpress typecase (wide, shallow drawer) pulled out from its cabinet to show the 2" tall wooden letters (in a medieval typeface called "Abbey Text") it organizes Screenshot of a list of the metadata fields in a database named "Moveable type"; the fields are: Case # Legacy label Point size SPiF font genre Other notes Type style/variant Type family Warnings Acquisition & history Material Contents type General typeface history Case notes Letter, Hamilton Number... Qs from Amanda ID Case photo Case photo date Case photo notes Photos of type (non-case) Photos of printed type Source of core data Photos of type (non-cas.. Photos of printed type n... Status Final status decision Similar typeface? Proposed fate Fate reason(s) Sans vs Serif
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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · Aug 2
Studio Two Three 'supports art making for personal+social change...the role of the arts in civic voice+engagement, partnering w/activists+leaders to provide space for creative advocacy initiatives' (www.studiotwothree.org/our-mission). 💜 their charter (I see some #DHmakes values there!):
Screenshot of the bullet list from Richmond's Studio Two three's mission page, which says: "Our Declaration: We value the dignity and humanity of all people. We are all artists, no matter how we work and what we make. We trust ourselves, we trust each other, and we trust our process - there are no failures, only lessons. We are kind. The world is small - our community is smaller. We are all at once amateurs, professionals, students and teachers. We value sharing; space, tools, conversations, ideas, time and energy. We value stealing; processes, techniques and inspiration (but we don’t take other people’s belongings). We are creators working in a world that’s precious and finite. We make art with our hands (print, film and letterpress are alive and well!) We own what we make."
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