The Poets Lead the Way

Walter Tisdale
February 19, 2011
7:30pm
Scripps College Humanities Auditorium

Walter Tisdale’s books are collaborations with poets and artists using letterpress types and relief prints. It’s a direct and flexible way of working with his hands creating a book. The use of handmade papers, many by a local papermaker, heightens the sensual awareness of the book in one’s hands. Quite simply the books design themselves depending on the manuscript in hand. The slow deliberate setting of the manuscript in type reveals details intimate to the book’s design.

Tisdale fell into bookmaking after a semester in Walter Hamady’s class in 1979. He and a fellow classmate bought surplus equipment in 1980 to outfit a print shop. He’s worked in Bangor, Maine since 1987 printing and publishing handmade books. He’s taught sabbatical replacement print and book classes at the University of Maine, and workshops at the local art museum. His enthusiasm for the book has not diminished in over 30 years.

Please note that Frederic W. Goudy Lectures are free and open to the public.