The Fine Press Book Association

The Fine Press Book Association is an organization formed by individuals interested in the art of fine printing to promote printing skills and the appreciation of beautiful books.

Ten years old this year, it now has a world-wide membership of those interested in the fine book and contemporary fine printing: collectors, printers, artists, illustrators, museums, and dealers, currently numbering around 800.

It publishes Parenthesis, a journal devoted to fine printing and book-making, issues an occasional e-newsletter, organises events for members and non-members, and has run two competitions in book design.

Parenthesis is the Association's journal. It is generally published twice a year and is free to members. To bring vitality and variety to Parenthesis, its production alternates between North America and the UK. In the Americas, a team headed by Paul Razzell brings out the Spring issue, whilst production of the Autumn issue is led by Sebastian Carter of Rampant Lions Press.

Issue 13 has been delivered. Issue 14 is currently expected in May of 2008.

Each issue consists of 64pp of articles and illustrations, in full colour. Up to 90 de luxe members receive a special limited edition of Parenthesis which is case-bound and presented in a slip case with a parcel of items specially printed by presses from around the world. For example, past parcels have included wood engravings by Gaylord Shanilec, Frank Martin, and Simon King, printing from Henry Morris and Nicolas McDowall, pochoir by Peter Allen and Ian Beck, and a poster for the Pennyroyal Caxton Press edition of the Holy Bible.

For a fuller flavour of Parenthesis take a look at the contents of some past issues.

We have copies of the following back issues: 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 (only one), 11, 12. They are £15/US$30 each plus P&P. There is a single copy of issue 1: £50/US$100. We still have a few copies of the de luxe copies of issues 7, 9, 10, and 11 for sale. They are £75/US$150 each plus P&P. Contact Maggie Walker for further information about any of these.

Oxford Fine Press Book Fair

Every two years, the UK Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association (PBFA) works with the Fine Press Book Association to organise the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair in Oxford, UK. This is the largest international show of fine presses and their work outside North America. The next fair will be in 2009.

We shall once again be running the Gregynog Letterpress Prize. A prize of £500 will be awarded to the FPBA member who, in the opinion of the judges, has produced the finest book using traditional letterpress in the period since the last fair. The winners selected in 2007 were Gaylord Shanilec and Ben Verhoeven for Sylvae.

There will also be the Judges' Choice Awards where three collectors and dealers choose five of their favourites of the books published since the previous fair. Receiving mention in 2007 were Shanty Bay Press, Verdigris, Barbarian Press, Whittington Press, and Ken Ferguson.

On Sunday there are typically speakers on fine-press-related themes. The 2007 schedule is here.

The 2005 Oxford Fair is pictured here.

For details of the 2005 Fair click here.

For details of the 2003 Fair click here.

Standard annual membership is US$48 for individuals in the Americas, US$60 for institutions in the Americas, UK£28 in the European Union, and UK£35 in the rest of the world. De luxe annual membership is US$225 in the Americas, UK£125 in the European Union, and UK£135 in the rest of the world.

If you would like to join the FPBA, please download an application form (PDF), fill it in, and return it to the appropriate address given in the form.

Alternatively, please contact the relevant secretary: if you live in the Americas contact Morva Gowans, giving a postal address; if you live outside the Americas contact Maggie Walker, giving a postal address. You will be sent a membership application form.

To contact Maggie Walker by post, write to her c/o The Whittington Press, Whittington Court, Whittington, Cheltenham GL54 4HF, UK. To contact Morva Gowans by post, write to her at 3235 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6K 2L3, Canada.

How to contribute to Parenthesis

If you have ideas for an article - or articles - that would be of interest to readers of Parenthesis, please contact the Editors: either Sebastian Carter in the UK or Paul Razzell in the Americas.

If you are a press, or a supplier to presses, or a dealer in contemporary fine printing, why not place your advert in front of one of the most focused audiences there is for contemporary fine printing? We accept a limited number of advertisements in each issue of Parenthesis.

For a rate card and contact details for advertising in Parenthesis please use this PDF file for North American issues, or this PDF file for UK issues - note that the two issues have different page sizes. The North American issue is normally in the Spring and the UK issue in the Autumn/Fall.

How to order back issues of Parenthesis

Copies of some back issues of the standard Parenthesis are available for US$25 or UK£15 each. Please check availability with Morva Gowans if you are in the Americas, or Maggie Walker if you are outside the Americas.

We still have a few copies of the de luxe copies of issues 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11 for sale. They are £75/US$150 each plus P&P. Contact Maggie Walker for further information.

We issue an occasional newsletter by e-mail to members, one for members of the UK chapter and one for members of the North American chapter. The newsletter is used to let members know about progress with the forthcoming issue of Parenthesis, new books published by private and fine presses, and other relevant events.

If you give us your e-mail address when you join, we will automatically add you to the circulation list. Alternatively, you can request to be added to it at any time by sending an email identifying yourself to your membership secretary (see above).

If you are a press (and a member) we can include a short note about your new books in the e-newsletter (see above). Just fill in the online registration form.

The form also allows you to request an entry in the next issue of Parenthesis, and in the Private Libraries Association's periodical Private Press Books.

You might like to offer a copy for review in Parenthesis.  The online registration form also allows you to make the offer. A member of the Parenthesis team will contact you to arrange it. If necessary, we can also arrange the book's return after review.

Pattern papers have long been a favoured way of covering the boards of the case-bound private press book. Sources of papers are relatively few these days, and the FPBA has produced a series of new designs which are being used for the de luxe copies of Parenthesis.

We are making them available to members at a very reasonable price of £0.95 or US$2.00 a sheet. Given the costs of handling, the minimum order is five sheets. For ten or more sheets (which can be mixed) the price is £0.75 or US$1.50 per sheet. Postage and packing are charged at cost. Please note that these sheets are kept in and despatched from the UK. To place an order, contact Martyn Ould via the contact form at his website, specifying the designer and the colour. Stocks are limited.

The sheets are 475mm by 635mm (18.7 inches by 25 inches) and long grain. The patterns have been printed by offset litho in black onto a coloured laid paper of a weight suitable for covering boards.

Below are thumbnails of pictures of the available patterns. Click on a thumbnail for a larger picture. The pieces in the pictures are 160mm by 120 mm (6.3 inches by 4.7 inches).

	The two upper designs are by Lynn Hatzius. The two lower designs are by John Smith.
	These designs are all by Edwin Smith. Only the yellow paper is now available.

An award in memory of Edwin Smith and Olive Cook

The alphabet book has a long history, starting with children's reading books, but now often aimed at older readers as an exciting structure for experiments in design and illustration. There is a pleasure in working within the structure of 26 related units, some easy, some - such as X and Y - difficult. Artists who have produced alphabet books include William Nicholson, Edward Burra, David Jones, Edward Gorey, and David Hockney.

The Clarion Press and the FPBA ran a very successful competition to design an alphabet book. Over 100 entries were received and the judging panel consisting of Dr Trevor Weston (Clarion Press), Dennis Hall (FPBA), Susan Allix (book artist), and John Vernon Lord (illustrator) faced a major challenge choosing amongst the excellent entries. In the event, they chose Mary Kuper as overall winner of the prize of £1,000 (generously donated by Dr Trevor Weston) with her Alphabet of Word Origins, and a number of Highly Commended (Andreas Melas (Greece), Kristin Roskifte (Norway), Daphne Sandham (UK), and Anne Cathcart (UK)), and Commended entries.

The winner's book has been printed by and is now available from Dr Trevor Weston, Netham Mill, Holybourne, GU34 4NP, UK. All the results were announced in issue 8 of Parenthesis along with reproductions of the winning and runner-up entries.

Over 140 entries were judged in June 2004. Three joint prize-winners shared the £1,000: Fernando Feijoo, Ann d'Arcy Hughes, and Mayko Fry. Full details were published in Parenthesis 10 along with reproductions of the winning and many of the commended entries.

Some OED definitions of a 'fable': a narrative or statement not founded in fact, a short story devised to convey some useful message, a foolish story, a fabrication or falsehood. The book of fables has a long and interesting history going back to Aesop, through La Fontaine to the present day. Artists illustrating them include Thomas Bewick, Alexander Calder, Arthur Rackham and many of the French impressionists.

Entrants were allowed to use a traditional fable, write their own or co-operate with a new fable writer. There had to be an emphasis on imagination and good drawing and the entries had to be limited to one colour - black. Many of the students in the previous Alphabet Book Competition said that the biggest problem for them was not being able to use full colour, but working only in black has a very valid and strong tradition. The competition was open to anyone living anywhere who had not had a book commercially published.

Entrants were required to produce a book of at least 16 pages with no fewer than six images in it and they could be of one fable or more. The page size was not to exceed A4 portrait (297mm by 210mm). The winning entry will be printed by the FPBA, by letterpress if lino- or wood-cut, otherwise lithographically. There will be at least 150 copies printed, a third for the winner and two thirds for the FPBA to help recoup costs. The judging panel will consist of Dennis Hall, representing the FPBA; Susan Allix, representing artist's books; John Vernon Lord, a working illustrator; Anne Hobbs, an expert on fables from the V&A Museum; John Norris Woods, an illustrator and long- time friend of Olive Cook; and Dr Trevor Weston, the publisher of Prospero Poems.

This page is copyright © The Fine Press Book Association 2008.
It is maintained by Robert McCamant .