Who is a book artist?
She makes the paper, sets type, works the press, draws and colours the illustrations, and binds the books too...
Radha Pandeyis a papermaker and book artist.
Her handmade book, Anatomia Botanica, published in 2014 in a small
edition of 25 copies, was letterpress printed from hand-set metal type on
dampened handmade paper, the illustrations were hand-coloured and the book was
handbound. Pandey made the paper herself (for the deluxe edition of 10), set
the type (Bembo), worked the press (Vandercook SP20), drew, cut and coloured
the illustrations (linocut and pochoir), and bound the edition in two different
bindings. “I started out specialising in papermaking,” she told me, “and then
was caught by the printing bug, and decided to focus on both paper and print —
this for me meant making hand-printed books on the paper that I make.”
Pandey left a careerin graphics and animation
to design and print in a different way. “It was the physical experience of
putting bits of metal between words, and between lines that suddenly made the
entire idea of book design click. This is how we were meant to design and print
books… Instead of changing a number on a screen to change type size, or
selecting from a random selection on my computer of ‘what looked good’, I had
to think very carefully about each typeface, word and sentence. Every design
typographically had to be thought about because it became a physical piece of
the puzzle that I would have to spend time creating. It was immensely
challenging in the best way possible.”
In 2005,she participated in a three-week
course in Japanese paper making at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft in
Maine. This was followed by a six-week internship at Auroville Papers in
Puducherry. “The first time I made books was at Auroville Papers in their
production line; it was magical putting it together.” Eventually, all this led
to more seminars and internships in the U.S. It was at a ‘Friends of Dard
Hunter’ conference in 2010 that she met Timothy Barrett, the renowned paper historian
and acclaimed papermaker. He encouraged her to apply for the MFA in Book Arts
offered by Center for the Book at University of Iowa. “Most of my inspiration,”
says Pandey, “comes from nature and science and where the two meet.
Installation art that reflects the passing of time in some way also inspires
me.”
She spoke to meabout crafting and printing a
handmade book like Anatomia Botanica : “I made the paper for the
entire deluxe edition. It was a small edition of 10 books, but that meant I had
to make 400 sheets of paper that were 18”x24”. I spent weeks working out the
best possible way to dry the paper so that it would have a toothy texture, but
would print flats in my images. I did a series of tests before I finally
settled on the best but most laborious technique. The paper printed
beautifully. It had to be dampened for printing and stretched so much that it
actually set my carefully planned schedule back three days.
“I printed the entire bookfrom cover to cover
in seven weeks. It took me about three months to set all the type and carve the
blocks before I was ready to start printing. One of the images uses up to 16
colours, but mostly they all use about nine colours each. The entire book took
121 press runs.”
Her most recent book, Taxonomy of Shapes, is
another letterpress printed artist’s book. Pandey has held several workshops in
Islamic papermaking in the U.S., and whenever she has a chance, she also
conducts book arts workshops in India. Pandey eventually hopes to set up a Book
Arts centre “where people can attend workshops, lectures, use studio space and
learn to print, bind and make paper. I hope, with a place like this, people
learn to love and respect the handmade book.”
Pradeep Sebastian is a bibliophile, columnist
and critic.
‘It took me three months to set all the type
and carve the blocks before I was ready to start printing.’
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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