TRICKING THE IMPOSSIBLE word and type · and bracketpress exhibition guide

IN THE BACKGROUND… AN INTRODUCTION by Christian Brett

I first came to Penny’s work through a couple of manuscripts – Or Maybe , saving up my dinner money to Tomorrow and This Crippled Flesh buy Feeding of the Five Thousand – which Pomona didn’t want to be when I was about 10 or 11 years old. involved in. When I first saw This dissertation, Censorship by Omission Twenty years later we would start Crippled Flesh I was so excited. It and the Economics of Truth (C4) working together and a great friend- was like being given the opportunity which Penny suggested publishing as ship has grown from that. to work on a William Burroughs text, a pamphlet. Gee suggested the name but more. So, with my partner Alice, ‘Bracket Press’ after my penchant for Our first meeting came about in 2003 began several years of revisiting and bracketing the folios in my book while I was typesetting books for revising the typesetting while trying designs. And so Bracketpress came publisher Mark Hodkinson at Pomona to get someone to take on the book into being and is also my trading Books. Mark had an idea to create a and publish it properly – John Calder, name. series of lyric books by English bands, Hamish Hamilton and Damien Hirst and asked if I had any ideas. The only being those who showed genuine The first pamphlet we published of one I thought worthwhile would be to interest. In late 2009 we revisited Penny’s work was Freedom is such a do a Crass lyric book – but to present the design and overhauled the core big word [2006]. This essay was it like poetry, elegant rather than the typefaces and got the money originally commissioned by Dazed & line / line / line typewriter style of together to publish the first edition Confused magazine for their their earlier LPs. I drafted up some of 100 copies, which much to our ‘Freedom Issue’ [Vol.2 #39, July 2006]. rough layouts, came up with the surprise sold-out before the books Ironically the piece was pulled at the name for the book Love Songs, the arrived back from the printers. last minute and so Penny gave it to us back cover blurb and the publishing to publish as a pamphlet. Since which date (14th February), and also the Bracketpress as an entity actually we’ve published much of his writing non-chronological running order. came about though Penny and Gee and also carried out some typesetting Sometime later, Penny sent Pomona (Vaucher) reading my degree of his work for other publishers.

WHO? Penny Rimbaud was born in 1943. He is a Christian Brett (b.1969) left school at 16. He is Alice Smith (b.1983) graduated with a 1st class writer, poet, philosopher, raconteur, painter, fortunate to be one of the last properly taught BA and MA in Design and Art Direction from musician and activist. He was a member of the typesetters, serving his apprenticeship under Manchester Metropolitan University in 2005. performance art group EXIT and co-founder the tutelage of Messrs. Ashworth and Hall at Since which she has produced illustrations and of the Stonehenge Free Festival. In 1977 he The Composing Room, Manchester. Following designs for books, magazines, brand identities, co-founded with , the massively the collapse of the industry with the introduc- music packaging, retail, advertising, instal- influential collective Crass who tion of desktop publishing, he went on to sell lations and exhibitions. She has a particular disbanded in 1984. He continues to perform guitars and amplifiers for 10 years. Having interest in book illustration and cover design, and record with a diverse variety of musicians, gotten sick of selling dreams to people – he she has produced book covers and illustrated drawn mainly from the avant-garde. He has went back to school, eventually graduating books for Penguin Books, Pan Macmillan. She recently participated in events supported by from Manchester Metropolitan University recently produced a series of illustrations with the British Council in Argentina, Brazil and Interactive Arts, BA (Hons) 1st. It was while curator Judith Clark for The Vulgar: Fashion Mexico. He shares a house with his lifelong studying he met his partner Alice, with whom Redefined exhibition at the Barbican Art artistic partner . he later founded Bracketpress. He is a self- Gallery. Alice and has worked as the art director employed typesetter and book designer. for the Idler magazine for the past 10 years.

1 “You can make a small fortune in from a stream of consciousness whilst it’s for something very specific – which publishing as long as you start out reading the manuscripts, and then I usually ask Alice to take, much to with a big one.” – John Calder tend to come together as a mixture her irritation at my lack of tech of collage and mark making, and savviness. There’s nothing more Never a truer word spoken in jest. eventually juxtaposed digitally. irritating to me than people constant- Because Bracketpress as a publishing ly snapping away, whether on a trip entity is entirely self-financed and run Penny’s work is challenging. Visceral. out or a concert or whatever. You’ll on the fumes earned from working for It demands attention and concentra- never look at them again. You’ll never proper publishers, we have never tion. It is not easy. It is provocative look at that stuff once it’s posted it actively sought to publish anything; and confrontational. It is deeply on Facebook or YouTube. Surely, the work we have published is the personal and at the same time deeply memories are enough? result of existing relationships and not political. It is also very beautiful, solicited material. At the heart of moving and occasionally very funny Aside from constant use of note- Bracketpress is the idea of doing (in the same way that Burroughs books, I’ve also kept what I call something I love (typesetting) without and Pinter are…funny). workbooks. The first of these I started the interference of non-creatives around 1997. Up until a few years (accounts managers, marketing I’ve said this many times, that through back they are what you would expect, departments and heads of publish- my day job I’ve had the opportunity but since discovering Blurb.com I’ve ing). I’ve never got around to creating to work with some very interesting been creating one-off books docu- a portfolio of work, but the things individuals and occasionally some menting the more interesting things we’ve published have drawn people brilliant writers; but I would choose I’ve been involved in – they are in to work with us. to work with Penny’s writing over effect an edited archive of material anyone’s, bar none. The generosity that would otherwise remain invisible As a typesetter, when working for of spirit and endless encouragement on an external hard drive. I know, the clients – I see my role as both archi- both Penny and Gee have given us time spent creating these could have tect and bricklayer, and the work I over the years is extraordinary. That been spent producing a portfolio, but carry out is one of constant learning. they continue to grow and move hey ho. I also keep an open workbook Endlessly refining an idea, working forward as artists, creating work that on my machine that runs from January towards that perfect piece of typeset- is as challenging as what they were to December each year which I add ting.* The harmonious balance doing 40 years ago is an inspiration. to as I go along. They include all between black and white. The under- sorts, like the ridiculous email I stated beauty. Unfussy, economic and This exhibition has been laid out in a received on New Year’s Eve inviting elegant. The space between the non-chronological order because, as me to estimate costs for typesetting notes … taking those principals and you’ll see, many of the projects span and letterpress printing a book at applying them to Penny’s work is, I time and overlap in a disorderly an outdoor festival this summer. think where I have the most fun. The fashion. But predominately they contain my work on show here is the playground, own work, stuff which isn’t directly it’s where I get to fuck around and fail connected to any jobbing work, that without fear, and it is where I succeed. A note on archiving… has no purpose other than the doing. What is an archive? The process? The My favourite thing is taking the often Alice says: “Christian’s priority is good stuff? The work that wasn’t mediocre images sent to me by always the interior, the exterior cover compromised in favour of what the clients which I then destroy beyond design he seems to dismiss as committee wanted? The detritus of all recognition in Photoshop to create ‘window dressing’, and often goes design? The physical evidence that beautiful painterly abstract images. with a gut instinct minimal design you existed and all the bad decisions There’s hundreds of these now, repurposed from his private projects. you made. It’s like a diary. Like a without purpose other than they give It’s quite the opposite approach to collection of LPs and CDs, it triggers me great pleasure in making them. how most book designers work.” memories. Opening up the archive to pull out the material relating to Ask me the question and I’ll tell you Alice’s illustrations are usually drawn Penny for this show was strange. that this archive is full of material that Some of the stuff I’d completely was driving me and Alice nuts. It was forgotten about or didn’t even filling up our flat, so we use Special * The perfect piece of typesetting is a remember doing. And the occasional, Collections as a dumping ground for fiction. It only exists in the clitter-clatter mind of the compositor. See: “Ah, that’s why we did that that way!” stuff we can’t bear to let go. But the “How many typesetters does it take truth is we’re very proud that Special to change a lightbulb?” “Four. One to I suppose this is my version of endless Collections think highly enough of actually do the work and three to say, camera phone pictures and YouTube what we do, to want to be the ‘I wouldn’t have done it like that.’” clips. I rarely take photographs unless custodians of this material.

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SPECIAL COLLECTIONS GALLERY FLOOR PLAN

THIS CRIPPLED FLESH [2003–10] and sample pages, edition of 20 (bottom) • Hand bound copy of C1 (top shelf) • A page from Penny’s – one of the first Bracketpress This Crippled Flesh, one of two original typescript alongside the editions. faux-leather bindings, a copy of which typeset version. • This Crippled Flesh – trade hard- was given to one of Penny’s favourite • Several spiral bound proofs 2003– back covers: 1st ed. [2010] black with writers J.G. Ballard. We knew Ballard 04, including casebound proof red endpapers, 2nd ed. [2010] red with disliked overtly fruity language in exhibited in Interactive Arts Degree black, 3rd ed. [2011] dark grey with books and suspected he wouldn’t Show. pink. Copy of 1st edition complete want to read This Crippled Flesh, he • Cut to size proof featuring trace with dust jacket. was unwell and nearing the end of wrapper and early cover illustration. • This Crippled Flesh and No Non his life when he received it, so we • Mounted page used as part of a Sense – This Crippled Flesh were touched by the letter written by series of framed pages from This MMX Remixed [2009] casebound his partner, Claire Walsh, addressed Crippled Flesh and Love Songs also test proofs, precursor to the final to Gee. We never had the chance to exhibited in the degree show. published edition of This Crippled meet Ballard, but we did have the (middle) • Bettina Rheims The Flesh. pleasure of Claire’s company a Crucifixion – Pt.1 of 3 [1997], framed • Advert (enlarged) Box ad placed in couple of times. newsprint from article about her 1998 The Idler which quotes our favourite • No Non Sense Dada [2005] hand book and exhibition I.N.R.I. The review of This Crippled Flesh. bound, unique editions. Each a image was the original inspiration (middle) • Illustration ideas. different deconstruction of This for the feel of the front cover. • Uncut sheets of colour plates. Used Crippled Flesh. There is no real • Stendhal Le Rouge et le Noir as frontispiece tip-ins for the ten parts reason for this book’s existence, – altered book by Alice Smith [2007]. of the book, up until we published other than we thought it was funny • This Crippled Flesh workbook [2003] the 2010 edition, where the plates at the time. showing reference material and initial were put into a separate colour • letterpress workbook – title plate type ideas for ‘The Beasts of Land’ section at the back of the book. and bookmarks. chapter, within part 3 of This • Red knickers small cut up pieces • notebook and page sample Crippled Flesh. were included in an envelope at the • hand-cut . • Miscellaneous notebooks. back of early editions. (bottom) • Collaged elements and • Post modernist reality is a lie… W1 • The Bane of Existence textures by Alice Smith, produced letterpress printed bookmarks with (The Tenor Player’s Lament) [2009] during her MA studies [2004–05]. 8-gauge magnesium block. re-design of part 5 of This Crippled Numerous runs of this were done in Flesh, also showing workbook C2 (top shelf) • Two early hand-bound different colours, as well as broad- spreads of original 2004 chapter copies of This Crippled Flesh [2004]. sides and postcards. spreads (4th frame). This Crippled • A Little Book of Illustrations • Dust jacket printers proof. Flesh has a series of repeating design inspired by the novel This Crippled • Pig Triptych proof, these photos motifs throughout the book, reflect- Flesh [2005] handmade concertina were edited from a series by Alice, ing the multi-layered nature of the book by Alice Smith, with illustrations taken at a butchers shop in 2004. text. This chapter is the most

3 self-contained piece of design in the painting, video, vinyl letting and a settings on their machines, or just not whole book. I was once invited to talk mirror (see photo in handmade book). paying attention. to a group of students about the C3 • Examples of three different • Two editions of the pamphlet were book and focused on this chapter as a editions of the pamphlet, one of produced, 2005 and 2006. step-by-step example, explaining how which is the very first pamphlet, • Cxnsxrshxp by Xmxssxxn xnd thx the design was informed by the music pre-Bracketpress, produced in old Xcxnxmxcs xf Trxth a very limited of John Coltrane and Albert Ayler… school cut’n’paste photocopy style. edition artist book, with all the vowels at the end the class looked like dogs Other examples produced for the ‘x’-ed out, was produced for a group that had just been shown a card trick. Antwerp show and for sale through show at the 96 Gillespie Gallery in I wasn’t invited back. A large text our website. Highbury. format version is available. • Notebook shows sketch for poster (middle) • …Was the word [2005] and flyer design. When I came across 884 page workbook which collects W2 • Post modernist reality is a the framed poster (W3) while prepar- all the working ideas and correspond- lie… from This Crippled Flesh. Poster ing material for this exhibition, I was ence connected with the exhibition. idea for a proposed series of silk- amused to find that it doesn’t state Quarter bound using waste sheets screen prints by Exitstencil Press and the name of the show…then remem- from Carolyn Trant’s Art for Life: The Pictures on Walls [2009]. This, along bered that the venue blew-up the story of Peggy Angus published by with a handful of others, remain backside of the flyer to use as A3 Incline Press [2005]. unpublished. advertising posters thus omitting the Graham and Kathy of Incline Press title of the show. The performance have been immensely supportive towards the end of the show was the friends and collaborators since we last Crass Agenda gig. first met in 2004. They left an Incline • A5 two-sided flyer Press trade card and note in the back • Handmade book documenting the of one of my degree show books, exhibition and performance saying they liked my show, but couldn’t offer me any work as all their W3 • In the beginning…was the books were metal set, but that I was word This set of three frames shows welcome to visit the workshop the new design intended for release anytime I liked. Graham assumed that around the Crass remasters series, I had come from a hot metal back- although shown here is the revised ground and was surprised to find this larger format version which we hope was not the case (I used to operate one day to have the funds to release Linotype photo-typesetting systems). (see also C4 bottom). This is up there as one of those • And here we produce and are life-changing chance meetings and produced and here we consume C4 (top) • Censorship by Omission the start of two very dear friendships. and are consumed [2004] p.11 from and the Economics of Truth [2003] A few months of learning to set type This Crippled Flesh. A larger version casebound dissertation by Christian by hand and understanding the of this was part of a triptych in my Brett. This is where it all started. letterpress printing process improved degree show produced on reflective Having read this while we were my computer typesetting immeasur- black perspex with black text, wall preparing for the In the beginning… ably. It also made me work faster and mounted at such a height that the show, Penny suggested I should send get things down correctly in the first viewer saw their own reflection this out to get published, or failing instance. By this I mean, I rarely sit framed within the sentence. that – to put it out myself as a and mess around for hours on end on pamphlet. And I’d need a publishing the computer until a design feels IN THE BEGINNING… name to put it out under. Gee came right. Instead I’ll visualise the book in WAS THE WORD up with the name Bracket Press out my head for a couple of weeks, think In the beginning… is an exhibition by of my penchant at that time for about the structure of the text, what Gee Vaucher and Christian Brett bracketing folios in my book designs. might be the appropriate typeface(s) based on a performance poem by The name looked better as one word to use, the feel of the page. And so, Penny Rimbaud. First exhibited in in the original logo by the time I come to sit at the 2005 at the Exeter Text Festival, and machine the design tends to get subsequently in Antwerp alongside ] bracketpres s [ executed very quickly. I’ll sometimes The Sound of Stones in the Glass draw the page out first, but often the House installation, under the title in the original logo and so we have page sketches in my notebooks are Transparency [2008]. The text was since stuck to Bracketpress, which done at the same time I’ve drawn originally presented as a series of often gets switched back to two them up on the machine to remind A0 size hangings alongside prints, words if people are using auto-correct me of the x–y coordinates for the

4 various elements and the page Around 20 of these were produced for remastered version of Penny margins and gutter. to promote the gig around Dalston, Rimbaud’s Acts of Love. Usually the first idea, with a little fine nearly all were stolen with only a • Acts of Love [Exitstencil Press 2011] tuning, is the one that gets used. couple surviving on the night of • Example page spreads from original I gained a lot of confidence in my the gig. page size of Acts of Love, illustrations work through this and very rarely by Gee. show clients more than one page EXITSTENCIL PRESS MUSIC • Oh Magick Kingdom [2011] – design. Working at Incline Press also C5 In 2010, Penny and Gee decided generic packaging and logo design took me deeper into the history of to relaunch their Exitstencil Press for Exitstencilisms series of short type and print, which is important for imprint, publish new books and music run releases. good design, and the rabbit hole of as well as redesigning and remaster- collecting old books about type and ing previous work, Bracketpress SOURCE, INSPIRATION AND print and also introduced me to the worked with them on several aspects. ARCHIVE world of finely produced books. • Notebook showing initial design C6 (top) • A selection of key books • The Mystic Saxophonist for what would eventually become from the Bracketpress bookshelf. All [New Year Book 2008–09] A poem by Walt Existencilisms packaging. This initial have, to some degree, influenced the Whitman, with title page illustration idea for a trace paper cover done for design and typesetting of material in by J.J. Grandville of an ophicleide, ex- bass player Tony Barber this exhibition. Other than to say that a distant relation to the saxophone. using an obsolete format: credit card both Tschichold and Bringhurst write (Whitman’s original is the trumpeter, sized CD-rom. We still think these two beautifully about the practice, we’ll but as we used to say, “It’s close band names are better monikers than leave it to those interested to figure enough for !”). Letterpress printed L’Académie des Vanités. The design out what those influences might be. using Jim Rimmer’s Stern [2008], which was later adapted for his The Near • Related material: Crass A Series of was the first ever typeface to be Future project using Woolworths Shock Slogans and Mindless Token simultaneously released in both metal C60 cassette tapes. Tantrums [Exitstencil Press, 1982]. and digital forms. The idea for this Work designed with Gee for • Crass Love Songs [2004] one-off New Year book came from Gee Exitstencil Press: hardback binding for Interactive Arts Vaucher’s backdrop which • Exitstencil Press logo: Penny’s degree show. quotes Walt Whitman – the photo initial ideas, Christian’s computer • Penny Rimbaud The Diamond shows Penny performing I The designs and final version hand Signature – A Sub-Contract Reality Indigene and Africa Seems So Far finished by Gee. [1974] original typescript. Away with Jennifer Maidman and • Exitstencil Press bookmark and • Heard Too Much About Crass – Annie Whitehead at the opening for printing block. The Full Stop [2013] Bracketpress the Transparency exhibition in • two initial cover designs [2008] workbook documenting the material Antwerp. for 1972 live recording of EXIT gathered for the Bullshit Crass performance at The Roundhouse. project. (bottom) Last Amendment & Crass Again, intended as parallel release • Crass The Thatchergate Tape · Agenda music packaging to the Crassical Collection. The National Archives – Prem • Notebook poster idea for Last • EXIT The Mystic Trumpeter – 19/1380 [2014]. Amendment. The Ices Tapes [2013] CD packaging. • Miscellaneous ephemera: • CD designs for Crass Agenda Four I think Gee initially loathed this vintage spark plug (boxed) wrapped Tenors In The Dark (later Last design; the coloured spots, which in blue cloth and pink string – a Amendment) – which was the first I blagged as being some kind of birthday present from Penny, 2013 + performance of In the beginning… graphic score and an attempt to handmade card from Penny at the old Vortex jazz club in Stoke inject a bit of colour and fun to the • No Comma Non Sense (birthday Newington. This recording was later Crassical Collection series. Gee card mock-up) / letterpress printed scheduled to be released alongside changed the colour palette of the birthday card mock-up with comma the Crass remasters series – The dots which I thought was tinkering sticker for Penny, referencing his Crassical Collection, but as with for tinkering sake, but again she was last minute pedantic punctuation Christ’s Reality Asylum, it was right and made the overall thing sing! changes to Love Songs. abandoned. • The Pity of War [2017] initial cover • Everybody’s talking…but no one design for Penny’s reading of the war says a word postcard. We printed W3 • Penny Rimbaud’s Last poems of Wilfred Owen. This power- this quote many times. Amendment – Vortex Jazz Club ful performance piece will be released It says it all. 26 September 2012 in September under the title What • People who don’t change… Gig poster for Vortex Jazz Club Passing Bells by One Little Indian one of our favourite Miles Davis performance and book launch for Records. quotes. Reprinted version here for America, and how! (see C12). • Handmade mock-up: CD packaging Vortex Jazz Club, also used on the

5 back of Penny’s trade card (see C14). Brett and Gee Vaucher titled ‘The Sound of Free Speech’, (middle) • Ashes to Ashes – The • Shibboleth working proof. and a lengthier version of the track Penny Rimbaud Archive [2009] object: ‘Reality Asylum’ was issued as a clear acrylic box 11×30×25cm with W5 & W6 • 365 Aphorisms +1 single. For the remastered version, ashes. Penny does not collect stuff, 2013–14 / In The Word rather than reprinting the original he doesn’t hold on to things, he gives – @pennyrimbaud1 tweets text, Penny wanted to use a new a lot away, and so he doesn’t have an 2015–17. poem And He Was Cut Down, archive as such. More recently, his Since the end of 2013, Penny’s main and asked Alice to illustrate it. annual ritual of burning unused work writing platform has been Twitter. The has now been replaced by the deeply original intention was to tweet 365 C8 (top) • And He Was Cut Down • satisfying click of the delete key. aphorisms in 365 days and then finish, Workbooks: revised mock-ups of (bottom) This is most of the remaining but having finished he came to miss book version of the poem and suite physical Bracketpress/Penny Rimbaud the challenge and to this day he of 40 images by Alice. material held in the Special attempts an aphorism a day, claiming • Workbook of just the images Collections archive. somewhat darkly that it, “Keeps showing the different collaged layers death away.” In part drawn from an opposite the final image. W4 • Hand cut stencil of part of Crass idea to do something with the • Original collages by Alice, the basis logo used for Love Songs front cover one-liners from his notebooks, the for the final illustrations. design and experiments. Hand cut majority of the aphorisms come (bottom) • Christ’s Reality Asylum stencilled lettering not used in final through meditation, which Penny has and Les Pommes de Printemps [1977] design. been practising for the last few years. foolscap, Gestetner printed, card The two corridor walls include all cover with additional loose sheets of CRASS / LOVE SONGS 1,400+ tweets from 3 December 2013 annotated pages. C7 • Crass You’ll Ruin It For up to 11 April this year. • Original typescript introduction for Everyone official bootleg re-design CD booklet. for Pomona Sounds [2001]. Centre W7 • The Dream Is Over spread Nike advert by Christian Brett. A page from Turn On Tune In Cop W8 • The Apples of Spring – Christ’s • Love Songs [2003] 4th proof Out – inspiration for this came from Reality Asylum [2009] these two with Penny’s cover suggestion. Yoko Ono’s War Is Over poster. Not framed pieces show the work-in- • Love Songs [Pomona Books, 2004] an abandoned or unpublished poster progess illustrations and type layout • Unbound breaker copy – displaying idea, nor a comment on Brexit or for a CD booklet. This, as with some pages from finished book. Trump. Printed for this exhibition of the other aforementioned projects, • Couple of notebooks relating to because we like it and it looks good was abandoned by Love Songs – song order list + BIG! ( distributor). It was typesetting notes for laying out of thought that if this was produced in Ten Notes on a Summer’s Day. AND HE WAS CUT DOWN the same format as the Crassical • Love Songs [Crass Records, 2012] Crass At the end of 2008 when the idea of Collection packaging it would have Records were given back the rights to the Crass remasters series was first incurred large financial losses for the book in 2009, and republished talked about, along with re-issuing Southern and wasn’t worth the risk. the book as part of the Crassical Acts of Love and releasing the EXIT Collection series. The typefaces were Ices Tapes, In the beginning…, C9 (top) • Scarlet Pools – Working changed and the lyrics ran chrono- the previously limited cassette-only Illustrations by Alice Smith [2006], logically with hardback cover design Christ’s Reality Asylum (the final inkjet print, unique, quarter bound in by Christian and Gee. release on Crass Records) was also newsprint from The Sunday People • Crass and Exitstencil Press CD-R touted for an overhaul (see W8). 18th June 1972. Produced to show audio pre-masters [2008–09] The original text was first published Penny the working illustrations for his • Crass The Crassical Collection – pre-Crass in 1977 (see bottom shelf novel. the remastered back catalogue with of C8) which also saw the first appear- • Working illustrations. new packaging 2010–12. ance of what was to become the • Page layouts for proposed b-format • Notebook showing initial notes for Crass logo designed by Dave King. paperback edition. Crassical Collection design brief An edited version was recorded for • Original typescript. from Penny [2008]. Crass’ first record The Feeding of the • Scarlet Pools Workbook 2006– • The Last of the [Active Five Thousand (see workbook with 2012 includes source material for Distribution, 2009] A nicely designed page designs from Love Songs) but illustrations, layouts for original book ruined by poor binding and didn’t appear on the first pressing format and re-design for proposed a not-fit-for-purpose guillotine. due to the Irish pressing plant refus- paperback book format. • Shibboleth [Exitstencil Press, 2014] ing to press the record. The track was (bottom) • Scarlet Pools – a contem- – book cover design by Christian replaced with 2 minutes of silence porary romance [2006] handmade

6 edition used for the Manchester handsome book. Metropolitan University book arts • Handmade hardback mock-up. Sitting Room exhibition which toured • Letterpress printed green jacket, internationally during 2006–08. with paper sheet marking set-up for • Early masthead designs. jig to hand score and crease prior to binding. POETRY • And Now It Rains [2007] a series of C10 • How? [2006] pamphlet. Penny’s poems, with illustrations by Penny. re-working of ’s Howl, The wraparound green jackets were written for the London Jazz Festival. the standard Bracketpress edition, Christian Brett: collage [2011] made up of silkscreen • Original typescript of How?. brown for Penny’s copies and one off-cuts. The original source of the image used for • Printing block for cover plate by blue copy which was presented to And Now It Rains bookcover. Bron Jones (). the late John Tavener who Penny • Sketch of poster idea referencing had hoped to work with. • And Now It Rains [2nd ed. 2007] trade Pen’s over-exuberant table-thumbing This was a difficult book to produce paperback. performance where someone got by hand, compared to the pamphlets, • And Now It Rains [3rd ed. 2015] here accidentally showered in candle wax. having 128 pages, made up of 16 A4 with plain black Bugra Bütten jacket The gig is now fondly referred to as sheets, folded down to 8 signatures and title plate – due to the shoddy ‘The House of Wax’. and hand sewn sections. The imposi- work of the printer, even after having • Oh America typescript and page tion had to be done, then masters half the run re-printed, the covers still layout for an abandoned pamphlet. printed off which were then photo- weren’t all up to scratch, so we • Methinks [1st ed., 2006] chapbook copied at the local print shop, albeit introduced the jacket to disguise the produced for The Sound of Stones in on quality paper. Then all the sheets imperfections. Similar issue with The the Glass House exhibition. were folded, turned and slit with a Universal Other which was printed at • mock-up with red card cover butter knife to cut the crease at the the same time. • Methinks [2nd ed., 2011] pamphlet. foot of the pages. Sections were then • Unbound printers proof of 3rd ed. • Africa Seems So Far Away & I The hand sewn and glued into the cover. Indigene [1st + 2nd ed. 2009]. Pamphlet When it came to doing a reprint we W9 • The Eye of the I [2007] letter- originally published to coincide with decided that a digitally printed press printed New Year Book – un- Penny’s collaboration with Japanther short-run edition would be the way to bound sheet for concertina binding. and Dan Graham’s Dinosaur Death go. When I set about re-designing for Dance at PS122. A long-standing the new format I began looking for an C12 • The Eye of the I [2007] letter- organisation in New York’s East alternative type to the Caslon we’d press workbook with first impressions Village, which actively promotes and used in the original. I suggested, not etc. Patterned paper idea, eventually challenges the boundaries of live for the first time, of using Stern, and abandoned. performance. not for the last time this idea was • Various layouts for pamphlet format • Initial cover designs featured a rejected by Penny. When Gee put of The Eye of the I, which we decided wooden ‘fertility’ doll which we later forward the idea of resetting the book against doing as it was far cheaper to decided against using. in a sans serif, my silent reaction was, produce the eventual smaller concer- • Interior layout and mock-up of the “That idea will go away.” And ignored tina format using off-cut stock. pagination. it for a while, but the idea kept on • America, and how! [2012] Trade • Card template for jig set-up used to and when I questioned why, Penny paperback. trim the fore edge of partially bound said he wanted all the humanity • Original sheet of fountain pen pamphlets. stripping out of the text. This trig- splatter used for the front cover and gered off a memory of a disparaging gig poster (see W3). AND NOW IT RAINS remark someone once made about • Landscape [2009] Two poems, You C11 • Sketchbook showing the Adrian Frutiger’s Univers typeface, Brave Old Land and Seen Light imposition plans for this series of something to the effect that it looked Conclusive. Abandoned pamphlet poems. like it had been designed by a design. • Layout featuring one of Penny’s machine and lacked humanity. So, • The Universal Other [2015] poetry illustrations as a chapter frontispiece. having tried Rimmer’s Stern type yet collection, a companion piece to • Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, again, I tried Univers and I think it And Now It Rains. Trade paperback 1886 edition, the size and design worked well, so it became a template using similar cover design. had a direct influence on the overall for the subsequent poetry collections, • Notebook showing original half and design for And Now It Rains. America, and how! and The Universal full-title page layout. Unfortunately we didn’t have Other. • Jackets variations made up from the funds to print two-colour like • Bookcover layout with stripe marks spare Zerkall and Hahnemühle paper the original, but made for quite a repurposed from another project. stock.

7 TV monitor • onoffyesno.com for unpublished essay written for Child’ published in The Idler No.44. Penny’s website. From the end credits Vice Magazine. • Small mock-up for Birth of a Notion sequence of Girlfriend in a Kimono • Turn On Tune In Cop Out pamphlet imposition. We decided to [2005] a film by Dominic Thackray. [1st ed. 2008 + 2nd ed. 2011] hand sewn collect all the essays into one book, bindings and page samples. so we never went ahead with the ESSAYS • Original typescript. pamphlet. C13 • Freedom is such a big word • Various notebooks. • Miniature paper mock-up for 8pp. [1st ed. 2006 + 2nd ed. 2009], hand sewn • Hahnemühle Bugra Bütten swatches softback cover for Tricking the pamphlets, with letterpress printed for pamphlet covers Impossible. Note no text on the flyer and envelope used to post out Letterpress printed ephemera: outside of the cover. the pamphlets. • Daytime: the illumination of the • Tricking the Impossible 1st typeset • Smile or Smirk? the da Vinci mode intolerable postcard proof, returned with Penny’s mark-up. [2007] hand sewn pamphlet exterior • Penny Rimbaud trade card Tricking the Impossible is made up of and page spread example. Original • Ideas are such a bad idea postcard, 15 essays (4 of which are previously typescript. Opening title page with returned with a handwritten addition unpublished) along with a revised frontispiece collage by Gee Vaucher. from Gee. version of The Eye of the I and the • If you think you have the answer… • Web card: ‘there are no real things previously unpublished poem The you didn’t hear the question at onoffyesno.com’, the reverse reads: Artless Mechanic. letterpress printed card, a line from ‘disengage’. • Letterpress printed broadside: Get The Conveniences of Philosophy. • Nobody’s Child [2008] pamphlet. Out of Your Own Way [2014] a quote • The Conveniences of Philosophy Essay later published in the Idler with from jazz drummer and teacher [2007] pamphlet. This essay was revised typefaces and design. Freddie Gruber. originally commissioned by Tom • Original typescript and examples of Hodgkinson for the Idler magazine. early title page designs. W10 • Poster: Artwank – Penny asked them if it would be Bracketpress and Penny Rimbaud’s okay if I typeset the piece rather than W9 • Kerboom page spread from Big Box of Bollocks was the original them doing it. This coincided with Nobody’s Child, re-worked for title of this exhibition. Still don’t their graphic designer leaving and inclusion in Tricking the Impossible understand why this was a non-starter subsequently led to me being asked – The Selected Essays book. – perhaps a meeting we missed? to take over the production of the • Or Maybe Tomorrow and Dancing Idler. After an initial re-design, with Francoise Sagan cover design revising their typefaces, a couple of [2015] – two unpublished novels which Along with material from the Bracketpress issues later completely changing their pre-date This Crippled Flesh. Both archive, a number of unique items have been loaned for this exhibition from the personal house-style, logo and format (see books are an attempt at a more collections of Gordon Wilkins, Penny Rimbaud examples C15). conventional narrative. At the centre and Gee Vaucher. of Or Maybe Tomorrow is Rimbaud’s W9 • Ideas are such a bad idea and father’s decent into Alzheimer’s I Am Not Therefore I Buy – two lines before the disease was really talked For notification of exhibition events and book from Cop Out and Conveniences. about. Currently being re-edited for launch, please ask a member of staff, or visit: Again, poster ideas for Exitstencil publication next year. specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk Press/Pictures on Walls, 2008/09. • Birth of a Notion [2011] page spread Both have been produced as from first draft typesetting (see C15 The exhibition is part of RANDOM Archive, letterpress printed postcards. for final setting). a collaborative project with Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre exploring text and type. I Am Not never quite worked the first • Birth of a Notion essay title page time round, but the framed example from Tricking The Impossible. Special Collections Gallery here was, as sometimes happens, 3rd Floor, All Saints Library re-designed in 15 minutes the night C15 • The Idler unbound printers Manchester Metropolitan University before this exhibition opened. proofs showing spreads from: All Saints, Manchester, M15 6BH 0161 247 6107 • Turn On Tune In Cop Out letter- • Nobody’s Child [2009]. @MMUSpecial press printed broadsheet, with • Particular Nonsense [2010]. specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk opening text from Turn On Tune In • Birth of a Notion [2011] + original Cop Out essay. Produced after typescript. FREE ADMISSION Obama’s election victory and posted • Bracketpress and Exitstencil Press Monday – Friday 10am – 4pm with our Whitman New Year book to adverts opposite Ceci n’est pas… Thursday 10am – 7pm (term time only) Saturday 12noon – 4pm (term time only) arrive on the 20 January 2009. [2012] title page + original typescript. • Our Need Feeds Their Greed C14 • It’s A Deal® – Drug Polemics broadsheet. Originally a ‘stop press’ or Psycho-Eugenics? [2008] mock-up addition to the version of ‘Nobody’s

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