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A Division of UnderConsideration

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2009
–
2017

Instructor Jamie B. Mahoney set out to develop a unique project for her students at Virginia Commonwealth University. Along the way she asked her friend Jim Sherraden, from Hatch Show Print, to lend a hand—or, specifically, woodblocks.

This, our second issue is dedicated to Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the result of a rather unconventional exercise in artistic collaboration: nine graphic design students were teamed with nine published poets. Together, the teams picked from a selection of Hatch woodblocks dating back to the 1930s. The poets then created original material in response to their chosen woodblock. The designers, in turn, created impressions based on the poems. Design inspiring poetry inspiring art.

Jamie and a handful of students have been slowly binding the books, stitching each book in teams of three in fifteen minutes or so. While only 150 copies are produced they are hoping the sale of these will help fund the materials they are needing in the studio: rollers for 2 presses, ink, paper and more wood type for starters.

This book is a rare beauty, one where personality is apparent from the moment you feel the paper, touch the letterpressed letters and study the binding. Further developed by the uniqueness of each gatefold, each student strongly voicing who they are—this is all brought together by continuing elements such as the titling of each work presented and the cohesiveness in structure. But it is possible that the most successful aspect of this project is the intangible, that which was discovered by Jamie over several months:

Designers and writers make a great team. It took a while for my students to understand that this relationship is much different than a client relationship. In the beginning they didn’t see themselves as having an equal say in the process but as soon as they understood the writer was their partner, the work got so much better.

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Books on, and a Bigger, FPO

thINK Chapbook

Production Method

Design

Book design, Jamie Mahoney VCUarts.

Student designers, Karla Mickens, Kelly Gasque, Rachel Gropper, Jordan Weaver, Jennifer Valenzuela, Eric Wolinsky, Sean O'Neill, Jordan Tropp, and Caitlin Martin.

Printing

Woodblocks by Hatch Show Print, Nashville, Tennessee.
Poetry spreads printed by graphic design students at VCUarts Bowe House Press, using a Vandercook 4 Hand Proof Press.