Catalog accompanying Walt Whitman's Words: Inspiring Artists Today
Delighted to shine a light on the catalog Walt Whitman's Words: Influencing Artists Today produced to accompany the exhibition of the same title held at the Center for Book Arts (CBA) in New York from October 3-Dec. 14, 2019. The exhibition, and the catalog, is part of a celebration of the 200th birthday of Whitman and its focus is how Whitman's words have inspired contemporary artists today. His thoughts on many topics are especially relevant today.
Whitman is known today as an American poet, what is less known is his intimate knowledge and influence on the art of bookmaking. From his early days spent apprenticing as a newspaper printer, Whitman was involved in all aspects of bookmaking including writing, choosing the typeface and designing of the entire work including binding, printing and editing. In his efforts to publish his own works, he oversaw all aspects of the production and often set type himself. Whitman truly experienced what it was like to make books and his hands on work allowed him to consider the anatomy of words and the creation of poetic spaces within the book structure as vehicles for distributing his ideas.
The catalog highlights the work of over 30 artists who have created work that reflects Whitman’s influence. Work included ranged from multiples, to limited editions and unique items addressing topics that Whitman wrote about including democracy, gender, immigration, history and observations of the world around us. Drawing inspiration from Whitman’s entire oeuvre, the selected works in the catalog range from letterpress to digital works including social media. Each artist is represented with an image of their work along with a description written by the artists. The text includes an essay by me and an interview with Corina Reynolds, Executive Director of the CBA.
The innovative catalog design is the product of collaborative work overseen by Roni Gross, letter press artist, CBA teacher and founder of Z'roah press. The text for the book was set in Jansen, and Trajan, with titling in Normande. Various 19th century typefaces from the CBA collection was used for the quotations from Leaves of Grass. The end sheet is from Walt Whitman's notebooks, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Parts of the catalog were letterpress printed and hand bound at the CBA. This catalog -- which can be considered an artists' book in its own right -- is a testimony to Whitman's influence on the book arts and beautifully reflects his sensibilities for binding, paper, typography, images, printing and overall design.