POSTED/UNPOSTED, is a book art project from the Nordic Countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) with special emphasis on letterpress printing. The collaboration resulted in a limited edition collection and touring exhibition exposing the variety of ways letterpress can be used as a creative process. Twenty five artists, poets, printers and publishers who use (or have the potential to use) letterpress have been invited to contribute to a collaboration with constraints. The project is coordinated by Imi Maufe (Norway) and Lina Nordenström (Sweden).
We are using Wikipedia’s definition of Letterpress: ‘Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing using a printing press, a process by which many copies are produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable type onto the press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type which creates an impression on the paper. In practice, letterpress also includes other forms of relief printing with printing presses, such as wood engravings, photo-etched engravings and zinc plates, and linoleum blocks, which can be used alongside metal type, or wood type, in a single operation, as well as stereotypes and electrotypes of type and blocks. With certain letterpress units it is also possible to join movable type with slugs cast using hot metal typesetting. In theory, anything that is “type high” can be printed using letterpress.
The result of this project will be exhibited in various book fairs and exhibition venues in the Nordic Countries and the rest of the world in 2018/ 2019. Svends Bibliotek will take part at the show with the installation Bogstavelig talt. Svend’s library is a collectively artist driven, nonprofit exhibition project and a portable exhibition space – a nomadic room, which was founded in 2003. It´s a close copy 1:1 of an original exhibition space of 1.6 m2, which started in Kunstnerhuset, Classensgade, Copenhagen and is led by visual artists Hjördis Haack, Anne Marie Ploug, Jesper Palm and Nina Maria Kleivan.
Birna Einarsdóttir, Ottar Ormstad, Tova Fransson, Nina Bondeson, Lina Nordenström, Jens Christian Jensen, Edward Johnson, Leifur Ýmir Eyjólfsson, Jostein Sandersen, Barbro Ravander, Richard Årlin, Mette Ambeck, Johan Solberg, Göta Svensson, Bent Kvisgaard, Ane Thon Knutsen, Jim Berggren, Svends bibliotek, Imi Maufe, Tina Jonsbu, Sakari Männistö