Collaborative Letterpress Poetry Book Project
2019 – CURB is a collection of poems written by Divya Victor. It documents and responds to the violent assaults and murders of Indian Americans and Indian immigrants in the United States post-9/11, most of them occurring in public spaces. Spanning almost two years, and the final deliverables included 30, 90-page books (12.5” x 8” closed, 12.5” x 13’ fully extended) inside a clamshell box. Another Press student and I did most of the sidewalk and curb rubbings that appear in the books. This was done by dampening pieces of paper, hammering them into concrete to create the physical texture, then rolling over the raised surface with screenprinting ink.
As we (the printers of the Press at CC) worked on Curb, we reflected on how design and art can impact change in our communities. Due to the heavy subject matter and impact of the work, Curb attracted numerous buyers from other higher education libraries. During the rise of anti-Asian violence during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many writers’ societies and universities used Curb during their (virtual) public community events to address and work through the grief, fear, and anger felt by the Asian community. The book is a very tactile experience; it explores concepts of user experience and visual communication through an extremely physical process.
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From the colophon:
“The typefaces used in this book are Kohinoor Devanagari and Kohinoor Gujarati, designed by Satya Rajpurohit and published by Indian Type Foundry; and roman and italic Filosofia and various weights of Mr. Eaves XL Sans, designed by Zuzana Licko and published by Emigre. All of the type was letterpress printed from photopolymer plates.
The red text of the poems was overprinted with gray multiple times—once for each of the people to whom this book is dedicated.
The rubbings were made from sidewalks and curbs, first by hammering the damp sheets of paper onto the concrete with a brush, then rolling them with screenprinting ink. CC students Nicole Leung and Jessica Zhou did most of the rubbings.
The paper is Somerset Book Wove, in heavy and light weights. The end sheets are from the French Paper Company and were printed with a fabric collagraph. The cloth of the covers was painted with gesso and printed from photopolymer. Further Other Book Works of Colorado Springs consulted on the binding.
The text was written by Divya Victor, specifically for this format. Aaron Cohick designed, printed, and bound the books. Jessica Zhou helped with the binding. Corie Cole assisted with proofreading and logistics.
Thirty copies of this book were made. Ten of those were reserved for the people that worked on the book and for Colorado College’s Special Collections. Those reserved copies are numbered AP1, AP2, and so on. The rest of the edition is numbered 1 – 20.
Always, always, thank you for reading.”
