Artist's Book Yearbook 2003-2005 - Book Arts - University of the ...

Visual Studies Workshop Press and Archive, USA
Sarah Bodman
The Visual Studies Workshop Press is part of
the Visual Studies Workshop, based in
Rochester, New York State, USA. The press has
a long history of artist’s book production by
students, residents and visiting artists and has
built up a huge collection resource for the
preservation and study of artists’ books. The
press is part of the wider sphere of VSW, which
investigates both the practice, and historical
study of computer media, artists’ books, film
and photography. VSW also runs an
educational programme through State
University New York, summer schools,
workshops, internships and film and exhibition
programmes in the galleries. Afterimage, the
bimonthly journal of media arts and cultural
criticism, edited by Bruno Chalfour, is also
based and published at VSW.
The Visual Studies Workshop was originally
instigated by Nathan Lyons in 1969 and began
the first part of its long history in a loft space
on Elton St in Rochester, as an artist’s space
and MFA programme with 30 students. The
main focus of the workshop was (and still is)
film, photography, artists’ books and print.
Joan Lyons developed the press element of
VSW, with the first piece of machinery being an
old proof press and cases of metal type
obtained from a newspaper printer in the area.
With her experience of printmaking, graphic
design and book making from her earlier years
spent working as a graphic designer in New
York city, Joan Lyons has had plenty of
opportunities to use all of this expertise in her
on-going role as the press director. She is also
well known for editing and publishing the
informative Artists’ Books: A Critical Anthology
and Sourcebook, which has been updated and
reprinted three times since its original
publication.
Many of the early workshop students were
interested in printmaking techniques and the
book arts and by 1971 several students had
made letterpress books, which led to VSW
acquiring an offset press in 1972. Over the next
year the printing of books, prints, posters and
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artwork increased, with the press regularly
producing books for student’s group exhibitions
and, an important step in 1972 saw the
first book produced by the press with outside
artists Videofreex (Cooperstown TV is a Museum
Videofreex, Mediabus Inc. in an edition of 1,000
copies). The press element of VSW was
beginning to grow and the next few years saw
the onset of many collaborative projects with
visiting artists, establishing the press as an
important publisher of artists’ books. In 1973,
with the press in full swing, a foundation grant
helped with the purchase of a new offset press,
copy camera, darkroom equipment and a plate
maker to expand the facility.
In the same year, Keith Smith, John Wood,
Sonia Sheridan and A. D. Coleman were invited
to the press for two weeks and produced 10
artists’ books between them including; Sonia
Sheridan and Keith Smith Unfolding Vol. 1 and
Unfolding Vol. 2, Sonia Sheridan Time Plane,
A. D. Coleman Carbon Copy 6/25-6/29 and John
Wood’s A Ten Page Note. More artists’ books
followed in 1974 and the production of three
handbooks, much-valued reprints of early
photographic process books: Ernst Lietze’s
Modern Heliographic Processes, Herbert
Dennison’s A Treatise on Photogravure and
A. T. Story’s The Story of Photography.
By the end of 1974 the VSW Press was busily
producing artists’ titles, a research series and
editions of students work. VSW Press also
printed many editions of poetry for small
publishers which provided a means of income
for the press; prospective writers, poets and
publishers would bring their texts, with Joan
Lyons providing a free design and layout
service and the press then charging only for the
printing. This not only brought in funds for the
workshop but also helped small press
publishers to produce editions they might not
otherwise have been able to afford. With the
exception of a small amount of grant support,
the press became more or less self-supporting
and in 1976, a Heidelberg press was purchased
with a grant from the visual arts programme of
NYSCA, and was subsequently used to print
over 400 books.
In the late 1970’s VSW as a whole moved to
their present location; a large stone mansion