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Celebrating women in printing and the graphic arts:
an exhibition and a lecture at St Bride Library.
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The distaff side: women as printers from the fifteenth century
to the present day
. Exhibition, Wednesday 8 March to Thursday 27 April 2006
. Preview: Tuesday 7 March, 5.30-7.00pm

Working in a thin space: Harrington & Squires
. Lecture, Tuesday 7 March 2006, 7.00pm

Working in a thin space. Exhibition preview and lecture, Tuesday 7 March
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We begin in the Exhibition Room with a preview of 'The distaff side',
our concurrent exhibition (details below), from 5.30pm. We will move
upstairs to the Bridewell Hall for the lecture at 7.00pm.

Harrington & Squires was founded in 2002 by graphic designers Chrissie
Charlton and Vicky Fullick to bring letterpress printing and hand-made
graphics into contemporary use. With an emphasis on traditional
letterpress printing and beautiful paper, it is their intention to
produce products which feel and look different from the mass-produced.

In this talk Chrissie and Vicky will further explain their rationale for
setting up their workshop and describe how they approach the work they
do.

Admission to the lecture is £5 (£3 concessions), on the door.

The distaff side. Exhibition, 8 March to 27 April
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The history of women in the printing industry, both as printmakers and
operators of private presses, is the history of a minority. The earliest
women to work with type, ink and presses were members of religious
communities or the heirs of men who had died without male issue. In
England the Stationers' Company and the printing unions made it very
hard for women to establish themselves as printers, and it was only in
the twentieth century that it became generally acceptable for those on
the 'distaff side' to enter the trade. Even then it was not easy, and
the majority of those working in the industry today are male.
Nevertheless, throughout the history of printing in the West women have
worked as printers. Some have attempted to storm the walls of the
traditional industry, some have quietly joined the family business,
while others viewed their work quite differently: as therapy, as
rebellion, as a genteel hobby, as an educational tool, or as a means of
creative expression.

The exhibition attempts to represent the different kinds of women
printers, and the different work they did, between the fifteenth century
and the present day.

Exhibition curator Paul W. Nash works as a freelance bibliographer and
printing historian. He was formerly a rare books librarian at the
Bodleian Library and the Royal Institute of British Architects. He is
editor of The Private Library and Printing History News, and has written
on private presses and architectural books. He is currently researching
a book on the Samson Press, which was operated on a commercial basis by
two women between 1930 and 1967, and on which he spoke at the Hidden
Typography Conference at St Bride in 2003.

Exhibition Room, St Bride Printing Library, Bride Lane, Fleet St,
London EC4Y 8EQ
Telephone: 020 7353 4660

Hours of opening: Tuesday-Thursday, 12.30-5pm (9pm on Wednesday)

We would recommend that you do call beforehand to check access to the
exhibitions, especially if making a long trip.

Entry to the exhibition is free.

For further information, see: www.stbride.org