Deluge by Scripps College Press

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Johanna Drucker coined the term the artist book as an agent of social change to describe one of ten "zones of activity" in her book The Century of Artists' Books. For our newest publication, we decided to address the idea of advocacy through artist books. The Typography and the Book Arts class was first asked to develop a list of one hundred significant problems in America, and subsequently organized them into seven categories.

After extensive in-class discussion, they decided to select addiction to media for their advocacy efforts because it is continually in the news as a growing problem. They all have extensive experience with the deluge of information on the internet and the latest social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, and even have friends who are on the verge of addiction. Their goal became not only to promote awareness of the consequences of addictive behavior, but also to reveal the lure of new media that seduce us daily. The texts were presented on differing sizes of three papers, to reflect layering on the desktop with the deluge of information from the internet.  The SML code on the title page was written as a computer science class assignment to encode and decode RSA encripted messages; it was printed as a photopolymer plate. The printed colors are inspired by the RGB system, as might be chosen on a computer. Imagery was carved into linoleum and printed on four Vandercook presses. The book is bound in red bookcloth and has the proportions of a 17- inch MacBook Pro.

Artist Bio

The Scripps College Press was founded in 1941 as an experimental typographic laboratory. In 1986 Kitty Maryatt became the Director of the Press and instituted a new program of collaborative class books. Two letterpress books are produced each year by the Typography class. The class supported by the Press is entitled Typography and the Book Arts. Students from all five of the Claremont Colleges are allowed to attend. The premise of the class is that all students will learn the highest standards of typography and printing by publishing their own books. These neophyte students are asked to write on a given subject, make imagery, design the layout, hand set the metal type, print the book by letterpress and bind the edition of about 100 copies, all in one semester.