In April, 2017 Richard Minsky was Artist-in-Residence at the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection. He printed Vermont Vigilance and other works on the same Albion handpress acquired in 1895 by William Morris for his Kelmscott Press to produce the magnificent Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. The press was brought to the USA in 1924 by artist and type designer Frederic W. Goudy. The Minsky residency was arranged by Dr. Steven K. Galbraith, Curator of the Cary Collection, and facilitated by Associate Curator Amelia J Hugill-Fontanel. RIT student Brendon Strowe assisted with the presswork.

Above: The K-G Albion Handpress

Words

An experimental plywood printing plate was laser engraved in The Construct @ RIT.  Minsky chose words that reflected the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution, and the political process, setting them in a variety of typefaces and sizes to see what would hold up in the plywood. He added a background image of the torch of the Statue of Liberty, seen from behind, taken from the U. S. National Park Service website. The image was granulated in Photoshop and combined with the type using InDesign.

When applying ink to the plate small pieces broke off from thin parts of the type and from the image, pulled off by the tackiness of the ink.  This required cleaning the rollers after each impression before rolling them on the inkplates. Three colors and black were used, with different size rollers, with the colors being applied as in monoprints before a single impression, so each color print is different. Only Thirteen prints were made on various papers before the plate had deteriorated beyond usability. This experiment identified the minimum type sizes and which fonts would stand up to more impressions, and also suggested that the next block be made of different wood.  Thanks go to Mike Buffalin, Director of The Construct @ RIT, for assistance with this project.

All editions are split between Minsky and RIT Cary Collection, with Minsky having odd-numbered copies and Cary having the even numbers.