The Alcuin Society
alcuinsociety.com
Cover image Amphora 135, Gary Sim
The Alcuin Society is a group, founded 1965 in Vancouver BC, that is dedicated
to supporting the books arts and letterpress printing. This includes
everything to do with making and illustrating books. The group also
created and sponsors the annual Alcuin Book Design Awards (a national
competition for the best-designed and published books in Canada),
and created and issues the Robert Reid Award for "Contribution to
the Book Arts" to worthy individuals on occasion. The group has held numerous
other book-related events including the Vancouver Wayzgoose Printing Fair, antiquarian
book fairs, and lectures by visiting publishers, typographers, designers, and book artists.
Early lectures were given in person, they are currently being presented online
in a ZOOM browser, recorded and uploaded to Youtube.
A view of the Sim Publishing table at 2019 Wayzgoose
Sim Publishing keepsake at 2011 Wayzgoose
In 1967 the Society began publishing their journal AMPHORA.
For a number of years the periodical had a series of cover articles on
featured artists, most of them printmakers or people
otherwise related to the book arts such as book binders. Each issue with a feature
artist includes a number of artworks and a biography. Numerous keepsakes have been
issued with the journal over the years.
AMPHORA 40th ANNIVERSARY
Commissioned article by Gary Sim, 2005
A printers mark series of wood engravings was
commissioned by Dr. Yosef Wosk in 2005. Four prints were completed from an
intended series of twelve or more. Each of the four was printed in an
edition of 500 by Barbarian Press, of which around 350 each were tipped
into issues of Amphora as noted below. The remaining prints were
retained by the Alcuin Society, with the idea that when the entire
series was completed, they would be bound into a limited edition
book. Each image was to represent the printer's mark for a real
or imagined letterpress printer, Gary Sim designed and cut a logo
for the imaginary "Entropy Press."
Entropy Press logo, Gary Sim 2005
2017 Wayzgoose at VPL, photo Gary Sim
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