WIGTOWN PRESS and printshop is run by fine artist Helen Morley
in Scotland's official book town in beautiful Galloway.
Baile na h-Ùige - the settlement on the wide sweeping bay.
in Scotland's official book town in beautiful Galloway.
Baile na h-Ùige - the settlement on the wide sweeping bay.
Printing from hand carved blocks and moveable metal type is a beautifully analogue, low impact art form, where each letter or engraving is carefully composed, locked into a forme, inked and pressed onto paper using antique tools and machines. Making a limited edition book or forming an illustrated poem this way is a magical process that produces truly hand crafted work.
Limited edition books and broadsheets
THE RAVEN SITS – a poem by Mark Vernon Thomas, illustrated by Helen Morley of Wigtown Press. Mark Vernon Thomas is a poet living deep in the Machars, South-west Scotland. He has been published in a number of magazines internationally, is a Federation of (Scottish) Writers 2020 prize winner and is included among the Champions 2020 poets on the Scottish Poetry Library website. He is very fond of cats.
This entirely hand printed artist book (or chapbook) is illustrated with acrylic engravings developed from intuitively made mono-prints and the text is hand printed with moveable metal type, printed on the Cropper Minerva printing press. The text is printed in black ink on dark blue card as a response to the mysterious opening and closing of the poem and its darkness, which similarly demands close scrutiny.
It is set in 12 and 14pt Baskerville fount on 170gsm deckle edged Zerkall smooth paper, is hand sewn, signed by the poet and artist, and is limited to 50 copies. The internal print measures approximately 76x25cm and is £40 including free UK P&P.
It is available here.
This entirely hand printed artist book (or chapbook) is illustrated with acrylic engravings developed from intuitively made mono-prints and the text is hand printed with moveable metal type, printed on the Cropper Minerva printing press. The text is printed in black ink on dark blue card as a response to the mysterious opening and closing of the poem and its darkness, which similarly demands close scrutiny.
It is set in 12 and 14pt Baskerville fount on 170gsm deckle edged Zerkall smooth paper, is hand sewn, signed by the poet and artist, and is limited to 50 copies. The internal print measures approximately 76x25cm and is £40 including free UK P&P.
It is available here.
WINTER TWILIGHT - This small broadsheet is a poem by Angelina Weld Grimke. The text is printed in 18pt Plantin moveable type on the Cropper Minerva press, and the acrylic engraving is printed on the Austin intaglio press on 170gsm Zerkall smooth paper.
The edition is signed and limited to 35 copies, and will be posted flat. £22 including UK postage.
It is available here.
The edition is signed and limited to 35 copies, and will be posted flat. £22 including UK postage.
It is available here.
