Book Arts and Fine Press at the Clark Library

We define fine printing as including limited-edition monographs, printed in relief and intaglio, focused on high-quality production and a careful attention to handwork first found in the English Arts and Crafts tradition. Collections at the Clark Library are international, but with strong holdings from California publishers. Because of William Andrews Clark, Jr.’s patronage of San Francisco-based printer John Henry Nash (1871–1947) and San Francisco-based bookseller and later Clark librarian Robert Ernest Cowan (1862-1942), the Library collected early and deeply during the golden age of California fine printing in the 1920s and 1930s. 

Publishers working during the San Francisco Renaissance (1950s) such as Lewis and Dorothy Allen (Allen Press), Grant Dahlstrom (Castle Press), William Everson (Lime Kiln Press), Jane Grabhorn's Colt Press and her husband and brother-in-law's Grabhorn Press, Richard Hoffman, Lawton Kennedy, Henry Evans (Peregrine Press),  Adrian Wilison, and Andrew Hoyem (Arion Press) are represented, along with the artists and illustrators they regularly collaborated with, such as Mallette Dean and Oscar Lewis. Mr. Clark was a lifetime member of the Book Club of California and purchased the books published by its members. This continued for many decades, and club publications continue to be acquired on a selective basis.

Southern California printers and publishers are a major area of focus in these collections. The books, prints, and archive of wood engraver Paul Landacre (1893-1963) are held at the Clark Library, along with the archive, private library, and titles produced by Ward Ritchie (1905-1996). William Cheney (1907-2002), Vance Gerry (1929-2005), and Patrick Reagh's works and archive are also at the Clark Library. Other printers, presses, and associated collections such as the San Encino Abbey, Pall Bohne, Alvin Lustig, Marion Kronfeld, Wallace and Corry Nethery, the Rounce & Coffin Club, and the Zamorano Club are housed in the Clark Library along with some college presses, such as Archetype Press (of the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena) and Scripps College Press.

When Ward Ritchie began his career as a printer and publisher, he spent a year in Paris, apprenticed to the artist and designer Francois-Louis Schmied. Ritchie collected Schmied's work and gave it to the Clark Library in a bequest. 

The names mentioned above are not exhaustive.

How to Search for these Materials:

Individual titles by and about these writers, artists, printers, presses, and corresponding topics can be found in UC Library Search. By starting with Advanced Search and initally limiting the scope to "UCLA Library Catalog (excluding articles)," the search can be refined to authors and subjects.

Suggested subject headings:

"Printing--[Country or state]--[City]--History." For example, "Printing--California--Los Angeles--History"

"Fine books--[Country or state]." For example, "Fine books--Japan"

"Private press books"

For archival collections, consult the Online Archive of California (OAC) and select the finding aid from the alphabetical list of holdings.

For additional information and resources, please see the Bibliography

The Clark Library collects primary source material, reference works and ephemera that further the study and research of the arts of the book: typography, papermaking, printing craft, bookbinding, calligraphy and other associated arts. These sources help situate much of the fine press and artists' books within their several contexts. 

Beginning with the first known manual of Western printing (Joseph Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, or, The Doctrine of Handy-works of 1683) through late editions of press manuals (Paul Moxon's Vandercook Presses: Maintenance, History and Resources 3rd edition, 2019), the Clark Library has strong holdings in works on printing, publishers, and publishing, including their histories and biographies. Type specimens ranging from the 1766 edition of Fournier's Manuel Typographique to multiple editions of ATF specimen books are also available. We have full, or nearly full, runs of The Matrix, Fine Print, Parenthesis, Printing History, and other journals. 

We collect selective examples of objects that can be shown during classes or used for individual study. These include movable type, linotype, lithography stones, composing sticks, type cases, table-top printing presses, decorative paper samples, and other related materials. Please contact the library directly if you are interested in consulting these materials.

How to Search for these Materials:

Individual titles by and about these writers, artists, printers, presses, and corresponding topics can be found in UC Library Search. By starting with Advanced Search and initally limiting the scope to "UCLA Library Catalog (excluding articles)," the search can be refined to authors and subjects.

Suggested subject headings:

"Printing--[State or country]--[City]--History." For example, "Printing--California--Los Angeles--History"

"Type and type-founding--[State or country]--Specimens." For example, "Type and type-founding--England--Specimens"

For archival collections, consult the Online Archive of California (OAC) and select the finding aid from the alphabetical list of holdings.

The Third Stream, while still nascent as a definition for a category of fine press books, has been used to describe an “... as-yet-unnamed conceptual art, a so-called movement (actually a medium, or third stream) which made one of its most vital contributions by validating the book as a legitimate medium for visual art” (Lucy Lippard, “The Artists’ Book Goes Public.”  Art in America January/February 1977: 40-41). The use of the term “Third Stream” was purportedly first used in reference to books created by the printer, “the person who actually makes the book,” by Sandra Kirshenbaum in 1969 (Kirshenbaum, S., ed. Five Fine Printers: Jack Stauffacher, Adrian Wilson, Richard Bigus, Andrew Hoyem, William Everson : an exhibition, February 22-April 10, 1979, University of California, Davis. Davis, California: Library Associates, 1979: [7]).

Book artists particularly representative of the Third Stream include Russell Maret (New York City), Veronika Schäpers (Karlsruhe, Germany), Richard Wagener (Petaluma, California), and Peter Koch (Berkeley, California), among others. These works combine original ideas, meticulous craft skills, and the book form as an expression of their art. The Clark Library has the complete works of Veronika Schäpers, and extensive collections from Russell Maret, Richard Wagener, and Peter Koch, including correspondence and ephemera. Other book artists and presses represented in the library include Ninja Press (Sherman Oaks, California), Salvage Press (Dublin, Ireland), Didier Mutel (France), Barbarian Press (Vancouver, Canada), etc. 

The Clark Library does not, as a rule, collect experimental artists’ books, altered books, artists’ multiples, and zines as these genres are collected at other UCLA libraries, primarily the Arts Library, but also Library Special Collections. Of the few artists' books that the Clark Library does collect--based on topic or affinity with our other holdings--can be found works by Mike Taylor (Q d'etat, 2021); Kyle Goen's Black Panther Party Stamp Book (2022); Around the Corner by Ximena Pérez Grobet (Nowhereman Press, 2020); Clifton Meador's Phlogistan (2020); Sonia Farmer's A True & Exact History (2018); and in works by Jan and Jarmilla Sobota, Veronika Schäpers, and the Windowpane Press.

How to Search for these Materials:

"Artists' books--[State or country]--[City]--[year]." For example, "Artists' books--California--Los Angeles--2024"

"Artists' books--Specimens"

"Altered books"