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The following is the catalog text from the Harper-Collins
exhibition of Dard Hunter's work, held in New York in the
fall of 1996, and written by Cathleen A. Baker, Ph.D (published here with permission by the author). Dr. Baker
is also the author of By His Own Labor–The Biography
of Dard Hunter, published by Oak Knoll Press.
Dard Hunter (1883-1966) was an American Renaissance
Man. He was not only a designer in the Arts & Crafts Movement
in the early decades of this century, but also a private press
printer, paper historian and author, collector and museum
director. In 1996, a unique exhibit of his work, Dard Hunter
& The Art of the Handmade Book, was held in New York
City. The text for much of this exhibit appears in the following
paragraphs.
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Dard Hunter & the Art of the Handmade Book
In the second decade of the twentieth century, the machine
was considered the critical element to progress. In 1915 in
defiance of the mechanical age, Dard Hunter (1883-1966) created
the world's first "one-man" book by hand. In his
own words,
The consistent book will be a personality because it
will be made by few men; that is, few hands and minds will
construct the volume, all working together with but one
aim. But, better still, the book should be the work of one
man alone. In this way, and only this, will the volume be
truly his. There must be a better understanding between
the three arts [papermaking, type founding, printing] and
when this better understanding exists we will produce the
much talked of, but seldom seen, book harmonious.
*Hunter's first "book harmonious" was The Etching
of Figures by William A. Bradley, published by the Chicago
Society of Etchers as their 1915 end-of-the-year gift to associate
members. This one-man book for which Hunter made the paper
and the metal type by hand and then printed the book with
a hand-operated press was both the culmination of years of
research and experimentation, and the harbinger of Hunter's
future as author and private press printer.
* Dard Hunter, "The Lost Art of Making Books,"
The Miscellany 2, no. 1 (March 1915): 6.
page 2 > Dard Hunter: Roycroft
Designer
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