Santa Cruz Printers’ Chappel
Celebrating 35 Years
Broadsides, Prints & Books

On view Friday 9.9.16 – Wednesday 10.21.16

The Printers’ Chappel of Santa Cruz first met at the home of book dealer George Kane in the early 1980s. Letterpress printers, bookbinders, papermakers, marblers and book dealers were present to help shape this loose organization of friends and colleagues.

Our first exhibition of the Chappel’s work took place in 1983 at the Art Center in Santa Cruz. Two hundred catalogs with a foreword by William Everson, Santa Cruz’s distinguished poet and master printer, were letterpress printed and produced as a collective effort. Each participant contributed a page representative of their work, and the whole was hand-bound by Chappel members.

In subsequent years the membership shifted and grew but maintained a distinct identity shaped by our location on the northern lip of the Monterey Bay. We mounted gallery exhibitions and hosted many expert visitors at meetings and public talks. Chappel members undertook publishing efforts, accepted commissioned work, offered lectures, and taught printmaking, design, letterpress printing, marbling, binding and the history of the book. The core members stayed in the community maintaining relationships formed at the university.

This exhibition chronicles the work of thirteen longtime members of the Printers’ Chappel of Santa Cruz. It shows the breadth of exploration over more than three decades and celebrates our early work along with the most recent. Our shared history informs our work and illustrates how old friends continue to influence one another over time. We take pride in our 35-year commitment to the book arts.