6,000,000 impressions:
handcrafting the book experience
Illustrated talk & exhibition preview: Tuesday 8 May
Exhibition: Wednesday 9 May until Thursday 14 June
Photo: Alice Fiorili
A pioneering project from Tara Publishing, India, is the creation of books made entirely by hand, from the paper to the printing and binding. Content, design and craft: all of these come in to our play with the possibilities of the book. Inspired by older forms, we enjoy transforming the richness of Indian visual arts traditions – through contemporary design and artisanal expertise – into fine bookmaking.
So author, artist and book designer work closely with an organised community of book craftsmen. Whether screen printed by hand on handmade paper, or letter-pressed with tipped in pictures, beaded strings and special boxes, each book is individually made, yet matches the price and quality of a mass produced title. The challenge lies in how many times a book has to be handled, while still maintaining quality and perfect printing.
Today our printing unit is a bustling workshop, run on fair trade practices, employing 12 skilled printers and binders. We have so far created a total of 120,000 handmade books worldwide. Our publishing partners range from museums like the Paul Getty Trust in the US, to design houses like Corraini in Italy. Since each page of every book we have ever made is an original print – screen-printed individually this works out to about 6,000,000 impressions in the service of handcrafting the book experience.
The idea is a daring one, and we believe our success is largely due to the dialogue we encourage between experiment and communication, creativity and manufacture. Ours is an alternative vision of what is possible.
Johannes Gutenberg Award
The most recent award for our handmade book initiative, honouring our contribution to the printing industry, was given by the The Madras Printers’ and Lithographers’ Association on the occasion of their Golden Jubilee celebrations 2007.
Illustrated lecture & exhibition preview: Tuesday 8 May 2007
Exhibition preview from 5.30pm in the Exhibition room
Illustrated lecture at 7pm in the Bridewell Hall
Entry to the lecture, £5 or £3 concessions, on the door.
Our speakers are Gita Wolf and Rathna Ramanathan.
Gita will be speaking on Visual Dialects, focusing on Tara’s experiments in changing the form of the book. Rathna will contribute a designer’s perspective on the output of Tara publishing.
Gita Wolf: Tara Publishing, Chennai, India. Trained in English and Comparative Literature, Gita Wolf left her academic profession to start Tara Publishing in 1994, to explore her interest in visual and literary communication. She is now the director. Over the years, Gita was joined by other writers and creative professionals who were drawn by Tara’s vision, of bringing a variety of marginalised voices and perspectives to the reader, while continually playing with the form of the book. The publishing house is now run as a collective, creating its own books, as well as collaborating with a range of unusual talents – from signboard painters to tribal and textile artists. Tara is specially known for its visual arts list, offering art and argument across a variety of sites: from children’s books to tribal art, photography, cinema and popular culture. Varied in form, these books are united by the central vision of combining experimentation with communication, content and politics. Tara is especially known for pioneering the book made entirely by hand for the general reader.
Rathna Ramanathan: Minus9 Design. Rathna Ramanathan is from Chennai, India and is currently based in Reading, UK. She has recently submitted her PhD in the History of Graphic Communication and Typography at the University of Reading. A practising designer, Rathna splits her time between India and the UK. Rathna has helped steer the design philosophy of Tara Publishing since the very beginning, working on several titles, as well as creating distinctive catalogues and exhibitions. Her work has received a number of international design awards. Rathna has taught design and typography in India and currently teaches at Central Saint Martins. Her main interest is in typography – as showcased in many of Tara’s titles – as well as in the changing form of the book. She is ATypI’s Delegate for India. Rathna is keen on framing the visual work of India against its own particular cultural context and has presented papers and written articles along these lines.
Exhibition
Wednesday Wednesday 9 May until Thursday 14 June 2007.
In the Exhibition Room, St Bride Library, Bride Lane, Fleet Street
London EC4Y 8EE
Telephone: 020 7353 4660
Hours of opening: Tuesday to Thursday, 12.30–5pm (9pm on Wednesday)
We would recommend that you call beforehand to check accessibility to the exhibitions, especially if making a long trip.
Entry to the exhibition is free.
Internship, with a bicycle included
Tara is currently offering a twelve month internship in Chennai from July 2007. Find out more
Awards for Tara’s titles
2006
- The London Jungle Book. Honourable mention in the Independent Publisher Book Awards Multicultural Fiction category.
- The Legend of the Fish. Honourable mention in the Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Best Book Arts Craftsmanship category.
- Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Winner of the University & College Design Association’s Golden Cube Award for Best Book Design.
2005
- Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Winner in the Association of American University Presses’ annual show competition
- Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Winner in the American Association of Museums’ Publications Design Competition
- Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Winner of the Gold Trophy in the University and College Designers Association’s Annual Design Competition, first prize
2002
- Sophocles’ Antigone. Independent Publishers Award, USA: Outstanding Book of the Year: Best Book craftsmanship for the handmade edition
- Sophocles’ Antigone. Museum Publication Design Competition: Honorable Mention for the handmade edition
- In the Dark. Special mention in the international White Raven’s catalogue of best children’s Books
2001
Trash!. Special mention in the international White Raven’s catalogue of best children’s books and a star for promoting understanding between cultures
1999
Hen Sparrow Turns Purple. Biennale of Illustrations, Bratislava
1996
The Very Hungry Lion. Alcuin Citation for Excellence in Book Design, Canada, First in the Children’s Book Category
Read the whole page again, read the page text, skip to a site-wide section or skip to the navigation for this section