“Production, Not Reproduction: Offset Printed Artist Books”

Lithography never looked so good

Comments (0) By JONATHAN MCNAMARA Thursday, Feb 21 2008

So what exactly is offset printing anyway? Well, the paper in your hot little hands is one example. Newspapers like the Houston Press start as giant rolls of paper. Those are fed through an offset printing press. Inside the press, inked images ... oh, hell, whatever. It’s a printing process, okay? And the end result is a high-quality print product produced quickly and on the cheap, all right? And today Indiana University’s fine arts library head Tony White explains how artists have been putting this printing technique to work to make art books since the 1950s, in a lecture called “Production, Not Reproduction: Offset Printed Artist Books.” (Sheesh, you are so nosy!)

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The exhibit is already open with works by conceptual artists Dieter Roth and Ed Ruscha, plus pieces by Andy Warhol and Carl Sesto, among others. It continues through March 22, but the lecture is at 6:30 p.m. today. Regular viewing hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Museum of Printing History, 1324 West Clay Street. For information, call 713-522-4652 or visit www.printingmuseum.org. Free.
Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: Jan. 22. Continues through March 22, 2008