UCSC Review Fall 1992

Fine Printing in Santa Cruz

Made up largely of UCSC alumni, the Printers' Chappel of Santa Cruz has achieved national and international status within a scant decade of its founding, with group exhibitions at London's Victoria and Albert Museum and in Oxford (England), New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz.

"The book arts is a labor intensive and solitary profession," says George Kane, who spearheaded the organization of the chappel in 1982. Kane has instructed a course in printing at UCSC's Cowell Press since 1978. His is one of the classes and workshops given on campus over the years that have catalyzed a proliferation of fine- press printers, typographers, bookbinders, designers, papermakers, and marblers throughout the country.

A number of these alumni book artists still live in Santa Cruz. The Printers' Chappel brings them together with other local book arts practitioners for companionship and shop talk and to exchange ideas, pool information, and initiate cooperative projects, including exhibi-tions of members' works. (The word chappel--with a double "p"--is derived from the name used by journeyman printers' associations in England in the seventeenth century.)

Among the chappel members are the following UCSC alumni and staff:

Constance Hunter: hand bookbinder, book repair

George Kane / George Robert Kane Books: dealer in fine-press editions

Tom Killion / The Quail Press: writer, artist, fine-press printer

Ruth McGurk / Peripatetic Press: writer, artist, fine-press printer

Felicia Rice / Moving Parts Press: writer, artist, fine-press printer, publisher

Peter Thomas / The Good Book Press: writer, fine-press printer, papermaker, bookbinder, marbler

Gary Young / Greenhouse Review Press: poet, essayist, artist, fine-press printer, publisher

Mark Zepezauer / The Press of Time: writer, artist, fine-press printer

For more information about the Printers' Chappel of Santa Cruz, write or call Peter Thomas, secretary, at 260 15th Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062; telephone (408) 475-1455.

--Joan Ward