Transparency

My print was created as a direct response to Beatrice Warde’s poem “The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible.” After reading her broadside, “This is a Printing Office,” I became intrigued not only by her writing but by Beatrice Warde herself. After studying the origins of the Garamond design type, Warde published her results in The Fleuron under the false name Paul Beaujon. The following year she was hired in the part-time position of editor of the Monotype Recorder. The men in this exclusively male workplace, of course, were surprised to see a woman walk through the door. She later would be promoted to publicity manager, a position she held until her retirement 31 years later.

My monoprint series is not only a reflection of Beatrice’s poem, but also what she experienced — having to hide behind a man’s name in order to have her voice heard. While she hid in the beginning, she was not afraid to walk into the Monotype Recorder and reveal her true self.

“...because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.” — Beatrice Warde, The Crystal Goblet, Sixteen Essays on Typography.

My print consists of two layers: the first, fragments from “The Crystal Goblet” in Garamond type, and the second, a trace monotype of a semi-transparent glass goblet. The two combined convey the idea of transparency, something Warde believed in not only in typography but also in herself.

When speaking of wine, Beatrice said, “There is only one thing in the world that is capable of stirring and altering men’s minds to the same extent, and that is the coherent expression of thought.” And, to me, that is what printmaking is all about --- being able to express one’s thoughts and ideas and put them out into the world.

ABBA CUDNEY