Hot Type is the title and theme of the fourth portfolio project created by artists of the Providence Art Club (PAC). This project was originally conceived to support the 2021 Southern Graphics Council (SGC) Conference scheduled for Providence, Rhode Island. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was canceled with no information about when, or if, it would be rescheduled. In spite of this uncertainty, the PAC artists unanimously elected to complete and exhibit the project on schedule in 2021.  Eventually the conference was rescheduled for April 2024 in Providence.

The conference theme, Verified by Proof, was inspired by the broadside “This is a Printing Office” by type historian Beatrice Warde. While the broadside served as the starting point, the pandemic affected the course and content of the project, with current events and issues coloring many of the works created for the portfolio.

This is a Printing Office
Crossroads of civilization
Refuge of all the arts
Against the ravages of time
Armory of fearless truth
Against whispering rumor
Incessant trumpet of trade
From this place words may fly abroad
Not to perish on waves of sound
Not to vary with the writer’s hand
But fixed in time having been verified by proof
Friend, you stand on sacred ground
This is a Printing Office

The PAC artists felt the words “hot type” related to the conference theme and could be creatively explored in multiple directions --- from imagery dealing with today’s social and political climate to the visual power of machinery or that of the printed word. There are twenty-five original prints in this portfolio representing a range of print techniques from traditional methods to twenty-first-century technology and materials. Each print is on the artist’s choice of paper measuring eleven by eleven inches. The original prints in this portfolio are signed and numbered by the artists, and were created exclusively for this project. Portfoliobox.com of Warren, Rhode Island, crafted the unique clamshell box. The text font is Bodoni 72 printed on Fabriano CMF Ingres (90gsm and 160gsm) paper. 

The portfolio is printed in an edition of twenty-eight.
Introduction by Michael Rose

The Hot Type Portfolio première exhibit was June 21 – July 16, 2021 in the Providence Art Club Dodge House Gallery.
Exhibits at the Bristol Art Museum and the Mystic Museum of Art followed.

HOT TYPE Participating Artists are:

Elaine Auger, Ruth A B Clegg, Abba Cudney, Angel Dean, David DeMelim, Roberta Wexler Ehrlich, Kendra Bidwell Ferreira, Carol Strause FitzSimonds, Nancy Gaucher-Thomas, Elizabeth A. Goddard, Susan L. Hardy, Richard S. Harrington, Susan E. Kreuter, Craig Masten, Karen L. Murtha, James B. Myette, Elena Obelenus, Susan Patterson, Michael Rich, Jane Roberts, Carol A. Shelton, Marion Wilner, Carolyn Winter, David Witbeck and Elizabeth Bonner Zimmerman. 

PROVIDENCE ART CLUB 2021