Chad Pastotnik initially earned a BFA in printmaking and focuses on intaglio copper and relief wood engraving techniques which find their way into book forms as they are both highly detailed types of prints and lend themselves well to the smaller format. Chad has also had formal training in bookbinding as well as restoration and repair techniques, these skills led him to establish Deep Wood Press in 1992 along the banks of the Cedar River in northern Michigan’s beautiful Antrim County. Within the first few years, there was a determined need for text for these book forms and the first press and a few scattered cases of type began the formal act of publishing for Deep Wood. Since then the equipment, the workplaces, and the vision have continued to evolve and improve and the ever continuing explorations of “the book as art” is at hand.
The primary focus of the press is, and always has been, the production of limited editioned fine press books with an emphasis on the natural environment and humanities interaction with nature. Another standard of the press is the inclusion of artwork printed from the original plates of intaglio, wood engraving, collagraphs and linoleum cuts as created by the artist’s hand. Great attention is paid to tradition and detail, books are printed in types that are cast on premises are composed by hand then printed on handmade or mouldmade sheets gathered from all points of the globe. Inks are often handmade from raw ingredients and all aspects of the finished book follow archival practices to ensure that the volume will continue to exist in the centuries to come. Collaborations and commissions have been done with other printmakers, writers and poets that share a similar call from their respective muses, these projects are always especially fun as they inevitably lead to new discoveries and challenges.
Over the past 26 years, Deep Wood Press has produced over forty book titles and countless commissioned works and is present in some of the finest museums, libraries and university collections around the globe. www.deepwoodpress.com
Jim Dissette and Chester River Press
Jim Dissette started letterpress printing in the mid-1980s while attending graduate school at the University of Oregon. Combined with his interest in classical and contemporary literature, he has sought to design and publish literary works of merit. Over the years he has designed books and other printed materials for various presses including The Washington College Literary House Press, Yale University, The University of Las Vegas, The University of Kansas, and others. In 2004 he was a co-founder of The Chester River Press on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and continues to design books for the trade.
While living in Michigan—and still working with Chester River Press— Jim worked with Chad Pastotnik at Deep Wood Press to create limited editions of The Chesapeake Voyages of Capt. John Smith and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, among others.They recently completed a limited edition of Moon As Bright As Water: Seventeen Poems by Qin Guan, working in tandem with Jim in Maryland and Chad in Michigan.
Mad Parrot Press was created to identify the ongoing collaboration of the two printers. The Wind in the Willows will be their first imprint. www.chesterriverpress.co
Vladimir Zimakov
Vladimir Zimakov is a Boston based book artist, designer and illustrator specializing in techniques such as linocut, silkscreen and letterpress among other traditional and digital media. He is the Associate Professor of Art And Design and the Director of the Wedeman Art Gallery at Lasell College, located in Newton, MA.
Vladimir has worked with world’s leading publishing houses such as Penguin, Random House, Faber and Faber, the Folio Society, Rizolli, Centipede Press and Vita Nova and illustrated books and book covers for the works of Gustav Meyrink, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alexandre Dumas, Herman Melville, A.T.A. Hoffman, Margaret Atwood and Julian Barnes among others. Most recently he completed a series of linocut illustrations for John Fowles’s novel “The Collector” and is getting ready to embark on illustrating “A Wind in the Willows” for Mad Parrot Press. Besides book illustrations, Vladimir also creates limited edition artist books using letterpress and linocut techniques. He is currently working on a book based on a poem by Lewis Caroll “Haddock’s Eyes”.
His work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in America, Europe and Russia. www.vladimirzimakov.com
David Carruthers & Saint-Armand Paper Mill
The Saint-Armand paper mill was established in 1979 in Montreal, Canada by David Carruthers and has become a leading source of handmade and machine-made papers for book artists and artists working in watercolor, acrylic, and pastels. Art restorers turn to Saint-Armand for document repairs and their high archival quality. www.st-armand.com
