Walter Hamady
Encyclopedia
Walter Hamady or, in full, Walter Samuel Haatoum Hamady, is an American artist, book design
er, papermaker, poet and teacher. He is especially known for his innovative efforts in letterpress printing, bookbinding, and papermaking. In the mid-1960s, he founded The Perishable Press Limited and the Shadwell Papermill, and soon after joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught for more than thirty years.
) immigrants who founded a prominent grocery store chain in Flint, Michigan
. His mother was an Iowa-born physician (a pediatrician and, later, a psychiatrist). His parents' marriage fell apart during Hamady's childhood, resulting in his being raised by his mother, with the support of his paternal grandfather (his beloved Jidu (grandfather)), Ralph Haatoum Hamady, whom Hamady has described as "a wonderful man [from Baakline, Lebanon] who came to America as a teenager in 1907".
After high school, Hamady studied art at Wayne State University
in Detroit, Michigan (BFA 1964), and at nearby Cranbrook Academy of Art (MFA 1966). While still an undergraduate, concurrent with a visit to his relatives in Iowa City, Iowa, he was introduced to book artist Harry Duncan
, who was a teacher at the time at the University of Iowa
(Iowa City), and an important contributor to the revival of interest in letterpress printing
. During that visit, Hamady saw for the first time a finely printed handmade book, in the tradition of the Kelmscott Press of William Morris
, and the Private Press Movement. Soon after, in Detroit in 1964, while still an undergraduate, he founded his own press, which he named The Perishable Press Limited. And then, as a graduate student at Cranbrook, he launched the Shadwell Papermill, by which he contributed to the experimental use of handmade papers.
, letterpress printing
, and bookbinding
. Using the Perishable Press trade name, he has designed and printed 131 limited edition books by such well-known writers as Paul Blackburn
, Robert Creeley
, Robert Duncan
(the Black Mountain poets
), Loren Eiseley
, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
, Kenneth Bernard
, Clarence Major
, Allen Ginsberg
, Denise Levertov
, W.S. Merwin, Howard Nemerov
, Toby Olson
, Richard Wiley
, Joel Oppenheimer
, Reeve Lindbergh, Jonathan Williams
, William Stafford, Bobby Byrd
and Paul Auster
. In the process, he has also collaborated with a number of visual artists (who have illustrated his books), among them John Wilde
, Henrik Drescher, David McLimans, Jim Lee
, Peter Sis
, Margaret Sunday, Lane Hall, and Jack Beal. While admired for his artist's books, he is equally or even more widely admired for his achievements as a teacher.
, found imagery, and the radical juxtaposition of advertising ephemera
. Throughout that series (there are eight gabberjabbs), he pokes fun at nearly everything, including his own artistic seriousness, the snobbery of those who claim to be scholars, and the widespread, unchallenged assumption that traditional page layout and, particularly, typography
, are governed by immutable rules.
artist. Although he has made frequent use of drawing
and photography
in illustrating his books, his involvement with collage has grown to include the construction of box-like assemblages of metal type, altered images, and fragments of other ephemera from the history of printing.
, Harvard University
, Newberry Library
, Oxford University, Yale University
, Cleveland Institute of Art
, Northern Illinois University
, Getty Center
, Grolier Club
(New York), Lenin Library (Moscow), Library of Congress
, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
, Royal Library
(Stockholm, Sweden), Walker Art Center
, Whitney Museum of American Art
, and the Victoria and Albert Museum
.
(AIGA) for their annual exhibition called Fifty Books of the Year. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1969, has received three artist's research grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
, and, in 2006, was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Crafts Council. In 2004, he was chosen by I.D.: International Design Magazine as one of the top fifty designers in the U.S.
Book design
Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components of a book into a coherent whole....
er, papermaker, poet and teacher. He is especially known for his innovative efforts in letterpress printing, bookbinding, and papermaking. In the mid-1960s, he founded The Perishable Press Limited and the Shadwell Papermill, and soon after joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught for more than thirty years.
Early years
On his father's side, Hamady is descended from Lebanese (DruzeDruze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
) immigrants who founded a prominent grocery store chain in Flint, Michigan
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
. His mother was an Iowa-born physician (a pediatrician and, later, a psychiatrist). His parents' marriage fell apart during Hamady's childhood, resulting in his being raised by his mother, with the support of his paternal grandfather (his beloved Jidu (grandfather)), Ralph Haatoum Hamady, whom Hamady has described as "a wonderful man [from Baakline, Lebanon] who came to America as a teenager in 1907".
After high school, Hamady studied art at Wayne State University
Wayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
in Detroit, Michigan (BFA 1964), and at nearby Cranbrook Academy of Art (MFA 1966). While still an undergraduate, concurrent with a visit to his relatives in Iowa City, Iowa, he was introduced to book artist Harry Duncan
Harry Duncan
Harry F. Duncan was an American businessman known for founding Little Tavern shops. Duncan opened his first store in 1928 in Washington, DC. By 1939, the chain had grown to almost 50 stores. Their motto was "Buy 'em by the bag."Duncan donated to numerous organizations and charity through the...
, who was a teacher at the time at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
(Iowa City), and an important contributor to the revival of interest in letterpress printing
Letterpress printing
Letterpress printing is relief printing of text and image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image...
. During that visit, Hamady saw for the first time a finely printed handmade book, in the tradition of the Kelmscott Press of William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
, and the Private Press Movement. Soon after, in Detroit in 1964, while still an undergraduate, he founded his own press, which he named The Perishable Press Limited. And then, as a graduate student at Cranbrook, he launched the Shadwell Papermill, by which he contributed to the experimental use of handmade papers.
Teaching
In 1966, Hamady became a member of the art faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where for over thirty years he taught papermakingPapermaking
Papermaking is the process of making paper, a substance which is used universally today for writing and packaging.In papermaking a dilute suspension of fibres in water is drained through a screen, so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibres is laid down. Water is removed from this mat of fibres by...
, letterpress printing
Letterpress printing
Letterpress printing is relief printing of text and image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image...
, and bookbinding
Bookbinding
Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material. It usually involves attaching covers to the resulting text-block.-Origins of the book:...
. Using the Perishable Press trade name, he has designed and printed 131 limited edition books by such well-known writers as Paul Blackburn
Paul Blackburn
Paul Blackburn may refer to:* Paul Blackburn * Paul Blackburn with English group, Gomez* Paul Blackburn , youth convicted of attempted murder in 1978, cleared and released in 2005...
, Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...
, Robert Duncan
Robert Duncan (poet)
Robert Duncan was an American poet and a student of H.D. and the Western esoteric tradition who spent most of his career in and around San Francisco. Though associated with any number of literary traditions and schools, Duncan is often identified with the poets of the New American Poetry and Black...
(the Black Mountain poets
Black Mountain poets
The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered on Black Mountain College.-Background:...
), Loren Eiseley
Loren Eiseley
Loren Eiseley was an American anthropologist, educator, philosopher, and natural science writer, who taught and published books from the 1950s through the 1970s. During this period he received more than 36 honorary degrees and was a fellow of many distinguished professional societies...
, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
, Kenneth Bernard
Kenneth Bernard
Kent Bernard was a Trinidadian athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres.He competed for Trinidad and Tobago in the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan in the 4 x 400 metre relay where he won the bronze medal with his teammates Edwin Skinner, Edwin Roberts and Wendell Mottley.-References:*...
, Clarence Major
Clarence Major
- Biography :Clarence Major is a poet, painter and novelist who was born in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in Chicago. In his early twenties he started publishing his own literary magazine, Coercion Review, which featured poets and writers such as Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen and Lawrence...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Denise Levertov
Denise Levertov
-Early life and influences:Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Essex.Couzyn, Jeni Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, p74 Her mother, Beatrice Spooner-Jones Levertoff, came from a small mining village in North Wales...
, W.S. Merwin, Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
, Toby Olson
Toby Olson
-Life:Through high school and his four years in the Navy as a surgical technician, he lived in California, Arizona, and Texas.He graduated from Occidental College and Long Island University....
, Richard Wiley
Richard Wiley
Richard Wiley is an American novelist and short story writer whose first novel, Soldiers in Hiding won the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He has published five other novels and a number of short stories ....
, Joel Oppenheimer
Joel Oppenheimer
Joel Lester Oppenheimer was an American poet associated with both the Black Mountain poets and the New York School. He was the first director of the St. Marks Poetry Project...
, Reeve Lindbergh, Jonathan Williams
Jonathan Williams (poet)
Jonathan Williams was an American poet, publisher, essayist, and photographer. He is known as the founder of The Jargon Society, which has published poetry, experimental fiction, photography, and folk art for more than fifty years...
, William Stafford, Bobby Byrd
Bobby Byrd
Bobby Byrd born Robert Howard Byrd was an American funk/soul/R&B/gospel musician, songwriter and record producer. He was born in Toccoa, Georgia, and is a 1998 winner of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's prestigious Pioneer Award...
and Paul Auster
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
. In the process, he has also collaborated with a number of visual artists (who have illustrated his books), among them John Wilde
John Wilde
John Wilde was a painter, draughtsman and printmaker of fantastic imagery. Born near Milwaukee, Wilde lived most of his life in Wisconsin, save for service in the U.S. Army during World War II. He received bachelor and master degrees in art from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught...
, Henrik Drescher, David McLimans, Jim Lee
Jim Lee
Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men...
, Peter Sis
Peter Sis
Peter Sís is an award-winning children's book writer and illustrator. Sís attended the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Art in London...
, Margaret Sunday, Lane Hall, and Jack Beal. While admired for his artist's books, he is equally or even more widely admired for his achievements as a teacher.
Gabberjabbs
It is often acknowledged that Hamady's artist's books have become even more extraordinary since 1973, when he embarked on a curious series he calls The Interminable Gabberjabbs. In these effusive, almost boundless books, which are now widely collected, he made strange, satirical use of disturbing Surrealist strategies like free associationFree association
Free association may refer to:*Free association , a clinical technique of psychoanalysis devised by Sigmund Freud*Free Association, a musical group formed by David Holmes for the Code 46 soundtrack...
, found imagery, and the radical juxtaposition of advertising ephemera
Ephemera
Ephemera are transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day. Some collectible ephemera are advertising trade cards, airsickness bags, bookmarks, catalogues, greeting cards, letters,...
. Throughout that series (there are eight gabberjabbs), he pokes fun at nearly everything, including his own artistic seriousness, the snobbery of those who claim to be scholars, and the widespread, unchallenged assumption that traditional page layout and, particularly, typography
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
, are governed by immutable rules.
Collage and assemblage
For most of his professional life, Hamady has also been a collageCollage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
artist. Although he has made frequent use of drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
and photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
in illustrating his books, his involvement with collage has grown to include the construction of box-like assemblages of metal type, altered images, and fragments of other ephemera from the history of printing.
Collections
Hamady’s handmade books and other works are in the collections of numerous libraries, museums and art centers in the United States and in other countries. These include, to name a few, the British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Newberry Library
Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is a privately endowed, independent research library for the humanities and social sciences in Chicago, Illinois. Although it is private, non-circulating library, the Newberry Library is free and open to the public...
, Oxford University, Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Cleveland Institute of Art
Cleveland Institute of Art
The Cleveland Institute of Art is a private college of art and design located in University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women. From 1891 until 1948 it was named Cleveland School of Art. During the Great Depression the school...
, Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University is a state university and research institution located in DeKalb, Illinois, with satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was originally founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895 by Illinois Governor John P...
, Getty Center
Getty Center
The Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, is a campus for cultural institutions founded by oilman J. Paul Getty. The $1.3 billion center, which opened on December 16, 1997, is also well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles...
, Grolier Club
Grolier Club
The Grolier Club is a private club and society of bibliophiles in New York City. Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The club is named after Jean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy, Treasurer General of France, whose library was famous; his...
(New York), Lenin Library (Moscow), Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a fine art museum located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a campus that covers nearly 8 acres , formerly Morrison Park...
, Royal Library
Royal Library
Royal Library can mean:*Royal Library, Windsor - the royal library of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom*Danish Royal Library - the national library of Denmark*Dutch Royal Library - the national library of The Netherlands...
(Stockholm, Sweden), Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, and the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
.
Awards
Over the years, Hamady has received numerous awards in recognition of his work. On thirteen occasions (and in one case, twice in a single year), his books have been selected by the American Institute of Graphic ArtsAmerican Institute of Graphic Arts
AIGA is an American professional organization for design. Organized in 1914, AIGA currently has more than 22,000 members throughout 66 chapters and more than 200 student groups nationwide...
(AIGA) for their annual exhibition called Fifty Books of the Year. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1969, has received three artist's research grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, and, in 2006, was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Crafts Council. In 2004, he was chosen by I.D.: International Design Magazine as one of the top fifty designers in the U.S.
Selected Publications
- Hamady, W. Interminable Gabberjabbs (Mt. Horeb, WI, 1973).
- Hamady, W. Hunkering in Wisconsin: Another Interminable Gaggerblabb (Mt. Horeb, WI, 1974).
- Hamady, W. Thumbnailing the Hilex / Gabberjabb Number 3 (Mt. Horeb, WI, 1974).
- Hamady, W. The Interminable Gabberjabb Volume One (&) Number Four (Mt. Horeb, WI, 1975).
- Hamady, W. For the Hundredth Time Gabberjabb Number Five (Mt. Horeb, WI, 1981).
- Hamady, W. Hand Papermaking: Papermaking by Hand, Being a Book of Suspicions (Mt. Horeb, WI, 1982).
- Hamady, W. Neopostmodrinism or Dieser Rasen ist kein Hundeklo or Gabberjabb Number 6 (Mt. Horeb, WI, 1988).
- Hamady, W. and John Wilde, 1985: The Twelve Months: a collaboration (Mt. Horeb, WI: Perishable Press Limited,1992).
- Hamady, W. Traveling or NeoPostModrinPreMortemism or Dieser Rasen ist kein Hundeklo (II) or Interminable Gabberjabb Number Seven (Mt. Horeb, WI, 1996).
- Hamady, W. Hunkering, The Last Gabberjabb (Mt. Horeb, WI, 2006).
- Hamady, W. A Timeline of Sorts (Mt. Horeb, WI, 2011).