During the Summer of 2020 Hannah Whyte visited the Press over the course of a year after graduating from her Fine Art degree in London during lockdown. Handed three cases of type, 18-point Mazarin, 18-point Cochin and 12-point Engravers shaded and given a hasty run-through on the FAG40 Proof Press, Roam & Riot is the result.

Hannah is a talented artist and prolific sketcher, her line drawings have been rendered effectively and printed from magnesium plates, and the text explores themes around the archeology & history of Leckhampton Hill. “It seems magical, that this hummock, once my childhood playground, then an adolescent haunt for those of us too young to go to the pub, became the hearth of this project and in effect my experience of lockdown.”

Hannah continues “Lino and wood are fantastic mediums to work with in that they are printable, and thereby extremely distributable; lino prints can be copied, repeated, and shared over and over again cheaply and accessibly. It’s also a very hands-on means of making, utilising every nook and cranny between your fingertips as your hands work the way hands have worked for centuries. Printing is so historically significant, particularly as we talk of protest, riot, and activism. What a way to repeat information! Information not distilled through computers or edits, but straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were, or straight from the rioter’s hand.”

More than anything this book is a demonstration of the creative potential of printing by letterpress, each page singing with the joy and passion ignited by working with metal type & setting stick.

Binding by Roger Grech.

More information on the project is available here. Plans for walking tours of Leckhamption Hill with Hannah are in motion.