The Devil's Artisan

A ROGUES' GALLERY
OF THE CANADIAN BOOK AND PRINTING ARTS

Dieter Grund

Words contained in images have always been important to Dieter Grund. His early drawings demonstrate an interesting and playful relationship using words and images. At York University Eugenio Tellez introduced him to S.W. Hayter's printmaking and Dennis Rowan's aquatint method.

Tweaked along the way by David Bolduc, Keiichi Hayano, Vincent Sharp and John Snow, Grund's commitment to printmaking deepened and in 1978 he established Presswerk Editions. Through collaborations with artists, poets, photographers and performance artists his Griffin press has been a stalwart, generous and accommodating companion, allowing for a wide range of sizes in the many projects emerging from its press bed.

Personal artistic interests led Dieter Grund to embark on projects that allowed him to explore the limits of his printing process. From impressions of deer hooves for Toby MacLennan to creating the atmospheric colour blends of Rita Letendre in an etching and learning photogravure, he slowly built skills to better explore the possibilities of crushing ink into paper. Copper plate and wood plank became the matrices that yielded the most personally satisfying results, allowing Grund to explore projects that straddle handmade books and limited-edition prints equally. His collaboration on text and design-related projects with Bill Morgan of Lunar Caustic Press in the early 1980s piqued an interest in handmade books, which remains a strong element in Dieter Grund's own work and studio collaborations to the present. The Presswerk Editions studio catalogue reveals repeated collaboration with artists such as David Bolduc and Tony Calzetta, whose work with writers brings a fresh view to both the writing and the images.

—Deborah Grund