The Devil’s Artisan

LATEST ISSUE

DEVIL’S ARTISAN #92, SPRING/SUMMER 2023

Printmaker Alec Dempster revels in the search for authentic Mexican folkloric traditions

Woodblock artist Alec Dempster revels in the search for Mexican folkloric traditions from his base at the foot of El Chiquihuite. James Bader interviews filmmaker Jeff Winch on various cinematic challenges encountered in documenting the engravings of George A. Walker. Bibliophile Chester Gryski uncovers and then solves a mystery attached to Glenn Goluska’s republication of El Lissitzky’s 1923 manifesto ‘The Topography of Typography’. Editor Don McLeod collaborates with Sidney Johnson and Peter Isaacs on an anecdotal history of Rapid Grip and Batten, a nineteenth-century Toronto design firm that came to provide gainful employment to many of the Group of Seven as well as to facilitate an unparalleled level of technological and artistic sophistication to media services in the first half of the twentieth century. Richard Kegler introduces Rundgotisch, a blackletter Rotunda typeface, probably designed by Berthold Wolpe, that sports majuscules reminiscent of Albertus.

The front cover is adapted from a woodblock print entitled Ariles (2007) by Alec Dempster. The keepsake is based on an image by Alec Dempster called La Bruja, which is taken from his lotería game.

Rare and beautiful Canadian fine printing, including examples from the Gauntlet Press and the Hawkshead Press. Credit: Don McLeod.