The Devil’s Artisan

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DEVIL’S ARTISAN #58, SPRING/SUMMER 2006

David Shaw Looks in a Rear-View Mirror

Original printed wraps. 64 pp. Octavo.

Freelance designer and illustrator David Shaw of Toronto offers an anecdote-packed memoir of his years as a book designer and art director at McClelland and Stewart in the 1970s. Shaw's career credits include Hurtig Publishers' Canadian Encyclopaedia, and he remains active in the field as an illustrator for Maclean's and National Geographic and a designer for M&S and Red Deer College Press, among others. Includes fourteen illustrations, as well as a photograph of David Shaw.

Wood-engraver Jim Westergard of Red Deer, Alberta contributes some remarks on his chosen art form, with examples taken from throughout his career. Includes reproductions of five Westergard engravings. And Natalie Shahinian, a young writer and artist living in Toronto, profiles the history and activities of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild.

The Rogue's Gallery features Margaret Lock, the (in Randall Speller's words) `multi-talented artist, illustrator, printmaker, designer, typographer, binder and operator' of Kingston, Ontario's Locks' Press. The aesthetic of the Locks' woodcuts, books and broadsheets, which are largely devoted to texts that pre-date the twentieth century, is both neo-medieval and modern, and is unparalleled in the Canadian book arts.

The Dingbat, Ornament and Fanciful Initial feature includes eleven initials and five elaborate tailpieces.

Printed offset on the Heidelberg KORD at the printing office of the Porcupine's Quill in the Village of Erin, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada.

Smyth sewn into 16-page signatures. With coloured endleaves, hand-tipped, front and back.

Keepsake laid in was printed letterpress by Nicholas Kennedy at the Trip Print Press, Toronto, Ontario off a photopolymer made from an engraving by Jim Westergard. The image depicts two bumblebees engaged in the act of procreation.

The cover was printed offset by Tim Inkster at the Porcupine's Quill and features two additional drawings by David Shaw.