Uncategorized – BLINDFOLD PRESS

Press Ready

08/05/2021 admin Leave a comment

Waxer for pasting up newspapers and other artwork in preparation for printing, c. 1976 — Waxer: a tool rolled over the the back of type and other graphics so then could then be ‘pasted up’ onto artboards; part of the print production process c. 1976.

Back in the day, “press ready” was what you called artwork when it was ready to go to the printer and be put on a printing press.

Right now we are preparing our first book for publication electronically, which will also launch this small press venture. It’s a very different world in some ways. The tools we use to produce books are very different. the timeframes are compressed. But the number of things that need doing is no less and multiplies as we get closer to the launch date.

The ebook will be ‘released’ officially May 14, 2021 when announcements will go out via email primarily. (Subscribe to our feed to get on the email list.)

We have started talking about a ‘launch’ event also and if it comes together, that would likely be on May 22nd, 7 p.m. EDT via Zoom. Not exactly a party with speeches and book signing but Zoom is not without its charms.

The ebook was finished quite some time ago but now we are preparing to print a small edition of softcover books and a special print-on-demand edition that we hope, will be something more like an artist’s book, capturing the feeling of the original drawings.

It’s been a great adventure thus far. We’re indebted to artist Jack Butler for allowing us to use his project title as the name for our new press and for trusting us to bring his to the public in this particular way.

A mask for the eyes

03/02/2021 admin Leave a comment

There’s a funny cartoon somewhere with a person wearing their Covid-19 mask over their eyes.

I love this image, from a patent application. The tie that goes around the ears was most likely the patentable element.

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Blindfold Press – blog

31/01/2021 admin Leave a comment

Definition of blindfold

We have been asked what our publishing “house” is about. What kind of books are we going to publish. Will we only publish online? Will we do print books? Will we sell gifty items? I don’t feel we can answer any of those questions yet, or else the answer is Yes to all possibilities.

Founded in 2020, a year that should have exemplified clarity of vision but which really was a year of stumbling around in the dark, the blind leading the blind, Blindfold Press should be dedicated to the publication of things that allow us to better see the conditions in which we live and to critically examine how we experience them.

That is too big an ambition, and too small.

What Blindfold Press will do should be as varied as the meanings of word “blindfold”.

OUr favourite meaning of “blindfold” relates to type of magic. A “blindfold” is a type of trick in which an illusion of ‘seeing’ is created even while the magician cannot see or is literally blindfolded.

Our second most favourite meaning of “blindfold” is on the gallows side of humour: the imprisoned rebel or resistance fighter tied to a pole before a firing squad.

Then there are the more playful meanings: blindman’s bluff, pin the tail on the donkey.

What we are doing now, in the midst of this pandemic, is related to all these various meanings. Doctors and other experts appear “to know” based on nebulous, never really fully explained “facts;” we (many of us) feel we are in the firing line and chained by weakly justified social restrictions; and everyone is chasing around not really knowing what to do, what is permitted and what is not.

DEFINITION

The best definition is, as usual, to be found on Wikipedia.

transitive verb

1: to cover the eyes of with or as if with a bandage

2: to hinder from seeing especially: to keep from comprehension

noun

1: a bandage for covering the eyes

2: something that obscures mental or physical vision

…

TRIVIA

How do we know what we know? And do we really know it?

Perhaps we need some sort of test? Like…