It’s Fine Press Friday!
Today we feature work from Claire Van Vliet’s (b. 1933) legendary Janus Press. Designating Duet was designed and printed by Van Vliet in West Burke, Vermont in 1989, in a limited edition of one hundred and seventy-five copies and features two poems by Sandra McPherson (1943-2024): Putting Your Name in Your Blues and Names Not on Quilts. The quilt motif is built through Van Vliet’s trademark interwoven concertina structure, and printed on Fabriano paper as well as handmade papers by Katie MacGregor. Mary Richardson and Judi Conant built the solander boxes; Tamar Thorne and Id Kohl completed the cutting. The type, set by Nancy Southworth, is Weiss bold. The colophon, appropriately, is signed by everyone involved – “in friendship.”
Both poems consider the power of names – names voiced in song, thereby enchanted with “new intimacy” and those unsewn in the intricate artistry of quilts: “Would it be like / scratching your name / in your own garden? — / notarizing leaves?” This is the second of three works by McPherson published by Janus. Van Vliet designed 1985’s Floralia, and 1995’s Beauty in Use. A publisher herself, McPherson founded Swan Scythe Press in Sunnydale, California with fellow poet Walter Pavich. McPherson died last August, at the age of eighty-one.
This book comes to us from the collection of Jerry Buff (1931-2025).
Check out other posts about Claire Van Vliet and Janus Press!
See another book featuring MacGregor’s handmade papers!
See more Women’s History Month posts!
--Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern
