#tuumba press

[garadinervi]

Lyn Hejinian, The Guard, Designed and printed by Lyn Hejinian, «Tuumba» 50, Tuumba Press, Berkeley, CA, 1984, Edition of 550 (reading copy pdf here) [Eclipse Archive]

Plus: Granary Books, New York, NY

[garadinervi]

Clark Coolidge, Research, Designed and printed by Lyn Hejinian, «Tuumba» 40, Tuumba Press, Berkeley, CA, 1982, Edition of 475 (Eclipse Archive pdf here) [Granary Books, New York, NY]

[garadinervi]

Alice Notley, Doctor Williams' Heiresses. A Lecture Delivered at 80 Langton Street, San Francisco, Feb. 12, 1980, Designed and printed by Lyn Hejinian, «Tuumba» 28, Tuumba Press, Berkeley, CA, 1980, Edition of 500 (pdf here) [Eclipse Archive. © Alice Notley]

[garadinervi]

Bruce Andrews, Praxis, Designed and printed by Lyn Hejinian, «Tuumba» 18, Tuumba Press, Berkeley, CA, 1978, Edition of 450 [Eclipse Archive. Granary Books, New York, NY]

[litmuspress]

Collaboration

Uxudo was published as a joint project by Berkeley-based Tuumba Press and Oakland-based O Books. 

From 1976 to 1984, Lyn Hejinian produced 50 handset letterpress chapbooks at Tuumba press. In 1999, Tuumba was revived to realize Anne Tardos’ Uxudo in collaboration with Leslie Scalapino’s O Books. Since the mid 1980s, O Books has been publishing innovative works in poetry, drama, and essay; today, O Books is managed by Litmus Press. 

That a precise attention to detail is shared by both Tuumba and O Books is evident in the relationship of image to text in Uxudo. The images in the book, stills from a videotape of the author’s family and friends, work in conjunction with the text to create a document of love and closeness articulated in various languages. 

In “Love,” Tardos writes, 

Il y’a longtemps que je t’aime, Jamais je ne t’oublierai.

No translation is offered for this particular passage. Instead, the opposing page features a girl’s face with the same text situated above her head in a different typeface from that on the preceding page. In a repeated, if negated, future, the text insists on love’s potency. The speaker reminds the reader that memory is rendered superfluous as long as we continue dwelling with those we love. 

I love that the collaboratively-published text is an embodiment of the relationships not only between author and publisher, but also between publishers. In this increasingly-globalized world, the codex reminds us of some of the functions of location and physical proximity. It reminds us of the incalculable value of friendship. 

[gotham-bookmart-project]

'Plane Debris', Stephen Rodefer, Tuumba Press, Chicago, 1981. 450 printed.

[gotham-bookmart-project]

'Praxis', Bruce Andrews, Tuumba Press, Chicago, 1978.

[gotham-bookmart-project]

'Proof', Larry Price, Tuumba Press, Berkeley, California, 1982.