New Book: TAKAO TANABE: Sometime Printer

Last month the Alcuin Society made a special announcement to its members regarding the third limited edition book in our Printing and Book Arts series. Since it has yet to be mentioned in detail here on the blog, it's high time we do so. Presenting...



TAKAO TANABE: Sometime Printer
A tour de force of Letterpress printing

Tak not only printed books, which one expects from a “Private Press,” but was a master at Job Printing. His typographic imagination could run riot, producing an abundance of invitations, birth announcements, Christmas cards and ephemeral printing for Vancouver’s sophisticates, who had the sensibilities to recognize a master at work in the 1950s and 60s.



The book is filled with his keen artistic and typographic style, with 156 pages of reproductions of book pages and job printing and 19 tip-ins, all in full colour.

The first edition will be printed in very low numbers, with only 50 70 copies being produced.

UPDATE: Due to increased demand, we decided to increase the quantity of this edition from 50 copies to 70 copies.

The previous books in the series were also printed in a very low edition, and both have since sold out. Dorothy Burnett, Bookbinder, was the first in our series on Printing and Book Arts, published in 2007, and devoted to the work of Dorothy Burnett, English Canada's first fine Bookbinder. Duthie's Bookmarks was the second book in the series published in 2008, celebrating fifty years of bookmarks created for Duthie Books by a who’s who of West Coast artists including Jack Shadbolt, Takao Tanabe, Celia King, Carel Moiseiwitsch and 20 others.


You now have the opportunity to purchase the third book in the series. The price of TAKAO TANABE: Sometime Printer is $185 CDN

ISBN: 978-0-919026-40-7

Please place your orders by email.

Click here for a PDF sales flyer.

Coincidentally, as an added bonus, a new show is opening at the West Vancouver Museum tomorrow (680 17th Street, West Vancouver, BC V7V 3T2), featuring the paintings of Takao Tanabe. The opening reception is on Tuesday October 26, 2010 at 7pm, and a special artist talk will be held on December 8, 2010 from 7-9pm.

This event is not affiliated with the Alcuin Society, but you are certainly encouraged to attend!

For more information, visit http://westvancouvermuseum.ca/

See also: HEAVENLY MONKEY'S blog post regarding the book.