Fine.
A book which is very close to this cataloguers heart, a celebration of craft, print and the bicycle. Inspired by the idea of the journeyman, a tradesperson who, having completed an apprenticeship, ‘would take to the road with their union card to look for work. It was these tradespeople that travelled from town to town that inspired me to cycle from Land’s End to John o’Groats on the printing bike and visit places that are known for making one thing’ (from the introduction.) Nick Hand’s printing bike, a custom built frame by Robin Mather which carries an 8x5 Adana press, has so far travelled over 3845 miles and printed more than 3000 postcards en-route, including a journey from Bristol to Mainz where it all, in a sense, began.
‘The printing bike combines my love of the bicycle and my love of letterpress printing. It’s what would have been common not so long ago; a bicycle designed to travel long distances and carry out a trade… as I have on so many journeys, I stopped to talk to the makers and craftspeople I met and recorded conversations on my little digital recorder. Their stores are printed in this book. It only felt right that the words of great craftspeople should be accompanied by beautiful prints and be hand set and letterpress printed for this publication. On the face of it, the adventure was a little crazy, but I also know that voices, recording people’s work and celebrating the crafts of our little recording island is such an important thing’ (ibid.)
