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At Scripps, an all-women’s liberal arts school, a strong tradition of printmaking and bookbinding continues with the popular Typography and Book Arts course. Last semester, the class created 109 limited-edition books to be sold through The Scripps College Press, which started in 1941 as an experimental studio for students. “Right from the beginning, students know someone else is going to see their work,” says Kitty Maryatt, professor and director of the press.
The students, including men from the other Claremont colleges, start with binding their own journals. They are required to write and illustrate a text on a topic discussed collectively in class, which are bound together in a book at the end of the semester. In addition to traditional printmaking and letterpress printing, students learn digital printmaking. Maryatt says, “Students do everything: make their own work, print their own pages, and bind the books. And if there are mistakes, those are their mistakes, and if there are glories, those are their glories.”