Letterpress and art

Two pieces of work that Alan Qualtrough made for an MA in visual communications are now in university collections.

Each demonstrates that various letterpress processes can be used to create art.

Truth Untruth is a hand-printed book showing some of the lies that were issued by pro-Brexiteers during the Brexit campaign.

Sixty lies were published each in a different font, with differing substrates, orientations, and positions. Compared to a Facebook-style website, readers critically engaged deeply with the language when reading the book.

The book is now part of the University of Cambridge Library collection on Brexit ephemera.

Crypsis Mimesis is a large-scale work using letterpress as a performance and a process to produce artwork.

Overprints from Truth Untruth were used to record typewriter interviews with people about their thoughts on Brexit. They were immediately shredded to represent the lack of democratic process in the Brexit campaign.

They were woven into a pile of discarded opinions and mounted on photocopied pages of Article 50 printed in camouflage colours (to represent class war).

Crypsis Mimesis was bought by the Arts University Plymouth and is now in its collection.