Introduction

rivate press printers use the tools of the early printer – handset metal type, hand-made papers and traditional presses – to express modern ideas both about the chosen text and about what a book may signify. Private press books embody their printers’ individuality, often making use of unusual formats, lavish illustrations and remarkable bindings. In addition to sumptuous examples of letterpress and visual art, this exhibition includes a triangular book, a volume bound in stone, and a ‘deconstructed’ book reduced to an illegible object.

Unregulated Printing puts on display items published in the last sixty years, selected from the work of the hundreds of private presses represented in the Library’s collections. It features items from around the English-speaking world, and pays particular attention to the Rampant Lions Press of Cambridge and Over.