Esther K Smith

PurgatoryPiePressINK

492 Sales 5 out of 5 stars

Brooklyn, NY

137

313 Following 137 Followers

Purgatory Pie Press began in 1977 when Dikko Faust pied an overfilled job case of cold metal 8 point Century Oldstyle in Madison, Wisconsin. He sorted it days and nights for weeks, made his first two books and paper for the third, and moved to New York City.

In 1980 Dikko Faust and the Press married Esther K Smith and the E K Smith Museum, a museum of found art, including the Apron Collection. Their wedding invitation was their first letterpress collaboration.

Dikko Faust hand sets wood and metal type and experiments with letterpress as a printmaking medium. Smith edits and designs and hand sews books. Faust and Smith collaborate with other artists and writers, making limited editions and artist books. They publish yearly datebooks, and produce a monthly postcard subscription.The Press produced series of ArtistTracts, Artists Coasters, and PurgaToys. Instabooks is a current subscription series.

Purgatory Pie Press had solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum and London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. (Museum collections include MOMA, Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney, the Tate, National Gallery of Art, Cooper-Hewitt, the Getty, Corcoran, San Francisco MOMA, and the Walker.)

The Press has had solo exhibitions at Harvard University, Smith College, and San Francisco’s Center for the Book.

The How to Make Books exhibit began at Cooper Union and traveled to RISD, Pyramid Atlantic, SVA’s design MFA gallery, Minnesota Center for the Book, Athens Cultural Center, and Pratt Institute.

Faust and Smith travel as visiting artists, lecturing, demonstrating, and making collaborative projects in art centers and universities. Faust teaches letterpress at SVA. They also teach private classes at Purgatory Pie Press. Extraordinary A+100 students can apply for internships.

Esther K Smith wrote and co-designed 5 book arts book books-- three for Random House, one for Quarto, and one for Rizzoli. Dikko Faust hand set type for the covers and display pages. HOW TO MAKE BOOKS, MAKING BOOKS WITH KIDS, and SPECIMENS of CHROMATIC WOOD TYPE Borders, &c are available wherever books are sold. You can get them directly from Purgatory Pie Press—signed and with FREE GIFT! You can buy rare copes of MAGIC BOOKS & PAPER TOYS and THE PAPER BRIDE from Purgatory Pie Press. It's also available in a plain brown wrapper for the wedding-phobic-->THE BOOKS ARTS BOOK in bride's clothing.

Purgatory Pie Press designed the wood type logo for Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn and printed their bookmarks, gift cards, poster, and business cards from real metal and wood type. The press also designs and makes letterheads, invitations and custom books.