[DA - A Journal of the Printing Arts]


`Though an angel should write, still 'tis devils must print.'
    -- Thomas Moore, 1779-1852, Irish musician and songwriter

The Devil's Artisan is edited by Don McLeod. Typeset by Elke Inkster, copy-edited by Doris Cowan and printed by Tim Inkster on the Heidelberg KORD at the printing office of The Porcupine's Quill in the Village of Erin, Ontario.




[DA 62, Spring / Summer 2008]

Number 62, Spring / Summer 2008

Allan Fleming's Many Worlds:
Making Design History in Canada

Martha Fleming

A Brief and Partial Chronology
of the Life and Work
of Allan Robb Fleming

Martha Fleming

Autobiographical Fragments
and Canadian Nationalisms

Allan Fleming

Of Gravestones, Lettering
and Circus Wagons: A Look
at the Work of Allan Fleming

Robert Tombs

The Fleming Files: A Preliminary
Survey of Archival Evidence

Devin Crawley & Martha Fleming

More Dingbats, Ornaments
and Fanciful Initials

Tim Inkster

A Rogue's Gallery
of the Canadian Book
and Printing Arts

featuring Carl Dair

Includes a digital
keepsake of a photograph
presented by Debbie Adams,
daughter-in-law of Allan Fleming,
printed by Ampersand Printing
on an Indigo Press
in Guelph


Readers interested
in the book arts generally
may also be interested
in Amphora, published
by the Alcuin Society
in Vancouver.


The Devil's Artisan (DA) first appeared in 1980 under the editorship of Paul Forage, William Rueter (University of Toronto Press) and Glenn Goluska, latterly of Coach House Press (Toronto) and currently print design consultant to Phyllis Lambert at the Centre for the Study of Architecture in Montreal. The magazine was founded `for the purpose of presenting to Canadian readers information on the craft of printing and bookmaking, on bibliographic and historic matters, and on communicative, sociological, and technical subjects related to printing.'

The Porcupine's Quill purchased the magazine in the spring of 1995 and has published two issues a year, spring and fall, since that time (Number 36).



The focus of the journal has broadened somewhat, over the past twenty years, from an early technical interest in the craft of fine printing to its current role as `A Journal of the Printing Arts'. The magazine has, however, remained committed to its constituency — and hence is released in the spring at the Wayzgoose festival of the Book Arts in Grimsby on the Niagara peninsula, and in the fall at the Ontario College of Art & Design Book Arts Show on McCaul Street in Toronto.

The spring / summer 1999 issue (DA 44) featured a spotlight on the work of The Gauntlet Press, owned and operated by the late poet Richard Outram and artist Barbara Howard. The issue included an annotated checklist of the press prepared by Don McLeod. The keepsake was printed on the Vandercook by Stan Bevington of Coach House Printing directly from the block engraved by Barbara Howard. The issue was launched in the lobby of the Robarts Library (University of Toronto) at the opening of a major retrospective on The Gauntlet Press curated by Alan Horne, mounted by Emrys Evans (conservator for the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library) and jointly sponsored by the Robarts Library and DA.

The complete text of Richard Outram's memoir `A Brief History of Time at The Gauntlet Press (Or, Some Days the Earth Moved)' is available by clicking on The Gauntlet Press. A brief checklist of the contents of older back issues is available at the same address.

The text of Andrew Steeves' history of Thaddeus Holownia's Anchorage Press is available by clicking on The Anchorage Press. A brief list of the contents of more recent back issues is available at the same address.

A small number of copies of DA17 (1985) are still available for the favour of $20. The issue included an article entitled "The Gourmet Vandercook: Printing on a press never really designed for printing" which continues to attract interest, and is now available for download in pdf format. Many thanks to Paul Moxon of Fameorshame Press for this idea (and the pdf file).

A one-year subscription to DA consists of two issues -- one in April, the second in November. The cost is $22 for individuals and $27 for institutions. In Canada, remember to add GST. For subscribers outside Canada, kindly remit in US dollars.

A complete sample issue (Number 56, featuring Frank Newfeld and McClelland & Stewart's `Design for Poetry' series) in PDF format is available by clicking Here. Warning: the sample issue is a large file!

A down-loadable subscription form in Adobe "PDF" format is available by clicking Here.

DA, A Journal of the Printing Arts now accepts subscription orders paid by VISA (only, we are not able to accept Mastercard or Amex) by voice phone at (519) 833-9158 or (preferably) fax at (519) 833-9845. Please include your name, VISA card number and expiry date on your faxed order. Please also include a voice telephone number or an e-mail address in case of unexpected trouble. Please do NOT send us credit card information via e-mail (it's dangerous). If in doubt, e-mail publisher Tim Inkster. For story suggestions or other editorial concerns please e-mail editor Don McLeod.

DA, A Journal of the Printing Arts is also now available on abebooks.com, who do accept Mastercard payments, as well as Visa.

ISSN 0225-7874


A Rogue's Gallery   |    The Gauntlet Press   |    The Anchorage Press   |    The Gourmet Vandercook  |    The Porcupine's Quill

Headpieces   |    Ornamental Initials  |    Tailpieces  |    Sample Issue  |    Back Issues


The Devil's Artisan would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Canada Magazine Fund (CMF) through the Support for Arts and Literary Magazines (SALM) component
toward our editorial and production costs. Thanks, as well, for the generosity
of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Sleeman Brewing Company.


The Devil's Artisan is remarkable in Canadian publishing in that most of the physical production
of our journal is completed in-house at the shop on the Main Street of Erin Village.

We print on a twenty-five inch Heidelberg KORD, typically onto acid-free Zephyr Antique laid.
The sheets are then folded, and sewn into signatures on a 1907 model Smyth National Book Sewing machine.

To take a virtual tour of the pressroom, visit us at YouTube for a discussion of offset printing
in general, and the operation of a Heidelberg KORD in particular.

Other videos include Four Colour Printing, Smyth Sewing and Wood Engraving


Contents © 2008 The Devil's Artisan. Updated: 24 Apr 2008 by Tim Inkster
Web page created 97-10-08 by Brenda J. Sharpe



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