Walter Hamady
American, 1940-2019; taught at UW-Madison 1966-1996
Lived and worked in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin
This book contains twenty-one original poems by McGarrell and twenty dragabberjwings by Beal. It was bound by UW–Madison alumnus Kent Kasuboske (who also formed Hamady’s Shadwell handmade paper. Marta Gomez assisted with the sewing). It is described on the title page as being “A recollection of four Friends’ excursion from Umbria through various French and Italian Places with digressive reflections upon Matters of Gourmandise, Botany, beloved Works of Art & Amourous Play; and dedicated to the sacred memory of K.O. and Fang.”
Letterpress, die-cut, rubber-stamping, collage with postal stamps, seals, and brass grommet, on handmade paper and fabric, bound in recycled boards with exposed sewing
Perishable Press Ltd., Mount Horeb, Wisconsin
Edition of 125Walter Hamady’s greatest impact on the field of book arts may be as a typographer. The apt and adept use of type was Hamady’s ongoing concern as an artist. His typographic inventiveness is best illustrated in his Interminable Gabberjabb books (shown is number six in the series). The books are filled with inventive arrangements of decorative ornaments and letterforms. Hamady was a master of the densely set and exquisitely printed 6 pt. form–the typographer’s equivalent of a pianist’s riff.
Illustrations by Jim Lee
Letterpress and linocuts on handmade paper
Perishable Press Ltd., Mount Horeb, Wisconsin
Edition of 200In this book, Hamady shares his personal experience making handmade paper primarily from used cotton and linen rags. This book is a treatise that covers the procedures and techniques involved in the craft as well as the “needs & equipment for a small scale papermill.” Instructions, stories, and words of advice are printed on his handmade Shadwell paper.
Walter Hamady taught book structures, letterpress printing, papermaking and collage at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 30 years, influencing a number of students in the Art Department from 1966 until his retirement in 1996. Born and raised in Flint, Michigan, he was the son of a pediatrician mother, who encouraged his creative habits, and a Lebanese-American father, who worked as a diplomat in Washington, D.C. He attended the Cranbrook School for Boys and then the Pratt Institute in New York City. After a year at Pratt, he returned to Michigan to study at Wayne State University, where he earned a BFA in 1964. Inspired by meeting Harry Duncan of the Cummington Press in Iowa City, Iowa, Hamady made his first book and founded the Perishable Press Limited and Shadwell Papermill. He continued making books at Cranbrook Academy of Art, receiving his MFA in 1966. From there, he accepted a professorship at the UW. He helped bring the Silver Buckle Press, a working museum of letterpress printing, to the university, and he and his students curated the book arts exhibition Breaking the Bindings: American Book Art Now. His Gabberjabb book series demonstrates the typographical precision and playful approach to bookmaking for which he is known. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Hamady has published his own poetry as well as work by prominent poets including Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Donald Hall, Galway Kinnell, Denise Levertov, Robert Lowell, Jerome Rothenberg, W.D. Snodgrass and Gary Snyder.
