Exploring the Art of the Printed Page

The new Baylor Libraries Book Arts & Letterpress Lab, housed in two rooms on the first floor of Baylor’s Jesse H. Jones Library, introduces Baylor students, faculty and staff to historical printing practices, allowing them to create their own books by hand using paper and ink. Several faculty members have now incorporated this experience into the courses they teach, providing their students with a transformative learning experience.

When students take Medieval and Early Modern Literature from Paul Larson, Ph.D., part of what they learn is the history of the sonnet — a type of poem that originated in Italy during the Renaissance.

The sonnet really “hit its stride,” Larson said, “in the early 16th century when Spanish poet Garcilaso de la Vega embraced the style in his writing.

“It’s such a great art form,” Larson said.

In the past, Larson has introduced his students to this historic art form by assigning them each a sonnet and asking them to explain it in class using a PowerPoint exposition. But, most recently when he taught the course, he wanted to make the poetry assignment more personal for the students.

To that end, he had his students write sonnets of their own — composed of 14 lines with about 11 syllables in each line.

After the sonnets were written, Larson, professor of Spanish, took his students to the book lab to work on transforming each sonnet into a pliego suelto, which is a small booklet created through printing on a single sheet of paper.

“Poetry lends itself to this particular format very well because the poems are not particularly long,” Larson said.

During their time in the lab, Larson’s students hand-printed about 70 of the small books, enough for each student to have their own copies in addition to several copies to be placed in the University Archives.

Sha Towers, B.M. ’91, M.M. ’97,  is the founder and director of the lab, as well as associate dean for research and engagement for the University Libraries.

“In other classes, students are making things too,” Towers said. “They write a paper, they turn it in and get a grade — but they’re not keeping that paper for the rest of their life. Creating something in the lab is different than the traditional experience and expectation that it creates a kind of disruptive moment in their learning and education. It’s just different enough from the norm that it really stands out.”

The lab now contains 13 presses from the 19th to the 21st centuries,  and users can choose from about 300 different fonts — some newly created, and others that are 200 years old.