E5. Nine Poets

E5.Peter and Donna Thomas. Nine Poets. [Boulder, Colorado: n.p., 1999.]

76 x 60 mm (3” x 2 3/8”), 30 copies.

Binding: “Dowel spine portfolio”; a single sheet of paper is folded to create pockets on front and back inside covers and held together by a wooden dowel inserted through slits in the spine. Portfolio cover paper is hand painted. Title on label on cover. Ten broadsides housed in the pockets of the portfolio. Paper: Handmade by Peter Thomas. Printing: Letterpress, each page printed a different color. Typography: Hand set in various metal typefaces. Notes: There are nine poems and a colophon. Each broadside is signed on the back by the poet. Made by Peter and Donna Thomas in collaboration with students in their class at the 1999 Summer Writing Program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

“This was the second project we made with this class. Each student was paired with a writing faculty member, asked them for a short quote or a few words, then set that in type and printed it as a broadside. The binding structure, which we have come to call the ‘dowel spine portfolio,’ was invented while we were teaching this workshop. The Harry Smith Print Shop did not have a bindery, so we did not have our usual tools and materials available. That lack led to our gain, as it forced us to become inventive and to develop this structure.”