Art and Labor: Private Press Printing at Kelmscott and Roycroft
November 2024 — Spring 2025
Curated by Candace Pine and Amber McDonald
Art and Labor is an exploration of private press printing through the lens of two late 19th century master-printers: William Morris at the Kelmscott Press in London, and Elbert Hubbard at the Roycroft Print Shop in East Aurora, New York. This exhibition traces Morris and Hubbard’s careers, and the way they shaped the work done at their respective presses. Morris was a writer, artist, designer, and a key figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement before he turned to printing; while Hubbard was also a writer, but more importantly a salesman, before he decided to become a printer. Although these men had two different approaches to running their presses, they coincided in their commitment to their craft, which can be seen in the work they produced. Seeing books from the Kelmscott Press and Roycroft Print Shop side-by-side in this exhibition shows the similarities as well as the differences between these presses, which in turn is only a small sample of all of the unique private press printers that were operating both during their time and today.
