BC 008 Library poster

SCAN BC-205111XX-018 > metadata > comments

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Item type: Defaced library poster
Medium: Four-colour ffset lithography overprinted with black screen print
Size: 420×586 mm
Date of creation: November 2051

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— This poster, first promoting then protesting Stroud’s public library, was printed by Bonanza Clementine, most likely twice.
— The first print was in her capacity as owner of Clementine Printworks, official printer of The Chamber. The illustration on the poster is a low-quality reproduction of a pastoral scene titled ‘Timeless Moments’ from the late 20th or early 21st century by the American romantic-realist painter Mark Arian.
— The second print is a black overprint protesting of The Chamber’s purge of the library. The purge saw the removal of about 40% of the library’s collection after Chamber auditors deemed them unsuitable for public consumption. Clementine’s protest posters were typically pasted on Chamber properties and Chamber-supporting businesses.
— This scan was taken from an original poster in the personal collection of Threginald Thomson-Johnson III and is believed to be an unused test print saved by his grandfather, an associate of Clementine.

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Fun behind the fiction

I thought it might be nice to tell you how this piece came to be. My wife Christine brought home a gilt frame holding a tacky print from a charity shop. The idea was that we would put something nice in the frame, only it spent a couple weeks leaning against a wall in my office which was long enough for me to get an idea for using the existing print. A day or so after the idea appeared, I realised it would fit nicely in Bonanza Clementine’s world too, and I ended up making two versions. The version above started with a scan of the print and is fully digital. The version below is completely analogue. It’s hanging above bookshelves on my landing. (Sorry about the glare on the glass.)

I don’t have a screen printing setup like Bonanza, so I bought some old-fashioned dry transfer letters off Ebay instead. Trying to get those letters onto the print intact and in a straight line gave me a lot more respect for graphic designers in pre-computer times. I cut the book out and filled the hole by sticking a piece of paper painted black to the back of the print. The finished piece is hung high enough and the light is dim enough on the landing that it looks pretty decent.