Press and Place

I'm quite interested in collecting books from presses incorporating the local landscape into their books. Not necessarily at the national level but more localised to their direct environment. It could be the local landscape, culture, history, mythology, etc. of where the press is/was based. It would also be quite nice to visit the places referred to in the books. Are there any fine press books like this in your collection or maybe specific places you associate with a particular press or places you have visited after reading a book?

>1 LT79-1: Passing Through by Corvus Works might interest you.

>1 LT79-1:

The pinnacle of this type of book is Gaylord Schanilec and his Midnight Paper Sales Press in Wisconsin.

>1 LT79-1: From the UK perspective the Old Stile Press most immediately comes to mind. For instance their printing of Wordsworth's Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey (the ruins of which being very close to the press in Llandogo in the Wye Valley). They also published a volume of haiku from the valley. And taking your topic to perhaps extreme lengths, they also printed a book of images taken from photographs of a wall in the vicinity of the press (naturally called A Wall in Wales)!

Coastline, by Nomad Letterpress. See -
https://flic.kr/p/2n5ehak

I would highly recommend anything from Gray Zeitz at Larkspur Press and, most immediately, PRAIRIE: Reflections from the Tallgrass Landscape from Martha Chiplis and Sherwin Beach Press.

Whittington Press also produced quite a bit that was uniquely local (I'm thinking specifically of Whittington: Aspects of a Cotswold Village as well as Midwinter).

>6 jbrnewman: I really like the few Larkspur books which I own. Excellent presswork, well chosen texts and illustrations, bindings that are all the more effective for their simplicity and restraint.

Leaving aside Great Naps, No Time Lost in Whetting and Fondelle (my favourite of the three with its Wesley Bates engravings) what titles would you recommend? Not that much seems available outside the US market.

>1 LT79-1: Ellen Martin-Friel's tHERE and The Bridge of Tears are both "works of place", with the latter even incorporating salt, ash, and water from the site.

And pretty much everything from Extraordinary Editions involves the Channel Islands, their home site, in one way or another.

>3 dlphcoracl: Good call! All of his major books detail the region, and they're fantastic.

Many of Walter Hamady's books from the Perishable Press discuss the Driftless Region, which overlaps somewhat with Schanilec's stomping grounds. Between the two of them, there's a ton of coverage of the geographical features and history of western Wisconsin / eastern Minnesota.

>7 duncjl: I can wholeheartedly recommend anything Gray Zeitz has ever printed by Wendell Berry. I have also really enjoyed the poetry by Maurice Manning from Larkspur. I am not at all sure about availability outside the States, unfortunately.

>7 duncjl: As an aside, who printed the edition of The Book of Job in the center of the top shelf of the photograph in your profile?

>11 jbrnewman: Thanks for your recommendations from Larkspur. The Book of Job was printed by Nicholas Parry at the Tern Press.

>1 LT79-1: There’s The Hill from Nomad Letterpress with Hilary Paynter’s wood engravings:
https://www.nomadletterpress.com/thehill

Thanks all for the excellent recommendations! Most presses are settled in one place with heavy equipment for very long periods of time. It makes to sense focus on what's in front of you for inspiration and I find that very satisfying. I'll be looking to acquire some of recommendations noted above in the near future.

>1 LT79-1: Nawakum Press has done this with "Cascadia", "Fire On the Hills", and to some extent "A Bonsai-Shaped Mind"

>15 Sport1963: thank you. There are many beautiful places in the US. Cascadia looks wonderful. I was just reading about the wildfire and how Nawakum even turned this tragedy into a creative project about their local environment.