letterpress: exquisite corpse print

Whenever I start a new class, I do an activity with the students called Exquisite Corpse. I have talked about it on the blog before. Instead of hand writing out the different parts of the sentence week to week, I finally set some type and printed it up.

I knew I wanted it to be little prints and notecards so that I could easily hand them out to students in my class. I also needed to have the type tall enough so that I could trim them into strips and have them write their words on it as they were working. Here is the start of the lock up.I opted for a clean serif that we have labeled as "Alternate Gothic." Is that what it really is? I have no idea! I use it all the time though since it matches well with the wood type we also have in the Art Center. I printed it quickly since I used the Platen press.I printed about 100 on plain white paper with grey ink. After I finished those, I experimented a little with some old book pages. These turned out great! I love that each one hit on the page in different locations. Some have chapter breaks in the middle of it, some are solid pages of text.Last year, I had made some folded book art too, so these prints match perfectly in my living room paired next to them. I also decided to frame one for my aunt. I chose the page numbers strategically for hers and mine to match my lucky number and the street number of an area where we go shopping together in Portland.I will have to try printing on some more book pages again in the future. I also love how the subject matter of a sentence you create fit the book theme of the paper. It just tied them together so nicely.