Good afternoon everyone,

And thank you to to friend and subscriber who sparked off today's Fem Fri, which is about arty/designery book projects by women. There's a bit of modernism in there too, so something for everyone I hope!

Let's start with the modernism, and Bookmaking on the Distaff Side. It's a collection of designs, poetry and articles by women, collected by the wonderfully stern looking Jane Bissell Grabhorn:

It includes a contribution by Gertrude Stein! Here's a photo:

More on the history of the book here. Only 100 copies were printed so if you have one it's an absolute treasure:

The Distaff Side is a loosely-knit organization of women enlisted from printing-offices, publishing houses, studios and other hiding-places where may be found devotees of the graphic arts. The group was born out of a righteous indignation that sufficient recognition had never been accorded to woman’s place in the history of printing. To amend this deficiency, The Distaff Side published its first book entitled Bookmaking on the Distaff Side, which disclosed the monumental contributions which spinsters, wives, and widows have made to the graphic arts.

https://librarianofbabel.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/bookmaking-on-the-distaff-side/

This has inspired a group of women designers who have made a response called The Natural Enemies of Books. You can find out more here:

https://www.slanted.de/the-natural-enemies-of-books/

But also here are some punctuation pets for you from the book itself. I love the quizzical cat and the officious little semicolon:

There's an interview with the collective that made the book here, MMS. I really like their message about finding missing histories as that must be one of the best things a person can do:

The collective hope that by providing a contemporary update on this important section of graphic design history, that it will not only allow people to experience these schools of thought, but unearth more of the same too. “There are so many histories about people working in ‘graphic design’, especially before it was even called graphic design, waiting to be uncovered and brought into the discourse,” says Sara. “We hope that other people, who find other missing histories, will follow and make more books that continue to expand understandings of graphic design.”

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/mms-natural-enemies-of-books-graphic-design-120320

Happy Friday, good people,

A xxx.