Half way through our first cross country as Wandering Book
Artists, Donna and I heard about Kyle Durrie’s project to travel around the
country in her TYPE TRUCK. She was demonstrating letterpress printing out of a 1982 step van that she
converted to a bedroom/print shop outfitted with a working printing press and
type to print with.
Kyle lives in Silver City, New Mexico. We almost crossed paths one or twice, if you consider being in neighboring states as crossing paths. The last time we were
in New Mexico she was in New England. But this time Kyle and the type truck were
going to be home, so I routed the trip to pick up Donna at the rim of the Grand Canyon through Silver City to meet Kyle and see the type truck.
Kyle offered to organize a workshop at her Power and Light Print Shop for me to teach while in town. It is located right in the middle of Silver City’s
business district. Silver City, founded as a mining
town at about 6000 feet elevation now has a population of about 15,000. It is not a big district but has a thriving art and music scene.
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| 1868 printshop in Silver City, used by permission Palace of the Governor, Santa Fe NM |
The class had seven students. Only one had ever made a book
before, so everyone was challenged and had great fun learning something new.
Before I left town, I couldn’t resist taking the wandering
wagon to meet the type truck. The type truck was beached with a flat so we
couldn’t get them as close as hoped for the photo.
Kyle and I started dreaming about what fun it would be to
travel around the country with type truck and wandering wagon, perhaps with a
few other tiny homes on wheels, demonstrating books arts, giving talks,
programming for libraries and playing music at breweries along the way. So, if you
have a tiny home on wheels and that sounds fun let us know…
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