Mary Bruno: Letterpress Scroll

Mary Bruno of Minnesota-based letterpress print shop Bruno Press recently collaborated with her pal, Richard Bresnehan, a world renowned potter, on an exciting project that combines sculpture with letterpress.

Richard, who also teaches at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, was tasked with creating a new sculpture garden on the campus of the university. He invited Mary to participate in a part of the sculpture project, named Prophetic Messenger, commissioning her to created a letterpress print of the Rule of Saint Benedict in the form of a scroll.

Mary worked with a text designer on the layout, creating 32 13″X19″ pages which they then printed over the course of 3 months with polymer plates from Boxcar Press in New York. She then designed and hand carved all 18 images out of linoleum blocks. Once the images were printed on the pages Mary added hand-colouring, including gold leaf to the first and last page images. The pages were then glued together and attached to the cherry wood scroll holders made by a local wood craftsman. Bags and ceramic pots were also made to house the scroll.

After an intense 9 month period, in July of 2020 the project was completed and one of the 6 scrolls was ensconced inside the Prophetic Messenger sculpture. A book about the process and collaboration is currently in production and will be released soon.

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