Poems and Pictures in Le Metro




Little mags printed on a spirit duplicator are few and far between.  Dan Saxon's Le Metro and Deux Megot are classics of this little appreciated and known printing technique.  UB Special Collections has the first sixteen issues.  I spent a good hour flipping through the issues and was amazed at the visuals.  I was aware that the magazine had loads of poems in holograph but there are also several examples of stenciled graphics that really steal the show.  Here are three examples involving members of the Tulsa School:  Ted Berrigan, Joe Brainard and Ron Padgett. 

This is the spirit duplicator as high art.  Increasingly, there is interest in spirit duplicators used in churches, communities, schools, and fanzines as a form of folk art or as documentation of everyday life and culture.  For example,  I recently saw a DIY community newsletter/gossip sheet by a teenage girl for a small town during WWII up for sale.  If this tickles your fancy, keep on the look out in rare book catalogs in the coming year.  I suspect this is a growing market.  Or better yet hit dusty boxes in garages, used bookstores, attics and basements.

JB

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