Ken Campbell

Ken Campbell is a maker of artists' books. Born in 1939 he was trained as a letterpress printer and graphic designer at the London College of Printing. He writes, designs and prints his books by letterpress, with the occasional deployment of etching, embossing, hand work and, latterly, digital techniques. These works are represented in many international collections. A complete set of the books may be found at the Herzog-August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, The New York City Public Library, The Yale Centre for British Art (which also holds the artist's archive) and the Rare Books Division of the Library of Congress.

'My books are, in most part, made by letterpress printing, a process which held preeminence in graphic reproduction in Europe from the fifteenth to the mid twentieth century. Within this tradition were forged rules and an aesthetic for the revelation and protection of original texts above all other graphic gesturing. I was taught in this tradition as both a printer and a designer. This would seem to contradict what I now do, which is to find the form of the book on the bed of the press during its making; while texts, images and procedures find appropriate dramatic weight in the improvised final work. This contradiction I have learned to accept as both a joy and a source of discovery. That these books draw on the activities that engaged me over the years as a designer, writer and labouring printer is a synthesis too sweet to be missed (we are free to choose our chains). This activity, rooted in that personal history, has become a vehicle for the pursuit of a constantly unfolding poetic. Printing is the vehicle but not its own end, nor beauty the only pursuit. The effect of these books has been described (by Peter Townsend) as “darkness shot through with light”. Pretty much the way the world is put together – see the King James Bible, Genesis 1.'  Ken Campbell, The Maker's Hand, a catalogue offering an  extensive commentary on the artist's books