The Information Management Public Lectures give attention to exciting advances in research and professional practice. The topics are diverse reflecting the importance and global extent of Information Management in today’s society. The lectures are open to all members of the Dalhousie campus and surrounding community. When feasible, recordings of the lectures are posted here for wider circulation. For the full schedule, visit the Public Lecture page of our website.
Not Bound by Time: Book Production in the Seventeenth and Twenty-First Centuries
Lecture Details
Wednesday, February 25th, 2015 from 4:30pm-5:30pm
Dalhousie Art Gallery, Dalhousie Arts Centre, 6101 University Avenue *Co-sponsored by the Dalhousie Art Gallery
Abstract
Historian Dr. Stijn Van Rossem will begin this lecture by drawing on his research on the organization and operation of the printshop and bookshop of the Verdussen family in Antwerp in the seventeenth century. He will take us inside the Verdussen’s business, the Red Lion, to illustrate how this firm conducted its business over successive generations and through various typographical innovations in response to cultural, economic, and political change. Then, Andrew Steeves, designer and publisher at Gaspereau Press, in Kentville, Nova Scotia, will show how a small literary press of the twenty-first century has more in common with the Verdussens than well-established conventions and practices employed in today’s mainstream publishing trade. Together, Van Rossem and Steeves will demonstrate that innovation in a twenty-first century printing firm draws heavily on historic roots of four centuries earlier.
Biographies
Dr. Stijn Van Rossem is a book historian, graphic design professor, and exhibition curator. He graduated from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven with Masters degrees in History and Education, and in 2014, he completed his PhD in History at the Universiteit Antwerpen with a dissertation on the publishing strategies of the Verdussen family of printers in Antwerp from 1589-1689. Dr. Van Rossem has been a Visiting Professor at the School of Arts, Gent, Belgium, for several years where he teaches courses on the history and theory of graphic design. In addition, he is a Visiting Professor at the Plantin Typographic Institute in Antwerp and in 2013 he was the Director of the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts in Brussels. Dr. Van Rossem has spoken about his research at conferences, symposia, and workshops throughout Europe, the UK, the United States, and Mexico, and his papers have been published in several European and North American scholarly journals. In 2014, he chaired the international conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing held in Antwerp. Dr. Van Rossem was recently awarded a Fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, Rhode Island, which he is pursuing in 2015.
Andrew Steeves was born in Westmorland County, New Brunswick. After taking degrees in Criminology and English at the University of Ottawa, he moved to Wolfville, Nova Scotia, completing a Master’s degree in English at Acadia University in 1996 and publishing his first poetry book, Cutting the Devil’s Throat, in 1998. In 1997, he established Gaspereau Press with Gary Dunfield and immersed himself in the book arts—reading, writing, editing, designing, typesetting, printing, binding, marketing, selling and talking about books. His unique publishing philosophy and integrated editorial-design-production process are as culturally enriching as the books they foster and have helped establish Gaspereau Press as one of the most respected literary publishers in Canada. As a typographer, Steeves has won 42 national book design awards from the Alcuin Society. As an author, his most recent publication isSmoke Proofs: Essays on Literary Publishing, Printing and Typography (2014).