Risograph Reproduction of Carolee Schneeman's "Parts of a Body House" 2019-2020

Stakeholder: Women's Studio Workshop, Carolee Schneeman
Role: Production Artist, Risograph Press Operator @ Oddities Prints

In close collaboration with the original artist Carolee Schneeman, Women's Studio Workshop reached out to my team at Oddities Prints to reproduce her book Parts of a Body House Book originally published in 1972. The original book was produced by Carolee using a combination of mimeograph printing, hand drawing and painting, stamping and printmaking, and mixed media collage.

The bulk of the book, its mimeographed pages, were scanned and sent to me at Oddities Prints to be processed and reproduced through risograph. The risograph uses very similar technology to the mimeograph: A black and white image is processed by the risograph and burned onto a thin photo-sensitive film clipped to a mesh drum containing an ink cartridge. As paper moves through the printer, the drum rotates and imprints the image onto the stock. The characteristic artifacts of mimeograph printing are also largely present in risograph prints. As such, risograph was the most fitting process to reproducing these original images.

As lead risograph printer and production artist at Oddities Prints, I was responsible for processing the color scans from Carolee's first edition artist copy. This process involved converting individual ink colors into separated black and white positives, removing hand-drawn components, adding bleed and crop marks, and extensive press checks to correct tones to match original imagery. The most challenging process involved creating color layers from pages with overprint purple and black inks, as these colors are tonally similar and required fine-tuned editing to isolate tones and reproduce the pages' original overprinting and texture. The final pages were printed by myself and press assistant Katie Crosette at Oddities Prints.

After we completed printing, the loose page editions were sent back to WSW to trim and assemble. Carolee's team (and her cat) faithfully reproduced the hand-made elements of the book as Carolee advised the project until the time of her death in 2019. The final project combined the risograph print productions with mixed-media and photo collaged elements. The project was a labor of love that maintained the look and spirit of the original work.

Please view the project on WSW's website for more information and detailed shots from the book's production!