Mary Laird

Mary Laird is one of those printers whose love of craft dominate their work. She makes her own paper, binds books, paints, hand-planes wooden covers, writes poetry, and prints (Laird 100, 104). Because her work style is “slow and ornery,” she doesn’t print many books (96, 99); in fact, there were only seven copies of her book Remember the Light (“Remember the Light”). Her limited production leads me to think that her purpose in bookmaking is not to disseminate the content of her books—the poetry and artwork. Rather, she labours over the creation of a few exquisite objects for the love of the process (100).

Mary Laird’s Remember the Light (2007). A collection of Laird’s poetry and prints incorporating several mediums and methods including letterpress, relief-roll etchings, wooden-board bindings, and drop-spine boxes (Photos from Laird’s website: maryrisalalaird.com/portfolio_page/remember-the-light/) (“Remember the Light”).

Laird’s love of the craft is evident in her engagement with the techniques of fine printing. In her work, she combines heritage processes—including papermaking, printing, and book-binding—with her designs. Remember the Light, for example, is bound between two wooden covers, based on an eighth century model (106). Laird relates that, while hand-planing these covers, she thought of her grandfather who use to make cabinets (104). Her mother, too, makes appearances in her artwork; there is a portrait of her in Remember the Light (“Mary Laird…”). Her love of the craft in bookmaking is related to her love for her relatives and ancestors.

Laird says in her interview with Schlesinger that she was always looking for “vastness, space” in her work (99). Her use of fine printing techniques gives her more spaces in which to create. The covers, the paper, the binding—each of these aspects is a choice Laird makes and a space she fills with her creativity. For Eggplant Skin Pants, for example,she chose the paper—Hosho—because its transparency and the resulting shadows from the images interested her (100). And for Remember the Light,she made drop-spine boxes with ostrich and goatskin covers and inserted a little copper medallion into each. Even the books’ containers are a medium for creativity (“Remember the Light”) (“Mary Laird…”).

Laird exhibits a deep appreciation for the craft of printing and bookmaking in her work. Bookmaking is to her “slow and enjoyable” (107). Her books are a conglomeration of skills and processes, from sewing and letterpress to photocopying and bookbinding. She prints and produces books because she loves the process of creation. Laird’s affection for the various crafts she employs in bookmaking is evident in the final products, which are beautiful, unified works of poetry, images, paper, and binding.

Works Cited

Laird, Mary. “Mary Laird: Quelquefois Press and The Perishable Press Limited.” A Poetics of the Press: Interviews with Poets, Printers, & Publishers, By Kyle Schlesinger, Cuneiform Press and Ugly Duckling Presse, 2021, pp. 96-107.

“Mary Laird Quelquefois Press 40 Years of Printing, Painting, and Poetry.” YouTube, uploaded by John Malork – Art History, 18 July 2017, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAFXrRyrPjQ.

“Remember the Light.” Mary Risala Laird & Quelquefois Press. Mary Laird and Quelquefois Press, 2021, maryrisalalaird.com/portfolio_page/remember-the-light/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2021.