a somewhat uncanny resemblance

Interestingly Roy Behrens, an art professor at University of Northern Iowa, has recently posted a well-written piece titled, The Gift of Gabberjabbs, Walter Hamady and The Perishable Press Limited. Behrens actually wrote and published the article in the January-February 1997 issue of Print magazine. The image above is of the title page spread from “John’s Apples,” Perishable Press Book No. 125 (1995). © The Perishable Press Limited. Used with permission.


In the article, Roy writes: “John Wilde and [Walter] Hamady collaborated again in 1995, in a book for both adults and children (‘especially those of well-to-do-graphic designers’) titled John’s Apples, which centered on twelve poems about apples by Reeve Lindbergh).”


© David Versluis
Urban Edge, 1998
Collage/Photostat/Opaque white


The design of the spread is reminiscent of a work I initially did in 1987 and revised in 1998 titled “Urban Edge” (revisions were made over the years). Similar in both composition and typographic college design, I was struck by the somewhat uncanny resemblance. The fact that Hamady’s book is letterpress makes it exceptional. “Urban Edge.” is just a sliced and diced Photostat.