HISTORY IN SMALL PLACES-Nancy Sharon Collins Exhibit at Abingdon 12

I urge you to check out this very interesting exhibit, opening tomorrow at Abingdon 12 Gallery in the West Village. Nancy Sharon Collins is a stationer, educator, education director of AIGA New Orleans, Visiting Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Loyola University, and appreciator and preserver of the lost art of engraving, monograms, and fine typography.

After hurricane Katrina hit, Nancy Collins and her husband went on a rescue mission. She had heard of a specialty printer in New Orleans who had been flooded by the storms. His facility took five feet of water and he was forced to close it. Three-quarters of the business had been letterpress, and eventually most of it would be sold for scrap. They were able to save about three-hundred commercially engraved copper plates. These are now in the permanent collection of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies, Southeastern Louisiana University Archives and Special Collections, in Hammond, Louisiana. In November 2006, they were able to recover the half-inch thick steel dies, some of which are over a hundred years old.

The show, opening tomorrow at Abingdon 12, in NYC, shows archival prints of some of these saved historical artifacts.

HISTORY IN SMALL PLACES
A Solo Exhibition of Large Format Archival Pigment Prints
By Nancy Sharon Collins

April 24–May 24, 2008
Abingdon 12 Gallery
Opening reception Thursday, April 25, 6 pm to 9 pm
Viewing by appointment only April 26 —may 9.
212 206 6845
917 392 1417
613 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014

www.nancysharoncollinsstationer.com