I left Warsaw, and a quick train-ride later arrived in Lodz, home of the Tryzno’s and their Book arts museum which they have been running since the 1980’s.
They are preparing to celebrate its birthday this October, which I hope to come back to attend. I spent the first week in an Airbnb nearby, as they had said that there wasn’t accommodation in the email. However, they did offer me to sleep on the sofa thing in one of the rooms. I felt like I had to live the true experience of the museums and so I chose not to continue the rental past the week.
The first week was mostly spent getting my footing, talking to the Tryznos, finding small ways to test out their equipment. I met several people coming in and out of the building, various film students, Master Bookbinders – hitting the vodka at 2 pm, yet working through the night. It was not the dusty basement operation I had expected. Well, it was, but it was so much more. I began working on a book I had wanted to make for a long time. The museum is currently undergoing renovations, so I tried to help/ keep out of the way. Kryzstof is the technical wizard technician. Last year they developed a way for a Monotype caster to run off a Raspberry Pi, which was pretty impressive. They were fixing some old Soviet radios when I was there, and I would wander in and ask their advice often throughout the project. They also had a thing for death metal which was amusing.
On the second week, I bit the bullet and moved into the Museum. I say bit the bullet because I am a chicken and I was sure that the place must be haunted. Luckily I had a dog friend with me. He was pretty old. One night I was working late and alone in the basement, and I kept hearing a repeating thud. It took me a while to realise it was the dog scratching himself and not the knocking of a spirit from times past. The house was owned by Henryk Grohman, who was a large cotton factory owner. Lodz was built on textiles, and the place is so reminiscent of Manchester it was incredible. So, the building in itself is a monument to this time, this industry. The upstairs holds one of the largest collections of Polish book arts and in the basement is the workshop.
During this time, I got to explore not only this incredible building but their collections of type.
This is where they store their Matrices. Which they acquired from the Warsaw Type Foundry. Like many Letterpress museums, the equipment has been pieced together and the many collective histories unknown. They worked previously to digitise the Brygada font. I used the experience to make a small book, it was inspired by the building and the industrial patterns. I integrated papers speakers and magnets and built an amplifier into the book. This was used to play sounds collected around the building. During my time I was able to ask Jadwiga Tryzno a few questions about how the museum began, how the publishing group ‘ Correspondence des Artistes’ ran, especially during censorship. She emailed me some further answers in Polish, which I will be translating and writing up for the final blog…
