Campbell, Ken, 1939-2022, Ken Campbell archive, 1975 2003
- Call Number:
- MSS 25
- Creator:
- Campbell, Ken, 1939-2022
- Title(s):
- Ken Campbell archive
- Date:
- 1975 2003
- Extent:
- 30 linear feet
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Provenance:
- Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Ken Campbell
- Conditions Governing Access:
- This collection is unprocessed and may not be available for immediate access.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Archives Department.
- Biographical/Historical:
- Born in 1939, artist and poet Ken Campbell trained as a letterpress printer and then as a graphic designer in the early 1960s at the London College of Printing. Campbell has taught graphic design, typography, and the “visual display of language” at art schools in Britain, Canada and the United States since 1966, but the focus of his work has been artist's books since the mid-1970s. He believes that the turning point in his career came when he finished <title>Father’s Hook</title> (1977), a poetic tribute to his dock-working father. Ken Campbell writes, designs and prints his books by letterpress, with the occasional use of etching, embossing, hand work and, latterly, digital techniques. Campbell’s unconventional materials and methods contradict the traditional letterpress printing technique that Campbell employs to make his books. Pages are often run through the press multiple times, saturating the sheets with printer’s ink. His printing combines use of conventional type with printer’s ornaments, rules and borders, and materials such as wood, linoleum, and torn and cut pieces of metal. The effect of his work has been described as "darkness shot through with light." In his own words, he aims to “find the form of the book on the bed of the press during its making; while texts, images and procedures find appropriate dramatic weight in the improvised final work.” Since 1975 Ken Campbell has created two dozen artists' books. He has exhibited at numerous galleries and museums and in 2009 he was invited to speak about his work at the Library of Congress. Complete sets of Campbell's works are represented in the collections of the British Library, the Herzog-August Bibliothek, the Rare Books Division of the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and the Yale Center for British Art.
- Scope and Content:
- The collection spans the years 1975-2003 and reveals Ken Campbell's creative process throughout his career as a book artist. The bulk of the collection contains Ken Campbell's artist book materials and separate prints which relate to several of his books. Proofs, extra sheets, letterpress forms, zinc etching plates, photographs, negatives and dummies document Campbell's creative process. The collection also includes materials about Campbell's unpublished book <title>Dear Judas</title>. Also in the collection are photographic materials documenting the production and installation of two sculpture works, <title>Bibliophagy</title> and <title>A M O R O M A (I love Rome or the scent of love)</title>. Printed material includes exhibition catalogs, invitations, postcards and prospectuses, writings about Campbell or writings contributed in part by Campbell. Also of note are a collection of audio cassette tape recordings and the transcript from Campbell's interview with National Life Stories. Campbell's discussion of his life and work in this interview served as a foundation for an exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art, <title>The Word Returned</title>.
- Arrangement:
- The collection is arranged into six series: I. Artist Book Materials ; II. Sculpture Materials ; III. Separate Prints ; IV. Exhibition Materials ; V: Miscellaneous Printed Materials ; VI: Miscellaeous Correspondence. Parts of the collection vary in size and are stored separately, as noted in the finding aid.
- Genre:
- Interviews, Artists' books, Exhibitions, Artists' proofs, Audiocassettes, Book art , Book designers' mock-ups, Book objects , Digital prints, Etchings (prints), Exhibition catalogs, Forms (type composition equipment), Gelatin silver prints, Letterpress printing, Oral histories, Photographs, Photolithographs, Poems, Printing plates, Proofs (printed matter), Prospectuses, Sculpture (visual work) , Self-portraits, and Typography
- Subject Terms:
- ArtArtistsArtists' booksCriticismPoetry and the artsPoets, EnglishSculptorsSculpture, British
- Associated Places:
- Great Britain
- Associated People/Groups:
- Ackroyd, Norman, 1938-Beardsmore Gallery (London, England)Benveniste, AsaBrighton Polytechnic. GalleryBritish Library. National Sound ArchiveBuchhandlung Hugo FrickCampbell, Ken, 1939-2022Catling, B. (Brian)Chambers, David, 1930-Courtney, CathyCummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962Drucker, Johanna, 1952-Esteve-Coll, ElizabethFerguson, Joan P.S.Free Church of ScotlandGreenham, Peter, 1909-1992Herzog August BibliothekInner London Education AuthorityKing, David, 1943-MacLeod, MoragModern Art OxfordMuseum of Modern Art (Oxford, England)National Art Library (Great Britain)New York Public LibraryNorwich School of ArtNorwich School of Art. GalleryPetro, Pamela, 1960-Robinson, DuncanRodchenko, Aleksandr Mikhaĭlovich, 1891-1956Royal College of Physicians of EdinburghUniversity of Edinburgh. Department of Celtic and Scottish StudiesUniversity of Wales, Aberystwyth. Arts CentreVictoria and Albert MuseumWallrich, Lawrence Allen, 1929-1993
- Finding Aid Title:
- Ken Campbell archive
- Collection PDF:
- https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/14.pdf
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/resources/14
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/resources/14?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1