Julie Fawcus

Julie Fawcus: Recollections of Trianon Press

Photo: Julie Fawcus at the Chateau in Burgundy, 1985. Photo by Rita Bottoms

For the complete text of Julie Fawcus: Recollections of Trianon Press (Escholarship)

This volume documents the history of the press, founded in Paris in 1947; the genesis of its extraordinary facsimile productions of William Blake's illuminated works, and its wide range of fine press volumes. Julie Fawcus, the widow of Trianon's founder, Arnold Fawcus, discusses the details of the collotype and pochoir techniques which were used by French artisans to produce the facsimiles.

Fawcus's commentary includes chapters on Arnold Fawcus as "buccaneer publisher," and recollections of collaborations with Robert Graves, Marcel Duchamp, Aldous Huxley, and Ben Shahn. For students and researchers feasting their eyes on a Blake volume produced by Trianon, and who might wonder who these exquisite books came to be, Fawcus gives an insider's view of the struggles and enormous technical difficulties involved in their creation.