Making Your Own Press: Printing a Pagan Bohemia in Sussex

Making Your Own Press: Printing a Pagan Bohemia in Sussex

A Vine Press Workshop and Panel Event Inspired by 1920s Zine-Making

In 1920s Sussex, the poet, publisher and occultist Victor B. Neuburg set up a hand-cranked printing press and used it to create a new artistic network. By publishing books of poetry, prose and things in-between, Neuburg built a web that caught the educated and self-taught; the talented and having-a-go, as they documented Sussex culture and the strange rural-Bohemian life of the moment.

In this event marking a century of Neuburg's work, artists, writers and academics will use Vine Press as a jumping-off point to look at how Neuburg's work as a publisher took shape, as well as the way our own zine culture borrows from the likes of Vine Press – knowingly or not.

Contributors include: Caroline Neuburg, Victor's granddaughter, on his life and occult practice; Justin Hopper, writer, on the Vine Press; Rachel Poulton, photographer, on her zine about Sussex legend landscapes, Unseen; Bethan Stevens, on woodcuts and wood engravings; Laura Kounine, on witchcraft; Harriet Rose, on zine-making; Hope Wolf, on the relationship between Vine Press and modernism in Sussex; Margaretta Jolly on Sussex folk histories.

The event is in two parts: a workshop with the printing press, where there will be a chance to print with original Vine Press wood blocks on a period printing press! The second part will be an event in which contributors will respond to Vine Press or share their thoughts on zine-making.

Please note: Print workshop places are very limited due to the small space and are now full but please write to h.wolf@sussex.ac.uk to register your interest/be placed on a waiting list (it may be possible to drop into the final part of the workshop). Please sign up for the panel event on this page - there are more spaces for this event.

Panel Event: Arts A 108, 2:00-5:30.

This will involve talks from Caroline Neuburg, Justin Hopper, Rachel Poulton, Bethan Stevens, Laura Kounine, Harriet Rose, Hope Wolf and Margaretta Jolly. Refreshments will be provided.

Schedule:

2:00-2:10: Introduction, Hope Wolf
2:10-2:45 Justin Hopper
2:45-3:00 Questions
3:00-3:20 Caroline Neuburg
3:20-3:30 Questions
3:30-4:00 Break with refreshments
4:00-4:20 Rachel Poulton
4:20-4:30 Questions
4:30-5:00 Bethan Stevens, Harriet Rose, Laura Kounine
5:00-5:15 Questions
5:15- 5:30 Conclusion/Response, Margaretta Jolly

Directions:

Find Arts A on the campus map (the room number is 108). 

See how to get to the campus.

Please write to h.wolf@sussex.ac.uk with any questions

This event has been organised by the Centre for Modernist Studies at the University of Sussex in connection with its ‘artist in the archives’ project. Justin Hopper, author of Obsolete Spells: Poems & Prose from Victor Neuburg & the Vine Press 1920-1930, is the ‘artist in the archives’ for 2024, and he has been leading on this Vine Press event. We will be making a zine involving contributions from event participants after 20th May.