Last year, Arion Press’s first King Artist-in-Residence, Vincent Valdez, spent six weeks at the press in San Francisco’s Presidio, creating more than 20 drawings for Kurt Vonnegut’s classic World War II book, "Slaughterhouse-Five."

Courtesy Arion Press. Photo by Shaun Roberts

Valdez describes the team at the press, who typeset, print and bind the books by hand as “the epitome of book nerds.” This year, those nerds celebrate half a century of pairing great literature by authors such as John Steinbeck, Herman Melville, and Virginia Woolf with great art from prestigious creators including Valdez, Kara Walker, and William T. Wiley.

Valdez reveled in working at the press and collaborating with the team. At their first meeting, he showed them a photo of his great uncle in World War II as well as a letter his uncle had written to Valdez’s grandfather while he was in Belgium at the Battle of the Bulge — the same battle Vonnegut and the novel’s protagonist fought.

“Like both of those characters, my great uncle Ernest was overrun four days later by the Germans and taken POW,” Valdez says. “The idea was to retell the story through a new lens, from a viewpoint of a Mexican American.”

The objects were the basis for the design of the book, Valdez says, and like other artists who have worked with Arion, he has nothing but superlatives for the team and their vision. Alison Saar, the artist for Arion’s most recent release, Octavia Butler’s "Kindred," calls her experience “delightful,” and says the book is like a piece of sculpture.

Kenturah Davis, who illustrated "Their Eyes Were Watching God," says she loves everything Arion does. “I’m into digital technology, but it's another thing to hold something,” she said. “I also just love what comes out of collaboration.”

Arion ordinarily produces three books a year, but due to getting ready to move to Fort Mason in October this year, they will print two — "Kindred" and "Aesop’s Fables," with many artists they’ve worked with before and updated morals from San Francisco’s Daniel Handler of Lemony Snicket fame.

Courtesy Arion Press. Photo by Shaun Roberts

Subscribers pay $2,400 a year for the books, or $10,000 for the 40-copy deluxe edition. Director Rolphe Blythe knows this can cause “sticker shock,” but he points out each book takes four months of labor and contains original art.

Although a hefty price for a book, it’s a wonderful deal for the art, Davis says. She was thrilled to buy an edition of Sappho’s poetry, illustrated by her favorite artist, Julie Mehretu. “Her drawings and paintings are in the six figures, so I'd never be able to get something like that,” she says. “But I can get this book, and know she had her hand in it."

The deluxe editions contain extras. While working on Edgar Allen Poe's "Fantasia," the team visited Virginia’s Poe Museum. They asked if there were any materials they could include and were directed to a pile of bricks that had once made up Poe’s Greenwich Village house. Ten of them were pulverized and mixed with pulp paper.

“We made terracotta cameos [of the writer] on the front of the deluxe editions,” Blyth said. “We always try and up the ante on each project.”

Valdez can attest to that. A metal cage, modeled on his grandfather’s World War II ammunitions case, houses "Slaughterhouse-Five."

Valdez credits Blake Riley, Arion’s lead printer and creative director, for that attention to detail. Riley has been at the press for more than 20 years, and he says his job can never be fully mastered.

“The possibilities are so elastic and great,” he says. “That was intriguing to become involved with something that you would never get to the bottom of.”

Riley looks forward to moving from an out-of-the-way area to a district with galleries, theaters, and restaurants. With about a million-and-a-half people visiting Fort Mason annually, the move means exponential growth, says Ted Gioia, Arion’s program and development director. Gioia jokes that Arion isn’t trying to be the Colonial Williamsburg of presses — but just wants to bring elegant books to life in a new way.

Rather than fading into genteel obscurity, interest in Arion has skyrocketed recently, he says, with more subscribers and outreach. Gioia says it may not be sexy to talk about fundraising, but Arion’s is notable, with the budget growing from $300,000 to $2.5 million since 2021. In that time, about 100 Arion events at places like San Francisco’s FOG Art Fair, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Drawing Club in New York, have reached 20,0000 people.

Gioia attributes this to Arion’s passion for its unique craft. “We're part of a larger cultural movement around handcrafted things,” he said. “People want a taste of the analog in this digital city.”

More information on Arion Press here. They will move from the Presidio to Fort Mason in October.

Main image:
Arion Press at Work: After pulling a galley proof of newly minted type, Brian Ferrett inspects a suspect letter. Courtesy Arion Press. Photo by Toni Bird.