The Natural Enemies of Books: A Messy History of Women and Typography takes the 1937 publication Bookmaking on the Distaff Side as its provocation, building a pointed feminist counter-history of women's labour and erasure within typography and the print trades.
About This Book
The print industry has long depended on women's labour while systematically obscuring their contributions. This volume, edited by feminist graphic design collective MMS, confronts that erasure head-on. Responding to the 1937 anthology Bookmaking on the Distaff Side, it assembles new essays, poetry, and first-hand conversations with former typesetters to construct a richer, more honest account of women in typography. The result is part historical recovery, part manifesto — essential reading for anyone invested in graphic design history, feminist publishing, and the politics of who gets credited in the history of the book.
Key Features
- 192 pages of new essays, poems, archival reprints, and oral history conversations
- Edited by Maryam Fanni, Matilda Flodmark, and Sara Kaaman (collective MMS); contributions by Kathleen Walkup, Ida Börjel, Jess Baines, and Ulla Wikander; conversations with Inger Humlesjö, Ingegärd Waaranperä, Gail Cartmail, and Megan Dobney
- Includes reprints from the original 1937 Bookmaking on the Distaff Side
- Published by Occasional Papers, 2022
What You'll Discover
- How women printers, typesetters, illustrators, and typographers shaped the print industry while remaining structurally marginalised within its histories
- First-hand accounts from former typesetters Inger Humlesjö, Ingegärd Waaranperä, Gail Cartmail, and Megan Dobney, preserving professional experience rarely documented
- New critical writing and poetry that expands on the original 1937 anthology's scope, updating its arguments for contemporary feminist design discourse
- The inequalities embedded in print production and how collective editorial practice can itself become an act of historical reclamation
About the Author
The book is edited by MMS — a feminist graphic design collective comprising Maryam Fanni, Matilda Flodmark, and Sara Kaaman. The collective's work engages with the intersections of typography, gender politics, and design history.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 192
- Dimensions: 110 x 190 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780956962300
- Publisher: Occasional Papers
- Publication Date: 2022
Perfect For: Graphic designers, typographers, and design historians with an interest in feminist publishing, the politics of labour attribution, and the overlooked contributions of women to print culture.