Tough Love

The Book Arts Press is a small operation now run by the Rare Book School out of Charlottesville, Virginia. Originally founded by Terry Belanger at Columbia University, the BAP was the precursor to Rare Book School itself and provided a space in which to experiment with the history of printing and the book. Nowadays, The Book Arts Press only appears on publications that are generated by the school.

A longstanding tradition of the Press is to issue a keepsake poster on Valentine's Day that challenges its viewers with a sometimes hard-to-swallow adage. Here in Special Collections, for some reason, we have a number of these posters from the 1990s. Our personal favorite is, "The fact that yours is better than anyone else's is not a guarantee that it's any good." If you're not really one for Valentine's Day and prefer harsh truths to sweet nothings, then come to Special Collections and ask to see Presses B642fac (the posters are all housed together in the same portfolio).