The Thames and Hudson Manual of Screen Printing by Tim Mara, and: Screenprinting: History and Process by Donald Saff and Deli Sacilotto, and: The New Lithography: The Mylar Method Manifesto by Mauro Giuffreda (review)

Books 245 The Thamesand Hudson Manual of Screen Printing. Tim Mara. Thames & Hudson, London, 1979. 175 pp., illus. Paper. €3.95. Screenprinting: History and Process. Donald Saff and Deli Sacilotto. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, London, 1979. 158 pp., illus. Paper. €6.50. The New Lithography: The Mylar Method Manifesto. Mauro Giuffreda et al. Atelier North Star, Grafton, VT, U.S.A., 1980. 32 pp.. illus. Paper. Reviewed by Romas Viesulas* This Thames and Hudson Manual is a well organized and handsomely designed book, prepared with the well known thoroughness of Thames and Hudson manuals. It is meant for a rather widescopeof users-from practising artists, art teachers and students, to modest levels of craftsmen. Starting with a brief history and introductory information about screen printing, the manual continues with workshop layout, its basic needs, tools and materials necessaryfor printing, and proceeds to more complex issues of the medium. This isdone in great detail and in a good sequential order, beginning with simple manual stencilson screen and ending with highly technical advanced levels of screen printingphotographic stencils, muticolor printing problems and some less common uses of the screen. Photographic methods, using light-sensitive materials that harden when exposed to ultra-violet light, are of particular interest here, as this segment of the medium israpidly growing. Researchinto screenprinting in the last two decades has led the process through a highly complex development, resulting in great expansion of the uses of the process, development of the new machinery, meshes, films, and inks. Much of that is described here and is done with remarkable clarity. Information is abuhdant. For instance, just to mention some of the photographic methods would comprise quite a long list which would fascinate many average users of screen printing into trying out these methods: found objects, directly exposed to a light sensitised screen; hand-drawn, hand-printed or hand-cut positives on translucent surfaces; images on paraffin-soaked paper; uses of ortho or panchromatic films; autopositive film that results in a direct positive image; Autoscreen, creating automatic halftones; posterization or a photographic means for gradual reduction of the image in a tonal or multicolor printing; and a number of light-sensitiveemulsions, directly applicable to the screen, popularly known as ‘bichromates’ or ‘diazos’. Of course, there is a discussion oflight sources, color registration, filters and a myriad of other useful information that a printer may need, although some of it may be of marginal interest to some printers: vacuum-forming, flocking (dusting a fresh print with a loose fiber), printing on textiles, ceramics, glass, containers or food. There are chapters on inks and papers, workshop practices and health hazards. The information in this book is presented in a clear verbal and visual manner, often supplementing photographs with technical drawings. Color reproductions of contemporary prints show a refreshing choice and have detailed technical notes, explaining the process employed in them. Although the manual deals with a complete scope of the medium, in its overall balance of information it tends to emphasize advanced levels of screen printing and may possibly be of greater interest to those with some knowledge of the medium. In some instances the rudimentary information could use more attention. For instance, the manual explains types and properties of different mesh materials in great detail and offers a thorough chapter on mechanical screen stretching devices-from simple roller bar to pneumatic stretching appliancesbut explains screenstretching by hand all too briefly. Photographs here are not very informative and several drawings, so effectively used in other chapters, could have been of good use here. Mechanical devices will be used by some artists and most printers; however,at the beginner’s level, only few will have access to more complex equipment and will have to prepare a screen by hand. The proper stretching of mesh is fundamental to the process at any level. It is true that this information seems so basic that many practitioners of the medium may find it redundant to dwell on. But then, people with advanced skills do not need manuals. There is a good number of photographs, featuring equipment commercially available in the U.K. Besides the technical information *Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19126, U.S...