Peter Rutledge Koch, designer printer, publisher, artist, and writer, founded Montana Gothic: A Journal of Poetry, Literature & Graphics, Black Stone Press, and a letterpress printing office in Missoula, Montana in1974. In 1979 he served an apprenticeship with the book designer Adrian Wilson at his renowned Press in Tuscany Alley in San Francisco. Since the dissolution of Black Stone Press in 1983 he has published under numerous imprints named to suit different facets of his work: Peter Koch, Printers; Hormone Derange Editions; and Editions Koch. In 2005 he and his wife Susan Filter created the CODEX Foundation to preserve and promote the arts of the book and is currently director of the CODEX International Book Fair and Symposium. From 1991 to 2011 he taught “The Hand Printed Book in its Historical Context” a practicum and historical survey of the book as a work of art at University of California Berkeley and The Bancroft Library.
Koch’s essays on the book as art and artifact have appeared in Book Art Object volumes 1 and 2, and in the CODE(X)+1 monograph series. In 2017, and in conjunction with his retrospective exhibition, Stanford University Libraries published Koch’s three volume catalogue raisonné: Peter Koch Printer, (1974-2016) A descriptive Bibliography. Previously, his books and artworks have been the subject of solo exhibitions at The New York Public Library, The San Francisco Public Library, The Widener Library at Harvard University, The Yellowstone Art Museum, The Missoula Art Museum, and The University of Montana Art Museum.
The Black Stone Press archives (1974-1982) are housed at the University of Delaware Library Archives and Special Collections. The archives of Peter Koch Printer 1982-2016 are housed at Stanford University Library. A nearly complete catalogue of his evolving work may be seen on his website www.peterkochprinters.com.
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