The City is my Religion is a project three years in the making and serves as a memoir, a type specimen and a love letter to the city of Chicago, my adopted home for the last 25 years.

The substantial metal type collection at Starshaped Press is constantly growing and evolving alongside my life experiences that are deeply rooted in Chicago. The urban environment is the backdrop for this typographic memoir that showcases the studio’s type collection and serves as a pictorial representation of the first 25 years of my life in the city. My 2017-18 fellowship at The Newberry Library provided research support for the project and my day to day movement through the city was the guiding force and inspiration.

Ten prints, or ELEVATIONS, cover the themes of printing, women, labor, music, neighborhoods, architecture, motherhood and perseverance. Each tells a story in image and anecdote while featuring a grouping of typefaces based on my approach to the subject. Ten CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS designed to resemble traditional architectural bluelines explain and document the text and typography of the prints.

PRINTED IN AN EDITION OF 40
Ten 17x11” letterpress prints & ten 17x11” offset printed bluelines
printed on Mohawk Superfine Cover & Text
Two archival folders contain prints and bluelines and are housed within a clamshell box

A few of the remaining prints are available for individual purchase here.

See more images here.
The first of four blog posts about the project can be read here.