Jim Sherraden - 28 Mouths of Hatch Monoprint

Size: 28.5" x 12.5"

Jim Sherraden walked into Hatch Show Print in 1984 and didn't walk out for 34 years. In that period he and his staff oversaw the shop's transition from a cultural survivor, and technological curiosity, into the world renowned icon of American design and destination for letterpress enthusiasts that it is today.

In the 1990s, Sherraden began a body of work, "monoprints," that are contemporary interpretations of the shop’s vast collection of advertising woodblocks, sometimes combined with movable type.

Always impressed with "the delicate nature by which Mr. Hatch designed the eyes of all the entertainers," Sherraden decided to celebrate these features by re-carving and printing a considerable number of them, building collages that organized all of the focused prints into fields of "Hatch Eyes." Those led to the next obvious feature, the "Hatch Mouths," and finally, the "Shoes of Hatch." All of the printing blocks were carved from linoleum or Japanese Shina plywood.