By: George Wietor
Chicago: Temporary Services, December 2014
Pages: 24 
Format: fixed-layout ePub

Temporary Services booklet #112!

So much of what we understand about Risograph duplicators is the result of countless email exchanges with George Wietor of Issue Press. It was great fun to work with George on this booklet. He came down to Chicago from Grand Rapids, Michigan and we banged out the entire booklet on our RISO EZ390U in just a day of printing.

For Past Lives, George unpacks the history of RISOGRAPH duplicators in a short introduction and then delves into traces of how the machines have been used. RISOs create a film or "master" for each copy made and if you buy a used machine, or a used ink drum, it's common to find an old master from the last print job still sitting in the machine. The contents of these masters on the print drums often say something about the past life of the machine, which may have come from a church, a school, a library, or some reseller's repair shop where a complex test pattern was the last thing printed before the unit was refurbished and resold. This booklet presents evidence from the past lives of machines used by Issue Press and other artist presses, including Temporary Services. 

This booklet was made as a part of the Temporary Services initiative Publishing Clearing House.