The Show's ANALOGS series is about people who make things by hand — and what those things tell us about those people.
Angie Dell's letter press machine stands in the corner of a workshop in downtown Phoenix. The press is about 3.5 feet tall, and it's an elegant combination of levers, cranks and wheels. The press is flanked by a pair of windows because Dell likes working in sunlight. There's no outlet in this particular corner of the workshop, but that's not a problem because the press doesn't need to be plugged in.
"This press is from 1911, so it's over 100 years old, and they just don't make them like they used to," Dell said.
"Yeah, and I'm just looking at it, I mean, it's all like wood and really heavy, I don't know, is that steel or iron," said Show host Sam Dingman.
"Iron, yeah, yeah, I had to use a forklift to bring it into the space cause it can't, it cannot be moved. It is super heavy," Dell said.
To run the letter press, Dell has to practically climb on board the thing.
"These are foot pedals here, if I'm not mistaken," Dingman said.
"Yes, this is an operating foot pedal. This is the brake," Dell said.
Printing this way is a full body process. First, Dell squeezes a spiral pattern of ink onto a large metal plate. Dell's feet, meanwhile, start working the pedals, which makes the wheels start to spin. If you squint, it's almost like Dell's riding a unicycle that doesn't move. As the wheels turn, a pair of rollers start sliding back and forth across the ink spiral, gradually coating the circular plate with a thick layer of ink.
"And the ink disc turns a little bit every time the rollers come up and down, as you can see, it actually has a process for moving it," Dell said. "So it's a really beautiful. I love watching the ink get dispersed over the disc because it always creates a different pattern every time."
"And you're doing this all with the foot pedal," Dingman said.
"Yes, we'll use this large wheel with your hand here just to get a little bit of momentum to get these heavy pieces moving. And then, with your foot, it can take a little getting used to for people who are new to it," Dell said. "You start to learn the rhythm of the press and how much pressure it needs in order to keep moving fluidly."
You can probably hear the physical effort in Dell's voice. The sheer amount of energy it takes just to get this letter press going is intense, and that's all before you print a single word. Dell doesn't mind though.
"I love being able to manipulate the machine with my body instead of just pressing a button. It makes me feel a little bit more connected," Dell said. "It helps me think more clearly, you know, take it out of the realm of the brain into the full body."
Dell uses the letter press to make books, soup to nuts. Dell writes the words, then prints those words on paper using the letter press, and then binds the whole thing together.
"My way of thinking about writing has completely changed because of my passion for book arts now. And when I started off, I would always come in with a piece of writing and I'd be like, 'OK, like how can I make this into a book? How can that work?' And nowadays I think I'm often thinking more about form and the way that the book can enhance the text," Dell said.
A long time ago, Dell wanted to be a regular novelist, but not anymore. Bookmaking is a way for Dell to tell more of the story.
"It does make me feel more connected to it because I grew up really struggling when I was younger with depression. And I've just found over time, if I'm sitting still, if I'm looking at a computer, if I'm looking at a screen, that's what gets me sort of, like, caught up too much in my own head and tunneling into, I think, a heaviness. I think I was writing a lot of dramatic or heavy things as a writer and I had a harder time figuring out how to be joyful as a writer," Dell said.
"For me, the physical process is what brings me joy. There's something deeply connected with our sensory body experience that stimulates our brain in a different way. So if I'm going to be spending all day or staying up late at night finishing a project, I would much rather be doing something that makes me feel alive and makes me feel awake than something where I'm just kind of sinking further and further into my psyche, if that makes any sense," Dell said.
On the day Dingman visited the workshop, Dell had just started working on a new project.
"I'm working on a book right now that's like, it's a small book that's about American obsession with grassy lawns and how, I grew up in the Midwest, when I get back and I get to like feel the grass in my hands in Wisconsin, it really, really makes me emotional. So I became interested in being like, 'OK, so what is that for people, like why are we so obsessed with having a lawn,' and a lot of it for me came back to smell," Dell said.
"I know that a little bit about how our sense of smell works and how it's so closely associated and located in the brain to our emotional receptors and our memory. And so that is why going back to Wisconsin, like I'm just walking around smelling everything because I don't have a good memory and so it's hard for me to remember childhood, unless I'm like experiencing the senses," Dell said.
As a writer, Dell had always struggled with how to write about smell. So for this project, instead of trying to describe smell, the book itself will be a vessel for smell. In addition to the book, Dell is making an envelope for the book, and the envelope will be scented to smell like a freshly cut lawn.
"So that hopefully, you know, at least for those buying a book and then opening it right away, they will be able to receive that scent of grass. It won't last for a long time, I don't think, but I think it'll be a really cool experience," Dell said.
"So you're facing this challenge that many writers have faced, which is not even just, “how do I write about smell, but how do I write about childhood, you know, how do I write about this feeling?” And for most writers, they just have to sit there and wrestle with the words and try to get as close as they can and you have found your way to this process where, through not just the writing of the words, but also the making of the receptacle for the words and putting more of your senses into the process of trying to capture this thing, you can get so much closer to expressing this thing. But, you still can't totally get there," Dingman said.
"No, can you ever, in any medium? I don't know. For me, it's the way that I'm able to access things that are otherwise locked away in my brain. And I do think that it's important that we engage all of our senses, just for the sake of our memories for the sake of happiness in life and I wanna see what could be done with the book in that way," Dell said.
"Yeah, even if you can't get all the way there, why not get as close as you can?" Dingman said.
"Yeah, I mean, how do we get the rest of the way? I don't know, edible books or something, that would be fun to do at some point, yeah," Dell said.
