Join Vancouver-based artist Marlene Yuen for a letterpress printing demonstration and artist talk streamed live over Zoom from WePress, a community artspace in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Collective member Linda Uyehara Hoffman will also be speaking about the history of WePress Community Arts Space Society and the Ho Sun Hing Letterpress Project. A selection of Marlene’s handmade books will be on display at Griffin Art Projects as part of Whose Chinatown? Examining Chinatown Gazes in Art, Archives, and Collections, including Ho Sun Hing Printers, a recent letterpress and risograph book about Canada’s first Chinese-English print shop. Founded by Lam Lat Tong in 1908, Ho Sun Hing Printers remained in operation for over one hundred years before officially closing their doors in 2014. For this book project, Marlene accessed WePress’s Chinese letterpress blocks to retell the story of the Lam family’s business.

Marlene Yuen is a Vancouver-based artist who received her bachelor’s of studio arts in 1998 from the University of British Columbia. She has exhibited at galleries, artist-run centres, and cultural events in Canada, United States, UK, Belgium, and Japan. Her main focus is on handmade books using printmaking processes; her books have been retained in special collections nationally and internationally. In 2009 she completed a winter letterpress residency at Penland School of Crafts with master printer, Robert Walp of Chestercreek Press. Her current subject matters deal with Chinese Canadian labour history and preservation of Vancouver’s historic Chinatown.

Registration link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qei2uQv0QH2XSkPfEjayfQ