Please note, Emdash Book Publishers of Victoria, British
Columbia is a traditional book publisher and is not
affiliated with Ken Botnick’s handmade book-as-art
prototypes produced under the name emdash press.
If you are one of the very few people in the world to be
lucky enough to know who Ken Botnick is, or even (gasp) own
one of his not-quite one-of-a-kind restricted-production
handmade book projects, please do not be confused by the
common source of our publishing names.
Botnick, professor of visual communications at Washington
University, publishes a small number of fine art handmade
editions under his Emdash Press imprint
— most notably 99 copies of In Defense of
the Book, by William H. Gass, in 2001
— as an extension of his craft and
academic portfolio, rather than as a commercial publishing
business.
Emdash Book Publishing of Victoria, British Columbia seeks
to reach somewhat broader audiences, printing quantities of
books appropriate to the vast North American market using
technologies of mass duplication (like offset printing)
that Botnick’s efforts eschew.
Emdash House holds Professor Botnick’s work in high
regard, but also knows that North Americans are far more
likely to acquire a copy of a mass published Emdash Books
title than to hunt down one of Professor Botnick’s
superlative fine art editions. For this reason
— and for the simple reason that the
emdash to which both of these book-making houses refer
predates us all
— we see little likelihood of confusion or
conflict in also claiming the Emdash name.
