Kissy Kissy, Happy Valentine’s Day! – broadside, Glenn Goluska, c1978

Private press printers have always enjoyed commenting on the world around them – whether through political or religious tracts, or with a wry smile at how a day meant to celebrate love had turned into a large-scale commercial enterprise. Few were as clever – or as good – at it as Glenn Goluska.

Born and raised in Chicago, Goluska moved to Toronto in the early 1970s to attend the University of Toronto. He soon found work at Coach House Press, where he became a serious printer and designer. He later established two presses: The Nightshade Press for commercial work, and the imprimerie dromadaire for personal projects.

Combining an encyclopedic knowledge of type with an unerring sense of design, Goluska quickly produced some of the finest printing in the city – from trade books to postcards. Around 1990, he began commuting between Toronto and Montreal to work with the newly formed Canadian Centre for Architecture. Falling in love with Montreal, he eventually relocated there, bringing his presses, types, and Linotype machine with him.

Glenn Goluska died of cancer in 2011. In the course of his too-short life, he left behind one of the largest and most extraordinary collections of fine printing ever produced in Canada by a single individual. Before his death, Goluska bequeathed his Linotype and his vast collection of wood and metal type to master printer and typographer Andrew Steeves. – Rod McDonald

Artifact Text

Kissy Kissy. Happy Valentine’s Day!