gbetts

Whether you date the explosion of Canadian small press publishing from the The Sunset of Bon Echo (Bon Echo, Ont., 1916-20), le Nigog (Montreal, 1918), or the McGill Fortnightly Review (Montreal, 1925-27), or even earlier, by the 1960s the handmade chapbook, the mimeographed magazine, and the illustrated broadside had become common publishing venues in writing communities across Canada. These are the markers of the small press revolution that dramatically reorganized publishing in this country. The most significant impact was the establishment of an alternative to the hierarchical, sales-driven models of commercial literary publishing.

The twenty-one-year span of material in the CURVD H&z collection at McMaster University attests to the intensity and integrity of Canadian small press publishing as an avant-garde venture. CURVD H&z is published by John W. Curry, also known as jwcurry, and dates from his teenage years in Vancouver when experimental poets bpNichol and bill bissett were already well-established in their writing and publishing practice. They introduced curry to the potential of the small press world, but, from the first CURVD H&z publication in 1978, he developed their sense of playful discovery and eccentric eclecticism into a methodical and coherent publishing aesthetic.