Artist Statement

During my years as designer I frequented a commercial offset printer in my spare time. As designer I was already familiar with “make-readies”—the term given the test paper sheets which pressmen would refer to in order to establish “level's” of the 4 colors used in offset lithography. Once the levels met quality standards, and a client approval, the job on the press would be ready for its entire print run—which in many cases were thousands to tens of thousands of finished printed sheets.

The make ready sheets would be saved, lying in stacks among the presses. The process then repeated on the next project and so on. The resulting unintentional/accidental images, printed one atop of another, smothered with layers of ink from unrelated jobs—resulted in typography and images commingling in unexpected, and in many cases traditionally inharmonious ways. What I saw captivated me and became the inspiration and foundation for my visual exploration and creative pursuit beyond my day work.

I was fascinated with how layered lines of type became fragments, interacting with mostly unrecognizable images of ads, book plates, and other subjects. Unwittingly, this emerged as my visual language. I called this work “well-involved vacant structures,” after seeing a make ready fragment with words relating to fire fighting. “Well-involved” suggested the multitude of layered imagery, whereas “vacant structures” implied the abstract nature of mostly indecipherable messaging ephemera. The final name of the work changed to Make-Ready, Well-Involved Vacant Structures

Both sides of my education—degrees in art history, painting and drawing, and communication design, with decades of offset printing experience—now converged into something fresh and exhilarating. A doorway into the art world.

–Benj Čziller, Ojai CA