Anais Nin buys a press which is delivered to her studio at 144 Macdougal Street. She finds paper, buys type, borrows a book from the library on how to print. Gonzalo runs the press, and Anais cuts paper and sets the type, which takes an hour and a half for the first half page.
She says this is a "marvelous cure for anger and frustration," working independently, creating an individually perfect world. It no longer matters that the publishers insult and reject her. The work is challenging, so she forgets everything else, and wakes up with "eager curiosity" to get to the press and begin work on Winter of Artiface.
"We learned the hard way, by experience, without a teacher. Testing, inventing, seeking, struggling." Anais continues, "We dreamt, ate, talked, slept with the press. We ate sandwiches with the taste of ink, got ink in our hair and inside our nails."
"The relationship to handcraft is a beautiful one." Anais elaborates, "You pit your faculties against concrete problems. The victories are concrete, definable, touchable. A page of perfect printing. You can touch the page you wrote. We exult in what we master and discover. Instead of using one's energy in a void, against frustration, in anger against publishers, I use it on the press, type, paper, a source of energy. Solving problems, technical, mechanical problems. Which can be solved."
Anais is happy. The press gives her energy. She uses this energy to generate a tangible, visible result. She has failures; she makes discoveries; she has triumphs. It is not frustrating, but it is a cure for frustration because the problems she encounters can be solved. That is key.
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