The passing of a great bookman, Janusz Paweł Tryzno

It is with deep regret and profound sadness that we inform you that Janusz Paweł Tryzno, the beating heart of the Book Art Museum in Łódź (Poland), passed away on 28th May.

He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend.

Janusz was a co-founder of the small book art press Correspondance des Arts in 1980, and also the founder of the Correspondance des Arts Foundation in 1990, which was responsible for establishing in 1993 the Book Art Museum in Łódź, Poland, which became an accredited member of the AEPM in 2012.

Janusz was a great book artist, and a passionate and celebrated expert in the mechanics of traditional typography and other bookmaking related domains.

In the mid 1990’s he financed and personally oversaw the preservation of Polish typography material heritage, saving from scrap an ensemble of about 150.000 historical type foundry matrices and punches, together with typecasting machines, many dating from the mid-19th century.

A restless man, skilled in the crafts of photography, papermaking, typecasting, letterpress, printmaking, and bookbinding, Janusz was generous with passion and knowledge, and in giving his time to others. The Book Art Museum remains his material legacy, an extraordinary place which he ran together with his wife Jadwiga and their son Paweł, for the great benefit of all those who ventured inside.

Janusz Tryzno was the recipient of several awards, including the Walter-Tiemann Preis, the Die Schönste Bücher Aus Aller Welt Bronze Medal, the Polish Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis, and the American Printing History Association Institutional Award, granted to the Book Art Museum.

The Book Art Museum