We really appreciate our modern conveniences, but sometimes we like to romance the memories of vintage printing implements. You know, the kind you can’t carry everywhere, were composed of clackety metal parts, and required ink that smudged across your paper. Even if you’ve never used something like a typewriter before, the machines have a nostalgic allure few can resist. After spotting a metropolis made from printing press letters on Juxtapoz — which we’ve featured for you past the break — we felt inspired to search out other artworks that use vintage printing devices in amazing ways. Click through our gallery to see how a few typewriters and other tools have been reborn.
Image credit: Hong Seon Jang
Hong Seon Jang created Type City from a variety of metal printing press letters, erecting them like skyscrapers, mapping out an imaginary city that stretches six feet across a table.
Image credit: Jeremy Mayer
California artist Jeremy Mayer disassembles typewriters and reassembles them into incredible full-scale sculptures. His figures are all anatomically correct, every single part comes from a typewriter, and he does not solder, weld, or glue them together.
Image credit: Voila Gallery
This vintage printing press sculpture block can double as a weapon next time you feel frustrated with writer’s block. Ok, please don’t do anything crazy, but do enjoy the maze of metal letters and symbols inside a custom wood frame ready for hanging.
Image credit: gruntzooki
This typewriter sculpture spotted in the window of Westbourne Grove Gallery in London is teeming with miniature figures.
Image credit: Tracey Cockrell
Repurposing vintage typewriters as sound sculptures, artist Tracey Cockrell modeled her work after African thumb pianos, aiming to integrate poetry and music through the outdated machines.
Image credit: Paul Loughridge
Paul Loughridge’s recycled robot assemblages have a lot of personality. This one combines vintage typewriter parts with things like a mellon baller and a 1950’s moth trap.
Image credit: Luis Zimad Lamboy
Luis Zimad Lamboy’s custom painted Mondrian typewriter.
Image credit: KeysAndMemories
Vintage typewriter rings and things.
Image credit: Julie Giles
An insane, Naked Lunch-esque typewriter sculpture stacked sky-high in Cuba.
Image credit: Gabriel Dishaw
Gabriel Dishaw’s “upcycle” artworks transform metal and mechanical objects — many of which are now obsolete — into unlikely objects. His redesign of a Nike Air Max sneaker uses a vintage typewriter case, as well as motherboards, chipsets, electrical power connectors, and more.
Image credit: Gwen Delicious
Designer Gwen Delicious strings together vintage brass and wood printing press blocks to create necklaces. They’re straightforward, but unique.