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THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - Ib Kristensen is offering people a look back at what was once the foundation of printing.

Kristensen has provided samples of typography from his own career for a month-long exhibit at Fort Smith's Northern Life Museum.

Typography is the art or practice of printing; the process of setting and arranging types by hand and printing from them; and the style and appearance of printed matter.

The exhibit features posters and books, many of which Kristensen printed when he worked at McGill University in Montreal prior to 1971.

About half of the posters are his own, while the rest he collected.

"It's been stored away for 30 or more years," he said.

In Fort Smith, he printed only a few things, including posters for Wood Buffalo Frolics, Aurora College and the 1974 centennial celebration of Fort Smith.

Almost all of the items in the exhibit survived a 1973 fire which destroyed Kristensen's house in Fort Smith. One poster is blackened around the edges, while others have less visible smoke damage.

There are also a number of limited edition books in the exhibit.

One notable title is 'The Lawrence Lande Collection of Canadiana in the Redpath Library of McGill University."

Bound in goatskin from Africa, the book is a bibliography of a collection donated to McGill University in the early 1960s. The limited edition book took three years to complete and was hailed by one reviewer as the most beautiful book every produced in Canada.

"I would consider it the highlight," Kristensen said of the book's place in the exhibit.

Only 959 copies of the book were ever produced, and only 75 of them were bound in goatskin.

The museum exhibit also features the tools of a typographer.

Kristensen was trained as a typographer in his native Denmark just after the Second World War.

In all, he worked as a typographer from 1949 to 1971.

"Printing as I was trained to do virtually does not exist in North America anymore because of the computerized way of using graphics," he said. "It has now diminished to the point of being a hobby, and even then many or most of the people doing it have learned it in the early years."

Nowadays, he said people do typography at private presses which produce limited edition books. Some people design their own typefaces and make their own paper.

Kristensen believes the museum exhibit is the first of its kind in the NWT, adding it shows how a typographer works with type, images and colour.

Kristensen, 74, said he got the exhibit together because he is getting on in years.

"I want to see it for myself," he said. "I want to relive my past. It's very close to me, and I want to make sure it's preserved."

At the conclusion of the exhibit, most of the materials will be donated to the Alcuin Society in British Columbia. The society is dedicated to promoting appreciation of finely-made books.

However, there are some items, such as the goatskin-bound book, which Kristensen said he will keep for the rest of his life.

Kristensen and his late wife, Lillian, owned and operated North of 60 Bookstore in Fort Smith from 1975-2005, when he sold the store.

"I think I was satisfied in some ways if I was surrounded by books," he said. "It was like food to me."

The museum exhibit began Nov. 3 and will run to Nov. 28.

Kristensen will be at the museum from 1-3 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and from 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays, to talk to visitors about items in the exhibit.