‘What’s the story behind…’ (or WTSB because who doesn’t love an acronym) is a series about the connections between print and community history. We will be sharing stories from our research about printing history whether in Norwich or further afield, but usually with a local twist. If you would like to contribute, please feel free to get in touch.
Language check: In this article, you will find the term ‘queer’ used to describe anyone who broadly defines as non-heterosexual, following the liberatory reclamation of the term by the LGBTQIA+ community. We understand that there may be some discomfort amongst our readers given that it has historically been used as a slur for the community.
Picture this scenario: it’s the 1990s and you’re a woman loving woman who wants to meet other people like you. What would you do?
Hopefully you might have seen one of these flyers! With an illustration of the iconic Greta Garbo, it would have definitely made an impression.
Source: Lesbian line flyer, credit to Norwich Queer archive; Jojo Foster and Lucy Ashby (Women on Women)
The particular flyer was co-designed by Rhea Anthony, a founding member of Women on Women (WoW) who sadly passed away in 2012. Thanks to the amazing curators of Norfolk Queer archive, we know that most of the Lesbian Line and WoW printing was done at Norwich Arts Centre, Women’s Health Information Service (WHIS), and the Greenhouse. Rhea, who volunteered at the Arts Center, had a Mac in the 90s and did lots of design work for WoW, according to findings by Adam Baker, a curator at the Norfolk Queer archive.
It can’t always have been easy to get printing done for LGBTQIA+ services, particularly in a time when fear and ignorance around the AIDS/HIV crisis were rampant across all levels of society. There was even a ban on the ‘promotion’ of gay groups by local print media and TV stations! Nonetheless, there are lots of examples of printing done for LGBTQIA+ community groups, such as the 1991 poster for the Norfolk Friend (below left) and a 1994 Gay and Lesbian Guide to Norwich (below right) produced by SHOUT! magazine in association with Norwich Gay Men’s Health Project (NGMHP).
Much has improved since then, with companies like Anglia Print supporting Norwich Pride and queer print creatives taking pride of place at events like Queer Fest Norwich.
What else can we know about the flyer? Our resident expert, Paul Nash is here to tell us…
“The lettering is interesting. It is now a digital font called Artdeco MN, which is very popular for signage (despite being hard to read in some characters, especially the ‘P’ and ‘R’ which both look like ‘D’), but in the early 1990s, when I guess this flyer was made, it was only available as rub-down lettering, made by the French firm Mecanorma.
So the artwork for this flyer was probably put together in that way, with a photo of Garbo beside lettering rubbed-down from a Mecanorma sheet.
Now, one question that remains is exactly how it was printed – if you get a chance to see the original, the quality of the printing could tell you whether it was printed lithographically or xerographically.”
Thank you Paul!
If you would like to learn more about the Paul’s research into the history of print, click on the link below:
The Breakdown
Where was it made?
It was probably printed at Norwich Arts Centre with the Womens Health Information Service (WHIS) or at The Greenhouse, which used to have printing facilities.
The WHIS authority also printed a lot of the Lesbian Line’s sexual health-related materials.
Who did the design?
Rhea Anthony and a colleague called Edith are accredited with the design.
How was it made?
The flyer could have been printed using offset lithography, especially as xerography always has something of the quality of a photocopy, especially in the greys.
Where can I find out more about the Lesbian Line?
You can read recollections from the founders themselves as well as explore Women on Women tagged collection items from the archives. Perhaps you’d be interested in the recently published ‘Thank you for calling the Lesbian Line‘ by Elizabeth Lovatt.
What next?
If you would be interested in helping preserve LGBTQIA+ histories, why not get in touch to Queer Norfolk archives and find out how you can get involved.
do you have a story to tell?
The story of queer printing is an important part of Norwich’s rich print history so we would love to hear from people who were part of any of the organisations mentioned in the article – were more flyers printed? How were they designed? Let us know!