Fornax Publishers

Fornax is an independent, artisan publishing house based in Champagne,
in the tiny village of Bannes.
For twenty-six years, it also maintained a workshop in the Île-de-France region,
in the not-so-tiny village of Paris. It no longer does.

Workshop in Bannes.

● Fornax publishes nothing but literature — with or without original prints — according to the tastes and whims of Christian Laucou, who presides over its fortunes. These inclinations lead him, though by no means exclusively, towards contemporary literature and what he likes to call the literature of the interwar years (by which he means the period between 1870 and 1914).

● Christian Laucou is a traditional letterpress printer, working with metal type and a variety of traditional printing techniques. He designs all of Fornax's books and prints almost all of them himself. He also undertakes commercial letterpress printing and teaches the craft. Full details of these two activities can be found on his professional website: cls-typo.

● A discreet scribbler, he occasionally takes it into his head to write a little literature of his own. On such occasions, he goes by the name of Christian Soulignac or simply signs himself CLS, thereby keeping his literary pursuits separate from his publishing activities. He also maintains a more or less regularly updated blog devoted to typography, with a particular fondness for what might be called street typography. The latest posts can be found below.