Claire Van Vliet is an artist, illustrator, and typographer. She was born in Ottawa and grew up in England near Stonehenge. By the time she reached 14 years of age both of her parents had died and she was raised by an aunt in California. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from San Diego State College and an MFA from Claremont Graduate School. She then spent several years between Europe and the U.S., learning hand typesetting and compositing and teaching drawing and printmaking.
In 1955 Van Vliet founded The Janus Press, named for the Roman god of beginnings, transitions, and endings and often thought of as a symbol of balance and equipoise. Janus publishes collaborative works by contemporary writers, papermakers, printmakers, and artists, including luminaries like Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, John le Carré, and many others. It has been based near Newark, Vermont, since Van Vliet settled there in 1966.
In 1989 Van Vliet was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” award for her contributions to typography and the book arts. In 1995 she was elected to the National Academy of Design.
Van Vliet has works in the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Woodmere Art Museum, the museum at RISD, the Bates University Museum of Art, the Museum at Drury University, and many other institutions.
