Walter Samuel Haatoum Hamady (September 13, 1940-September 13, 2019) was an American bookdesigner, artist, and papermaker. He was born in Flint, Michigan to Lebanese Druze immigrant parents in 1940. He attended Wayne State University in Detriot, Michigan and received his BFA in 1964. He founded his own press, The Perishable Press Limited, in 1964, while still in undergrad. Hamady then attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art in nearby Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, for graduate school. He received his MFA in 1966. While Hamady was a student at Cranbrook, he launched the Shadwell Papermill, where he experimented with creating his own paper.
After completing his MFA, Hamady applied to Michigan State University where they recommended him to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was hired by UW-Madison in 1966, where he joined as a member of the art department teaching papermaking, bookbinding, and letterpress printing. While working at the University, Hamady relocated his private press and papermill to Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. He worked at the university for 30 years until his retirement from teaching in May 1996, at age 55. Hamady continued to run the Perishable Press Limited and Shadwell until his death in 2019.
Hamady displayed his works in various solo and group exhibitions, highlighting his efforts in collage, drawing, and assemblage, as well as his handmade books. Each element of the book was intentionally decided by Hamady, from the design of the cover to the material of the paper. Hamady's books were chosen as some of the best-designed books by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in their 50 Books of the Year exhibition. In total, he published approximately 131 volumes through The Perishable Press Limited.
