Claire Van Vliet founded The Janus Press in California in 1955. Since 1966, it has been based in Vermont. The press primarily publishes contemporary writers in collaboration with papermakers and printmakers.

In 1989, Claire was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship for a five year period for her innovations in approaches to the book. In 1993 she was given an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

In 2002, the Janus, Steiner, and Gefn Presses published Claire's and Elizabeth Steiner's book, Woven and Interlocking Book Structures.