EXHIBIT: Introduction | On Drawing | On Printing
by Jessica Duffin Wolfe
Gilks, Thomas. A Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Wood-Engraving. London: A. N. Myers, 1868. 16.5 cm x 13.5 cm x 1 cm. Smith, John. The Printer's Grammar. London: L. Wayland, 1787. 20 cm x 13.25 cm x 2.8 cm. Hullmandel, Charles Joseph. The Art of Drawing on Stone. London: Ackermann, 1833. 25.5 cm x 17.8 cm x 2 cm. Senefelder, Alois. A Complete Course of Lithography: Containing Clear and Explicit Instructions in all the Different Branches and Manners of that Art. London: R. Ackermann, 1819. 27 cm x 22 cm x 4 cm. Anon. Wood Engraving. London: James Adam, s.n., after 1840. 22 cm x 14 cm x 2.5 cm. Palmer, E. Illustrations of Electrotype. London: Longman, 1841. 27 cm x 21.5 cm x 0.5 cm. Raucourt, Antoine. A Manual of Lithography: Clearly Explaining the Whole Art, and the Accidents That May Happen in Printing, with the Different Methods of Avoiding Them. Tr. Charles Joseph Hullmandel. Third edition. London: Longman, 1832. 23 cm x 14.5 cm x 1.5 cm. Farquhar, H. D. The Grammar of Photo-Engraving. London: Dawbarn & Ward, 1895. 23.5 cm x 15.5 cm x 1.5 cm. Zander, C. G. Photo-Trichromatic Printing: In Theory and Practice. Leicester: Raithby, 1896. 22 cm x 16 cm x 1 cm. Dobson, Margaret Stirling. Block-Cutting and Print-Making by Hand: From Wood, Linoleum and Other Media. London: Sir Isaac Pitman, 1930. 24.5 cm x 17 cm x 2.5 cm.
Anon. Wood Engraving. London: James Adam, s.n., after 1840. 22 cm x 14 cm x 2.5 cm.
ON PRINTING
Wood-engraving, etching, and lead-
casting are just a few of the printing techniques that brought hand-drawn images to multiple viewers before and beyond the advent of modern photo-reproduction. Lithography, for example, pushed a kind of DIY-revolution in visual culture after its 1796 invention by Alois Senefelder. For the first time, artists could draw directly onto printing surfaces, leading to massive innovation.
  Later techniques, such as electrotype and photo-engraving, often pushed the human hand farther away from reproduced images. In the most recent book in this exhibit, Block-Cutting and Print-Making by Hand (1930), nostalgia for antique methods and a bourgeois love of personal craft return the hand to the printed picture.

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