Artist Statement
Limited edition book work, copper-plate photogravure, inkjet and letterpress, pamphlet bound in softcover, 20.7 cm x 25.6 cm, 2010.
DIED is a pamphlet bound booklet that documents a detail from my visual impressions of a small Ontario cemetery, and the technical variations of print media used to print those impressions. The word “DIED” appears on most of the headstones in this cemetery. The erosion and weathering of the surfaces and letterforms were the catalyst for the embossment and repetition of the word within the book. The direct comparison of the time-consuming and complex process of traditional 4-colour copper plate photogravure with the instant output of digital inkjet is a technical commentary on permanence, process and labour that parallels the hand-carved letterforms on the headstones and their state of decay. The images from the headstones that reference hands and the book are also symbolically related to the production of this piece. These two specific prints are created using the traditional copper-plate photogravure process. I have gone so far as to create one of them by using four photogravure separation plates in perfect registration to print the first color image in the sequence. It is immediately followed by inkjet details of the word “DIED” on the headstones. The final black & white image is also copper-plate photogravure and as such represents the fading and death of a printing process near extinction.
This project was part of research into the hybridization and combination of both traditional print and graphic processes with digital and modern material processes. How does their combination in a piece affect the work or the perception and the ultimate meaning of the work?