Perspectives on Contemporary Printmaking - by Ruth Pelzer-Montada (Paperback)

About the Book

The anthology provides a critical topography of printmaking since the mid-1980s. Its texts, by well-known authors as well as 'insiders', span different formats and critical and theoretical approaches.

Book Synopsis

This anthology, the first of its kind, presents thirty-two texts on contemporary prints and printmaking written from the mid-1980s to the present by authors from across the world. The texts range from history and criticism to creative writing. More than a general survey, they provide a critical topography of artistic printmaking during the period. The book is directed at an audience of international stakeholders in the field of contemporary print, printmaking and printmedia, including art students, practising artists, museum curators, critics, educationalists, print publishers and print scholars. It expands debate in the field and will act as a starting point for further research.

From the Back Cover

This unique anthology presents thirty-two texts on contemporary prints and printmaking written from the mid-1980s to the present. The essays range from academic art history to popular art criticism and creative writing; taken together, they form a critical topography of printmaking today.

The book's four sections provide:

- A genealogy of printmaking and print culture
- A sample of debates on contemporary printmaking, beginning with Ruth Weisberg's influential 'The syntax of print' (1986)
- A range of critical terms and themes
- Examples of some of the major spheres of print activity, such as production, collecting, dissemination, education and research

Drawing on a cast of distinguished scholars, artists and curators, the book makes available a selection of widely dispersed and difficult-to-find texts. This includes extracts from works not yet available in English, such as Die Welt als T-Shirt (1997) by Beat Wyss and La Ressemblance par contact (2008) by Georges Didi-Huberman. There are also contributions from scholar and book artist Johanna Drucker, mathematician and computer artist Frieder Nake, curators Daniel F. Herrmann, Gill Saunders and Mari Carmen Ramírez, and the editors of the award-winning website Printeresting.

Featuring an overall introduction by the editor, as well as introductions to each of the sections, the anthology is aimed at an audience of international stakeholders in the field of contemporary prints, printmaking and print media, ranging from art students and practising artists to museum curators, critics, educationalists and scholars. It provides the basis for an expansion of the debate in the field and a starting point for further research.

Review Quotes

'This will be a significant and important contribution to the field and practice of printmaking and print media. The volume will be vital in MFA professional practice classes, and on theory and art historical courses.'
Mary Hood, Artist

'Dr Ruth Pelzer-Montadas publication is an excellent compilation of selected text spanning 3 decades. This topographical discourse points to essential aspects concerning the critical discussions and the debates on contemporary print and printmaking and the tectonic shift of it.'
Jan Pettersson, Professor, Head of Print & Drawing, Department for Art & Craft, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway

'Combining the methodology of a practicing printmaker with the perception of a theorist, Pelzer-Montada assembles key texts on printmaking and print cultures into a comprehensive anthology of writings that reveals the depth and range of thinking and debate on this subject. A long overdue critical framing of print art, this book fulfills the need for a re-evaluation of the importance and ubiquity of print, mapping out its potential in a "post-print" society. [...] These writings establish a genealogy of print grounded in society's desire to maintain, record and disseminate its reflective thinking processes - that have ultimately shaped and evolved our need to communicate.'
Andrew Folan, Head of Print, National College of Art and Design, Dublin

'Perspectives on contemporary printmaking is a brilliant book! A manual like this has been longed for both in the academic world and in the studios and printshops; most thoughtful theoretical analysis of printmaking art, assembled into a single anthology. It is informative, well-organized, and knowledgeable. I particularly enjoyed the carefully formulated division into four separate parts, accompanied with Ruth Pelzer-Montadas insightful introductions. It's already a classic, the only of its kind. Highly and cordially recommended!'
Annu Vertanen, artist, professor in printmaking, University of Arts, Helsinki

'Perspectives on contemporary printmaking, edited by Ruth Pelzer-Montada, is an excellent, lively collection of 32 essays focusing on the status, ontology and philosophy of print in the contemporary arena [...] The varying voices are all engaging, some challenging, some beautifully articulated, provoking rumination and providing ammunition for making print the centre of our conversation.'
Wuon-Gean Ho, Printmaking Today (Winter 2018)

'In this compact impressive tome, the editor has grouped together relevant themes and writings, which form a kind of activist's bible or tool of resistance to not only make sense of what has occurred these last thirty years, but to assert why it matters and why printmaking is still an active participant of change and a vital force of ideas. In many ways, this astute editor enables a better understanding of how knowledge is inextricably linked to the print form as she traces an unbroken seam of print production from its origins through to today.'
Imprint

About the Author

Ruth Pelzer-Montada is an artist and Lecturer in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture at Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh