Pressing Matters
Plants, specifically trees, are at the heart of the earliest form of printing – the woodcut. Originally developed in China, the technique spread to Europe around the 13th century and was first used in textile designs before eventually being used for printing on paper.
The technique uses a wooden block made from soft wood, such as pear, cut along the grain. An image can be drawn directly onto the block, or on a sheet of paper that is then adhered to the block. The woodcutter uses a knife to carve away the wood around the image, creating a raised surface of lines that form the text or image. The block is inked and paper is pressed upon the inked surface, producing the image on the surface of the paper.
During the 18th century, a derivation of the woodcut called wood engraving evolved. Wood engraving utilizes a burin, a small steel rod with a pointed end, instead of a knife. The blocks for wood engraving come from hard wood, such as boxwood, which is cut across the grain, leaving a smoother surface that allows for finer lines and details.
Elfriede Abbe. Wood printing blocks, ca. 1965.
A sculptor, wood engraver, and scientific illustrator, Elfriede Abbe ‘40 worked as an artist for Cornell University from 1942 until her retirement in 1974. The plants shown on these woodblocks are lentil, acanthus, and Spanish broom.
Elfriede Abbe. Original wood engravings which were reproduced as illustrations for Plants in Virgil’s Georgics, ca. 1965.
The plants shown in these engravings are Spanish broom and Austrian leopard’s bane. The Spanish broom engraving was made using the Spanish broom woodblock above – when printed on paper, the design appears in reverse of the original on the wood printing block.
Woodblock prints in the folk-art style of the village of Đông Hò̂ in the province of Bá̆c Ninh, Vietnam. 2005.
Traditionally displayed for the Vietnamese New Year, the imagery in Đông Hò̂ prints is meant to convey optimism and wishes of good fortune for the year ahead. Animals such as chickens, pigs, and carp are common because of their associations with luck. In addition to being woodblock prints, the paper is made from the bark of the dó tree, and many of the pigments are made from plants and other natural materials as well!
