Letterpress: digging beneath the surface

My response to an invitation from the editor to reflect from an educational perspective on current issues and contradictions within contemporary letterpress printing.

The article first reflects on letterpress as a form of relief printing and the new found emphasis on exploring surface. It then shifts to the relief that many feel that people are still printing with letterpress, though goes on to question the sustainability of that engagement. It seeks to validate a breadth of approaches inclusive of a full re-imagination and hacking of processes and machinery, while also encouraging a critical generosity from older more technically experienced printers in sharing legacy knowledge to help shape new ideas about what sustainable enquiry through letterpress might yet mean.