Silvia Riccardi: "'Printing in the infernal method': Blake's Theory and Practice"

Research presentation by Silvia Riccardi, Uppsala University.

Abstract:

In a time when the dominant reproductive technology was letterpress printing with movable type, through which only text could be mass reproduced, William Blake invented a technique that allowed pictures and words to be printed together and treated in the same way. Blake’s artistic labor cut across media, the visual and the literary dimension. His work, manifested in the form of illuminated manuscripts, challenged the technological distance between text and design. By moving beyond the classification of ‘picturemaker’ and ‘wordmaker,’ this paper explores Blake’s methods of production in light of the material quality of his artisanal practice and his own theory of art.