Printmaking: Complete Guide to Materials and Processes

Printmaking; a Complete Guide to Materials and Process covers fundamental printmaking techniques including relief, intaglio, collagraph, lithography, screen print and monoprint.  The book outlines current practices in the contemporary print studio, including integrating digital processes with all techniques. Each chapter features clear, step-by-step illustrations plus expanded case studies, which help convey the technical aspects of each printmaking technique. Throughout the book, special attention is given to the best practices with regard to reducing toxicity and safety. Useful appendices featuring troubleshooting charts, which cover the common problems the beginning printmaker might face, as well as sources for further information, complete this useful guide.
 
In addition to technical information, this book explores the processes and functions of print media that inform the very strategy of art-making. It considers the "how" and the "why" of printmaking as an artistic practice. Each chapter features a profile with an international contemporary printmaker, including an interview as well as examples of their work. Works illustrated in this book offer innovative examples from across the globe that position print at the cutting edge of contemporary art.

Beth Grabowski is co-author, with Bill Fick (Duke University), of Printmaking, a Complete Guide to Materials and Processes, (Laurence King, 2009). 

Beth Grabowski lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, where she is is the Zachary Taylor Smith Distinguished Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Studio Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985. From 2012-2014, she is serving  as the president of SGC International, a non-profit educational organization for print, paper and book artists, educators, collectors, and enthusiasts.  

Professional activities include curating an international portfolio honoring Käthe Kollwitz in 2005 which debuted at the Kollwitz Museum-Berlin in September 2005, and co-organizing Visualizing Human Rights conferences at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2008, 2010 and 2011. 

Grabowski's art work is included in numerous public and private collections, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.  She is the recipient of three North Carolina Arts Council awards. In 2010, she completed residencies at Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium and at Tom Blaess workshop in Switzerland. Of her current work exploring the idea of a contemporary nostalgia, she writes: "In my work, nostalgia is a voyeuristic act, illuminating a liminal space between skepticism and a longing for certitude in the face of an uncertain future. Mediating between past, present and future, I re-imagine a world where unfixed and ambiguous messages are not an embrace of chaos, but suggest another proposition that contains facets of truth, fantasy, desire, pride and regret."