book review: woodcut by bryan nash gill

Bryan Nash Gill grew up on a farm in Connecticut, so it’s no surprise that his artwork explores the tree-filled environment in which he was raised. Each print in this beautiful book, Woodcut, is printed by hand, sometimes with the help of a spoon to press the ink into the paper.

Gill starts by cutting trees until he finds a cross-section that is of interest, then sands, burns, and seals the wood. Although he creates an edition of 10 or 15 prints from the block, each one is unique depending on the pressure applied during the printing process, and changes to the block of wood over time (Gill prints editions over months or years, rather than all at once). “To print a tree is another way of memorializing it. Perhaps I’m in the business of memorializing trees.”

Thanks to Princeton Architectural Press for providing a review copy.

—Ellie