The Making of 'Human Nature' From Start to Finish

Tuesday 16th January 2024

On the right is one of the references for my plates. It is an orange liquid from inside a seaweed.

Drawing on the Plate

While drawing my sketches I looked at Brice Marden, Pierre Alechinsky, Picasso's Embrace series.

Printing the Pages

Each page of the book is made up of an etching on Wenzhou paper, that is attached to Hahnemuhle with chine collé - rice paste and water.

There are sixteen etchings in the book with variations in the inking, each variation was inked and printed twice, giving me two sets of sixteen a la poupeé prints.

One set is to make a trial, then the second set of sixteen will become the final book.

Making the Title Pages

Type ready to print in the chase (the forme)

Name: 12pt Title: 18pt Description: 11pt

Binding a Trial Book

The purpose of the trial book is to test the registration of the etchings. At this point, half of my prints are attached to paper with chine collé and the other half are waiting for any problems in this book to get resolved.

Each print is rotated one twelfth anti-clockwise every page.

The prints are not central on the pages because I over-estimated the effect of binding.

Making the Cover

The cover is a handmade paper made from scrap cartridge paper, grass, leaves and bark. I used a variety of materials as a kind of back up, to make sure the paper was strong enough, because there is not enough time to remake this before the deadlines.

The Finished Book

I made changes with the registration after the trial book - Each print is rotated one sixteenth rather than one twelfth. - Each print is central to the page - Rather than binding in signatures, this is a single leaf binding

‘Human Nature’ is a book without a beginning or ending due to its two title pages, the reader can choose which side to begin. The etchings are a blend of representation and imagination, having evolved from images of seaweed under a microscope into a similar pattern. The red and green came from the knowledge that Chlorophyll and Haemoglobin have similar pyrrole structures, making me think of the interconnectedness of humans, animals and nature. In the book, the journey from red to green or green to red is suggesting the mixing of the two categories. From one perspective, the transition from red to green may signify the dominance of human influence over plant life, while the reverse suggests nature's resilient resurgence after human intervention. These interpretations suggest themes of creation and destruction. However, the abstract nature of the images makes it open to interpretation.