Erasure: Print Repetitions I

This video work animates a print sequence made on a reconstructed 17th-century two-pull press. Using a single inking of a hand-set matrix bearing the names Adam & Eve, I printed as many impressions as the ink allowed—without re-inking—to witness the gradual fading of the image. Due to the human gesture involved and the irregularities inherent in the wooden press and its packing, Eve faded more quickly than Adam. The resulting series of prints was animated to the evocative sounds of historical printing: metal type clinking, ink hissing, wood and metal colliding. These sounds approximate the rhythm of each page being pulled into existence, echoing the physicality and fragility of the message. As the red ink fades, what lingers is not only the trace of names but also a meditation on persistence, loss, and how stories are unevenly carried forward. This project explores how material processes can speak across time—revealing not only what is printed, but what fades, and why.

Created at the Historical Presses Workshop at the Typography and Graphic Design Department, University of Reading