Jems Koko Bi - Wood engraving: Studio visit

Xylogravure, one of the oldest techniques for printing designs on a medium, involves three steps: cutting the wooden block, inking the wooden matrix and printing. For the printing, Jems Koko Bi chooses to apply the sheet of paper or canvas to the wooden block held still. The ink is then transferred by rubbing with the back of a spoon. Each work is thus unique.

Traditional wood engraving is a work of patience and silence, of repetition of gestures, of meticulousness and rigour. Wood is not worked without effort and the support, paper or canvas, refuses at first to adhere to the motif, to let itself be marked by its hollows and coloured bumps. Wood chisels, rollers, paint, hammers, the back of the spoon, all tools at the service of the work, a sublime meeting of several dimensions, the relief of the wood inhabiting the flatness of the paper, and the colours carrying within them the rough and living material of the tree.