Wood Engraving

WOOD ENGRAVING
By R. JOHN BEEDHAM WITH INTRODUCTION AND APPENDIX BY ERIC GILL


This book is not a treatise upon the art of wood-engraving. It is simply a description of the tools and materials required by a beginner and the method of using them. It is not intended to assist anyone to become a commercial engraver, for that trade requires a long and specialized training. It is intended rather for those who have occasion or opportunity or inclination to make illustrations or ornaments for books and who are revolted by the degradation to which the art of formal drawing has been brought by photographic “process” reproduction.
It is of course impossible to stem the tide of commercial degradation until Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience take the place of Riches, Pleasure, and Laisser-faire as personal and national ideals. Such a change of heart cannot occur merely as the result of economic or social or philosophical propaganda; the matter is more fundamental than that. The modern world is founded upon a denial of absolute values, a denial of religion, a denial of God; upon such denials nothing can be built. Goodness becomes what the police will allow or can enforce. Beauty becomes what pleases the senses and Truth becomes what will pay.
In the domain of art the remedy is the same as in any other. The thing good in itself must be found and loved. Relative values must give place to absolute, the lovely and lovable to the beautiful. “Does it pay?” is not the question. Is it good in itself?—That is the important thing. And the more you apply that standard to your own work and to that of others, the more you will find the necessity of personal responsibility.
The advantage of wood-engraving then is that it does away with several sets of middle men and places responsibility upon the shoulders of the workman. The workman who draws, engraves and prints his own blocks is master of the situation. He can blame nobody but himself if his work goes wrong. Whether it goes right or wrong depends upon his notions of right and wrong. The first thing is that he should be free to satisfy his own conscience and not be a mere tool in the hands of another. Liber est causa sui, servus autem ordinatur ad alium (i.e. The freeman is responsible to himself—but for the slave someone else is responsible. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica).