Kinngait Studios in Nunavut has released an annual collection of limited-edition prints every year since 1959. What began as an experiment in transferring Inuit drawing and carving traditions to paper became the longest continuously operating print studio in Canada. Early experiments included sealskin stencils, but local carving stone proved particularly suitable for relief printing. Engraving, lithography and etching later expanded the range of techniques.
I find the collaborative structure behind these images especially interesting. A drawing does not simply become a reproduction by pressing a button. Artists and specialist printmakers work through translation: deciding how a drawing should become a stonecut, lithograph or etching while retaining the character of the original image. That makes every edition the result of both individual vision and technical exchange.
Printmaking is usually associated with multiplying an image. At Kinngait, multiplication also created something larger: a continuing artistic infrastructure in a remote Arctic community that has supported several generations of Inuit artists and printmakers.