Roger Fry and the art of the book: Celebrating the centenary of the Hogarth Press 1917-2017

Abstract

After the publication of Two Stories, Vanessa asked Virginia about the possibility of the press producing a book of woodcut prints. Learning the art of cutting blocks and producing prints was attractive for artists such as Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Grant had designed a woodcut for the Omega exhibition catalogue of 1918. Fry nurtured the Omega artists interest in woodcuts and the final Omega Workshop publication, Original Woodcuts by Various Artists (1918), included work by Bell and Grant. It had a print run of 75 copies.13 The idea of a book of woodcut prints by Fry for the Hogarth Press began to take form but time was needed for the designs and for these to be transferred onto the blocks. Fry worked on a woodblock in Hogarth House. Virginia conveys a sense of the atmosphere of a shared artistic endeavor, on 12 April 1921. Roger again last night, scraping at his woodcuts while I sewed; the sound like that of a pertinacious rat (D2 109). By October, the proofs are compiled and sent by Virginia to Fry in France, along with a sample of paper. He judges the quality of the paper to be excellent, asks whether it came from Carrington and writes: Thanks for the proofs; of course I don t like them now but find people less disgusted than I am (Fry, 1972 516).