2020 Essays

Transferring Images

Bertozzi, Nicolle Marr

BnF Ms. Fr. 640 contains a number of entries about image transfer techniques, including “For writing as well from the left as from the right” (fol. 19v), “Pounced design for scratching satin” (42v), and “Making counterproofs” (51r). Using reconstruction and historical research, this essay considers these image transfer techniques in terms of the principles they employ and the ways they transform the original image in the process of transferring it onto a new surface. It compares these entries with an image transfer technique used in Tokugawa Japanese woodblock printing, examining in particular whether the techniques transfer the image as a mirror image and the degree to which the techniques destroy the original image in the process. This comparison reveals that the technique used to transfer an image from one surface to another is inherently intertwined with the kinds of values that are assigned to the original image and its copy.