Regina in Print

Defined as “graphic communication by multiplied impressions”, print media has shaped the transmission of human ideas for centuries. Before radio, TV or social media, print was how many societies conveyed stories, art, commerce, and much more. Traditional printing required much more human labour than digital printing, like setting type, rolling out ink, cutting and pasting together a newspaper proof, or operating a manual printing press. The limitations of archaic printing methods often result in timeless and beautiful visuals that were, at one time, printed on everything, from books to receipts. Regina has a long history of print publications that provided people in Regina with local and international news, politics, and more. With Regina in Print, REM invites you to consider the value and nuance of the history of print media, while highlighting historical print techniques and the beauty and value of tangible print media.

Mesopotamian stamp and clay impression.
Source: https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=2241

The earliest prints were Mesopotamian impressions made in clay and stamped fabric in Egypt and China. These types of reproductions would have been relatively limited in scale, but the invention of paper in China in the second century served to advance the medium significantly. Early moveable type was also invented in China, made out of clay. By the 1200s, moveable type characters were being cast in bronze in China, Japan, and Korea.

These pieces of wood type from the REM collection are examples of movable type.

Europe joined the printing party later, figuring out papermaking in the eleventh century, and the practice of woodcut printing (which had been practiced in Asia for centuries) in the fifteenth century. In 1436, the famous Gutenberg printing press came into existence, which used set metal type to print bibles.

In the following years printing continued to evolve. Developments like roman and italic type and various etching techniques enabled more precise and complex printing of images.

Lithography was invented in the late 1700s and in its contemporary form still dominates the print production world today. Printing presses continued to advance and in the mid-1800s chromolithography brought coloured reproductions to the page. With these advancements comes the printing of illustrated magazines, greeting cards and reproductions of paintings.

The invention of linotype in 1878 was a major step forward for the reproduction of the written word.

In the past 30 years we have seen the advancement of digital printing and inkjet presses, and one can print almost anything they want, in any way that they would like. The inherent limitations presented by various archaic printing techniques resulted in strong, classic visuals with a staying power that is not found in digital printing.

The majority of the artifacts displayed in the *Regina in Print* story stop were printed in the 1970’s or earlier, and much of the archaic printing techniques are visually apparent. Distinct separate layers of ink, limited palettes, flat colours, and type indentations in paper are just a few of the things that make these historical print items distinct.

The first printing press in Saskatchewan was brought by Patrick Gammie Laurie, who pulled it on foot in an ox-cart from Winnipeg to Battleford, where he began publishing the Saskatchewan Herald. Regina has been home to many print shops and publishers over the years, such as Nicholas Flood Davin’s Prairie Print, founded in 1883.

September 2003 *prairie dog*. Collection of Stephen Whitworth.

Regina has also been home to a few independent newspapers, like prairie dog and Prairie Fire. The interviews we have done with Regina residents who worked on these papers make it apparent how important independent physical print media is to a place’s social consciousness.

The history of print in Saskatchewan is a colonial history. Some of the earliest printers in Western Canada were missionaries who printed Indigenous language translations of Christian texts, in order to convert Indigenous people to Christianity as part of the larger colonial project of displacement and erasure of Indigenous people. Davin, the founder of The Leader, wrote a report on Indian industrial schools in the U.S., which some have credited with introducing the idea of residential schools to Canada. He also impersonated a French Catholic priest in order to obtain a final interview from Louis Riel before he was executed.

Many archaic printing techniques, such as woodcut, etching, and even manually set type, are often the realm of contemporary fine art printmakers. Fine art printmaking evolved adjacent to more functional forms like printing of the written word, and functional and artistic printing are by no means wholly distinct practices.

“Deadfall” woodcut by H. Eric Bergman.
Source: https://cowleyabbott.ca/artwork/AW37170

“My Sister’s Apples” silkscreen print by Madeleine Greenway.
Source: https://www.madeleinegreenway.com/?pgid=kjoj1jhn-1d592864-c658-459e-b471-8174d700d838

In Canada, fine art printmaking first rose to popularity in the east with etchings of scenic landscapes. Due to a lack of both prosperity and population, there was little growth of the professional printmaking movement prior to the War of 1812.
In the post-war 1820’s the growth of fine art printmaking resumed, centered in the Maritimes. This center moved west to Toronto by the 20th century, and fine art printmaking got a foothold in Winnipeg with the arrival of printmakers such as Walter Phillips and H. Eric Bergman.

There is presently a strong printmaking community in Regina, thanks in part to a well-outfitted print studio at the University of Regina, as well as organizations like Saskatchewan Printmakers.