Wood Engravings and Collage

Here is an excerpt from my new blog at http://retrocollage.blogspot.com/

Wood engravings have several advantages as collage source material. First, a large number of wood engravings still exist, depicting almost every type of subject matter known to 19th century society, and many have been republished in large anthologies. Second, wood engravings can be easily scanned or photocopied, producing images that are crisp and high-contrast (unlike photos, which tend to photocopy muddily). Third, wood engravings, if poorly printed originally, can often be quickly repaired by digital means alone.