Paper is a material we encounter every day, yet its cultural depth and creative potential are often taken for granted. For centuries, it has played a central role in shaping societies, enabling the transmission of ideas, the preservation of memory, and the circulation of knowledge. Even today, in a world defined by speed and digital exchange, paper continues to remind us of the value of time: the time of making, of gesture, and of care for material things.
This issue opens with Printing Time: Paper, Printmaking, and the Knowledge that Spreads Learning and Preserves Memory, a reflection on paper as a site of gesture, technique, and knowledge. Through key printing and engraving processes, from woodcut and metal engraving to lithography and screen printing, the article invites readers to observe the traces left by human hands and to consider how these practices have shaped the transmission of learning and the endurance of memory.
The focus then broadens to the many lives of paper today. It brings together the work of craftspeople who transform it into unique objects, conservators dedicated to safeguarding historical documents, and museums that preserve and reinterpret this rich heritage. Taken together, these perspectives reveal paper not only as a medium of the past, but as a living material that continues to inspire experimentation, care, and imagination.
Museum Plantin-Moretus: A Living Legacy of Print
To deepen this journey into the world of print, we invite you to discover the Museum Plantin-Moretus, listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Housed in the former home and printing workshop of the Plantin-Moretus family, it was once one of Europe’s most advanced printing centres, pioneering large-scale book production, exceptional typographic quality, and the preservation of original presses.
Today, the museum brings together these remarkable collections and the expertise dedicated to their care, keeping this pivotal chapter of printing history alive. Read the article to explore the historical printing process, a technique that has profoundly shaped the world as we know it.
If paper has long carried our history and enabled knowledge to circulate across centuries, it also raises an essential question: how can this heritage be sustained into the future? The answer lies in the hands of those who work with paper today. Conservators dedicated to safeguarding fragile documents ensure that the knowledge of the past remains accessible, while craftspeople and artists continue to engage with paper as a living material. Through both traditional skills and innovative approaches, they extend its possibilities, transforming preservation into continuity and creation into transmission.
Nella Poggi - Cultural heritage conservator specialised in paper
Restoring paper is not simply about remaking it, but about understanding its material history and caring for it over time.This approach, central to Nella Poggi’s teaching, combines historical knowledge with hands-on conservation practice.
Camille Schmitt - Conservation and Restoration of East Asian Works of Art
Specialised in the restoration of works on paper and silk from the Far East, Camille Schmitt combines her training in China and Taiwan with her solid European museum experience, now recognised and sought after at an international level. In her work, paper becomes a material of knowledge and memory, preserved through traditional techniques and a rigorous scientific approach.
Bookbinding and Conservation of Books, Documents, Prints, Maps, and Cartographic Materials
Littera Antiqua is a Turin-based atelier dedicated to the care and culture of books and paper.
Through conservation, bespoke bookbinding and training activities, it works with the material history of documents, keeping traditional book crafts alive through practice and transmission.
Caterina Crepax - Architect and Paper Artist
Caterina Crepax is a Milan-based artist and designer who transforms paper into visionary sculptures and garments Her works evoke nature, architecture, and memory, taking paper beyond its role as a mere support and turning it into a living, imaginative material.
Yalanzhi Objects - Art and design
Yalanzhi Objects is a Kyiv-based design brand working at the crossroads of art, and interior design. Using recycled papier-mâché and handcrafted techniques, they create modular objects and lighting pieces that balance sustainability and functionality, creating striking installations enitrely out of paper.
Pascal Jeanjean - Papermaker
Trained in literature and formed in French paper mills in the 1980s, Pascal Jeanjean works at the intersection of traditional papermaking and contemporary production. His practice focuses on custom-made papers developed for artists, printmakers, museums, and specific uses such as engraving, silkscreen printing, and watermarked paper.
